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Born in 1972, Luis Serrano Alarcón has in a very short period of time, established himself as one of Spain’s most prominent composers. His works are constantly being performed, not only in his home country, but throughout the world. While some of his compositions tend to retain the rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic style typical to Spanish music, many of the works sound as if they were borne more from the Viennese symphonic tradition, both during the time of Haydn and Beethoven, but also during the time of Arnold Schoenberg. As a young boy Alarcón took up piano lessons with a local teacher by the name of Javier Barranco. Through him, Alarcón learned “the music for piano of the great masters of Classicism, Romanticism, and Spanish Nationalism.” In addition he began to study with two other teachers: Jose Cervera Collado and Jose Maria Cervara Lloret. With Collado, Alarcón studied conducting, and with Lloret he studied harmony. As a result of all of this training, Alarcón was drawn toward the symphonic music of the Classical and Romantic periods, especially gravitating toward the music of Beethoven and Brahms. Alarcón’s compositional style has maintained a chameleon-like flexibility as he is able to change styles from one composition to the next with litheness and grace, showing a strong grasp of American jazz as well as flamenco music of his native country in Duende, capturing the sounds of tango from Argentina in Concertango, and of course, in the many examples of his paso dobles. Unlike many of his contemporaries, though, Alarcón’s unique voice seems to emerge through any style he is embracing or any combination of instruments in his orchestration. In terms of style, Symphony for Wind Orchestra (2012) is an entirely different type of composition. It is immediately apparent from the opening tutti strikes, that (like Mozart and many other traditional composers before and after), Alarcón is embracing a iii traditional symphonic style in this composition by utilizing one of its most common symphonic topos. Symphony for Wind Orchestra is an amazing study of the Classical symphony from its earliest beginnings in Mannheim, to its codification at the hands of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and to its explosion in size and scope at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth century with composers like Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler. Perhaps more important, though, is his choice of harmonic language and compositional approach. The work is decidedly based upon thematic material that is reminiscent of the Second Viennese School; atonal at times, semi-tonal at others, but consistently manipulated through the operations (transposition, inversion, retrograde, verticalization, and serialization), that were made popular by Arnold Schoenberg, his students, and those who followed them. The genesis of this composition was a consortium of band directors from the Southeastern Conference Band Association, led initially by Tom Verrier, who is Senior Band Conductor and Director of Wind Ensembles at Vanderbilt University. Dr. John Cody Birdwell was a part of the consortium from its onset, but didn’t initially plan on conducting the premiere at his school (the University of Kentucky). Birdwell stated,“...the opportunity to premiere the work sort of ‘landed in our lap.’ I had heard some of Alarcón’s other compositions in recent years, and I knew that this piece was going to be fantastic, so we moved forward without any hesitation.” Clearly with so much positive feedback regarding the work, this document is certainly justified. The goals of this study are to provide some background for the work and its composer, to analyze the work while providing examples of all of its main themes and important figures, and where appropriate, to show how they relate to each other. This document will also create a helpful performance guide for conductors, which should facilitate and contribute to many more performances of this significant work in the future. Along with the harmonic and thematic analysis of the work, this document will also include interviews with the composer, the conductor of the premiere of the work (Dr. John Cody Birdwell), one of the early and staunch supporters of Alarcón’s works (Dr. Tim Reynish), and Javier Enguidanos Morató - another Spanish conductor who recently performed the work.

There are about 1500 wind bands in Taiwan, which are separated in primary, junior high, senior high school, universities and communities etc. In Taiwan, the population who learn the wind instrument are more than one hundred thousand population, however, there are only five professional orchestras, including National Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Kaohsiung City Symphony Orchestra and Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, and no a professional wind band. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understanding the availability and possibility to fund a Professional Wind Band in Taiwan via evaluating the market of musical performing and the status of audience involvement. The study methods contain conducting interviewing the key person of the wind band and designing a survey with the factors of Human Resource, Financial Plan, and Operation Status.

