The purpose of this essay is to document the development of the American Bandmasters Association's Ostwald Award from its inception in 1955 to the present day. The study addresses several aspects of the award's development, taking into account more localized evolution in regard to the award's history, purpose, compositional specifications, and the procedures employed to select the winning composition and composer. Ultimately, the discussion focuses not only on how the award is presented in accordance with its own purposes but the objectives of the American Bandmasters Association. The data for this study are collected through two different methods. The primary method of data collection involves an examination of documents and other associated materials located in the ABA Archive at the University of Maryland. A secondary method of interviews is utilized in order to augment the written record and overcome its deficiencies. Participants in the study include Ostwald Award Committee members and chairs both past and present. While the Ostwald Award has recognized forty-seven compositions since its inception, no formal consideration of the award's history and contribution to the wind band repertoire has been undertaken. Such is the aspiration of this essay.

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The purpose of this critical essay is two-fold. First, the essay presents a detailed critical analysis of my original composition, Blueline Concerto for bass trombone and wind ensemble. Second, using Blueline Concerto, the essay presents preliminary findings of my study to develop an approach to composing that takes into account the musicians' health, specifically regarding noise induced hearing loss (NIHL). Through various hypothesized composition- and orchestral-based approaches, I test effectiveness on changes in NIHL risk while also noting that artistic merit and compositional integrity is preserved.

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Student clarinet performers often encounter bass clarinet for the first time in a high school or university wind ensemble, so it is logical for clarinet pedagogues to encourage and assist their students in learning this wind band literature. In addition to becoming familiar with this oft performed repertoire, students will develop a set of specialized bass clarinet skills that one cannot learn on soprano clarinet. These skills include increased air capacity and support, timbre consistency in differing registers, intonation tendencies of the lower instrument, voicing flexibility, right hand thumb dexterity for keys that do not exist on soprano clarinet, technical facility for eleven pinky keys (as opposed to the seven pinky keys on a typical soprano clarinet, and effective altissimo fingerings. The purpose, then, of this document is to provide a performance guide for select bass clarinet solo excerpts from the wind band literature and to provide supplemental exercises intended to help students acquire the specialized bass clarinet skill set they will need in order to perform the selected excerpts successfully. The solos discussed in this document are excerpted from H. Owen Reed’s La Fiesta Mexicana, Florent Schmitt’s Dionysiaques, Percy Grainger’s Lincolnshire Posy, Frank Ticheli’s Blue Shades, William Bolcom’s First Symphony for Band, and Andrew Rindfleisch’s The Light Fantastic.