Les ensembles à vent existent dans toute l’Europe. Ils sont un trait de culture partagé. La miseà jour d’une sub-culture fanfaristique s’effectue à partir des comparaisons, migrations,circulations, étudiées à travers les ensembles à vent et par emboîtement d’échelles. A partird’exemples représentatifs, pris à hauteur d’Hommes, l’existence d’un modèle européen de lafanfare, dans son fonctionnement, son image, son rôle… est mis au jour. Pluriels, les ensemblesà vent ne sont pas des copies parfaites, mais de nombreux points communs permettent demodéliser cette pratique socioculturelle.Même si pour beaucoup au second XXe siècle, le mouvement orphéonique relève du passé,notre étude des ensembles à vent débute dans les années 1940 avec la Seconde Guerre Mondialepuis la Libération, et s’achève dans les années 1980 marquées par un tournant social, politiqueet culturel. Plus que sur le déclin, la fanfare est, au cours de la période, en mutation. Inventé auXIXe siècle, l’ensemble à vent répond à une triple définition. Il s’agit tout d’abord d’unensemble d’instruments à vent (cuivres et bois) et de percussions joués par des musiciensamateurs. La fanfare est également un orchestre de plein air. Enfin, c’est une musique qui «marche », qui défile pour animer la cité.La nature même de cette pratique musicale collective, effectuée par des musiciens nonprofessionnels, inclut une dimension sociale capitale. Autour de cette pratique récréative, seforme un groupe avec ses sociabilités, qui le cimentent. Les ensembles à vent répondent aussià une demande sociale multiple et notamment un rôle d’éducation populaire.L’ensemble à vent apparaît comme un modèle transnational qui possède une réelle identité.Inclassable, il n’appartient ni à la culture populaire, ni à la culture savante. La catégorisationentre une culture dominée et une culture dominante doit être remise en cause au profit d’uneautonomisation des normes de valeurs et de l’abolition des hiérarchies. Le fonctionnement, toutcomme les appropriations qu’il subit et qu’il réalise, plaident en faveur d’une autonomisationdes ensembles à vent. Ils sont une pratique et un genre autonome et reconnaissable dans toutel’Europe. / Wind ensembles exist all over Europe. They are a shared cultural feature. The exposure of aband sub-culture is established from comparisons, migrations, circulations, through windensembles, and interlocking at various levels. Drawing from representative examples, on aperspective centered on Man, the existence of a European standard for brass-bands, in itsoperation, image, role is brought forward. In their varied nature, wind ensembles are not perfectduplicates, but many common features make a modelling of such a sociocultural practicepossible.Even though, for many, in the second half of the twentieth century, brass-band culture was athing of the past, our study of wind ensembles begins in the 1940s with the Second World War,then the Liberation, and ends in the 1980s with its social, political and cultural turning point.Rather than being declining, brass bands were, over the period, evolving sharply. Invented inthe nineteenth century, the wind ensemble meets three different definitions. It is first anensemble of wind instruments (brass and woodwind) and percussions played by amateurmusicians. Brass-bands is also an outdoor orchestra. Finally, it is a “marching” music, one thatparades to animate the city.The very nature of this collective music-making, carried out by non-professional musiciansincludes a major social dimension. Around this recreational activity, a group gathers, and iscemented by its sociabilities. Wind ensembles also respond to a multiple social demand, inparticular a role in popular education.The wind ensemble appears as a transnational model with a full identity. Unclassifiable, itbelongs neither to popular culture, nor to high brow culture. The categorization betweendominated and dominant culture should be called into question. Empowering standards as wellas abolishing hierarchies must be promoted instead. Its functioning as well as the ownerships itis subjected to and it achieves, advocates for an empowerment of wind ensembles. They are anautonomous and recognizable practice throughout Europe.

Soar! is a musical composition written for wind ensemble and computer music. The total duration of the work is approximately 10 minutes. Flocking behavior of migratory birds serves as the most prominent influence on the imagery and local structure of the composition. The cyclical nature of the birds' journey inspires palindromic designs in the temporal domain. Aesthetically, Soar! portrays the fluid shapes of the flocks with numerous grains in the sounds. This effect is achieved by giving individual parts high degree of independence, especially in regards to rhythm. Technically, Soar! explores various interactions among instrumental lines in a wind ensemble, constructs overarching symmetrical structures, and integrates a large ensemble with computer music. The conductor acts as the leader at several improvisational moments in Soar! The use of conductor-initiated musical events in the piece can be traced back through the historic lineage of aleatoric compositions since the middle of the twentieth century. [Score is on p. 54-92.]

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