Frederick Fennell
The growing number of serious compositions for wind ensemble, and the large number of institutionalized ensembles to play them, are in large part due to the efforts of Frederick Fennell. Though his career took him to the orchestral podiums of Cleveland, Boston, Miami, and elsewhere, it is his notoriety as a conductor of music for winds, his prolific recorded output, and his role as the founder of the Eastman Wind Ensemble that perhaps most strongly denote his career.
Fennell was born in Cleveland in 1914. After high school, he entered the Eastman School of Music, pursuing a degree in percussion performance from the only institution in the country to offer one at that time. Fennell became a fixture at Eastman, going on to receive a master's degree in 1939, and being hired in that same year to conduct several instrumental ensembles; he remained at Eastman until 1965. During his years there he transformed concert band into a multifaceted musical wind ensemble that could tap into the large body of long overlooked wind and brass concert music, and establishing a unique tradition and sonority for which new works could be created.
His ideas first took shape in 1951, when under his baton a group of woodwind, brass, and percussion players staged a concert featuring several works from composers as wide-ranging as Adrian Willaert, Orlando di Lasso, Giovanni Gabrieli, Mozart, and Beethoven. Fennell not only resurrected "lost" works, but gave due attention to new ones: Stravinsky was represented, as was the American composer Carl Ruggles. "This program," wrote Fennell, "argues strongly against the old complaint leveled against wind instruments that there is no music written for them which is of sufficient interest to make anyone care to hear it performed." And thus the Eastman Wind Ensemble was born.
The growth of wind ensembles and wind music was also aided by Fennell's and the Eastman Wind Ensemble's impressive output of recordings. Raoul Camus, documenting Fennell's career for the New Grove Dictionary of American Music, observed that "Fennell's pioneering series of 24 recordings for Mercury brought about a reconsideration of the wind medium and established performance and literature models for the more than 20,000 wind ensembles that were subsequently established in American schools."
Fennell's innovations appear in retrospect to be part of a larger effort in the mid-20th century to establish a distinctive American musical sound and identity. It was during Fennell's years at Eastman that his colleague Howard Hanson established an annual symposium to foster new American music for orchestra -- a project that inspired a similar effort on Fennell's part, to elicit works for winds from American composers. Fennell definitely saw his wind ensemble project as a patriotic contribution to Western culture. "Granting the rich inheritance with which the American music heritage began [that is, the inheritance of the European musical tradition], it is not surprising that we finally have emerged as a people worthy of that legacy." In creating an ensemble that could variously serve an educational function, execute original and transcribed works from the Western canon, and foster the creation of new works (and, as evidenced by the widely ranging styles within subsequent wind repertories, entirely new sonorities), Fennell helped define the character of American music, and the role of music in American society.
© TiVo
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Holst: Suites Nos. 1 & 2, Op. 28 - Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351 - Bach: Fantasia in G Major, BWV 572
Frederick Fennell, Cleveland Symphonic Winds
Classique - Paru chez Telarc le 1 janv. 1978
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grainger: Country Gardens &c/Coates:The Three Elizabeths
Eastman-Rochester "Pops" Orchestra, The London Pops Orchestra, Frederick Fennell
Classique - Paru chez Decca Music Group Ltd. le 1 janv. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Frederick Fennell Conducts The Music Of Leroy Anderson
Eastman-Rochester "Pops" Orchestra, Frederick Fennell
Classique - Paru chez Decca Music Group Ltd. le 1 mai 2015
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Hi-Fi a la Española & Popovers
Eastman-Rochester "Pops" Orchestra, Frederick Fennell
Classique - Paru chez Decca Music Group Ltd. le 1 janv. 1994
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Dallas Wind Symphony Sampler
Dallas Wind Symphony, Howard Dunn, Frederick Fennell, Jerry Junkin
Classique - Paru chez Reference Recordings le 14 juil. 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Wind Serenade in B-Flat / Strauss, R.: Serenade for Wind / Milhaud: Suite Française
Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell
Classique - Paru chez Decca Music Group Ltd. le 1 janv. 1998
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MLP06 Frederick Fennell Hi-Fi la Espanola
Rolando Valdés-Blain, Frederick Fennell, Eastman-Rochester Pops Orchestra
Classique - Paru chez Mangora Classical le 14 déc. 2016
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Frederick Fennell conducts
Eastman Wind Ensemble, Eastman-Rochester "Pops" Orchestra, The London Pops Orchestra, Frederick Fennell
Classique - Paru chez Decca Music Group Ltd. le 1 janv. 2005
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Stars & Stripes: Fanfares, Marches & Wind Band Spectaculars
Frederick Fennell, Cleveland Symphonic Winds
Classique - Paru chez Telarc le 1 juin 1984
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Fabulous Marches For Orchestra
Eastman-Rochester "Pops" Orchestra, Frederick Fennell
Classique - Paru chez Decca Music Group Ltd. le 1 janv. 1998
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Sullivan: Pineapple Poll Suite; Rossini-Respighi: La boutique fantasque; Gounod: Faust Ballet Music; Wagner: Lohengrin & Das Rheingold
Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell
Classique - Paru chez Decca Music Group Ltd. le 1 janv. 1992
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Frederick Fennell Conducts The Music of Leroy Anderson & Eric Coates
Eastman-Rochester "Pops" Orchestra, The London Pops Orchestra, Frederick Fennell
Classique - Paru chez Decca Music Group Ltd. le 1 janv. 1996
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Holst: Suites 1 & 2 / Vaughan Williams: Folksong Suite, etc.
Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell
Classique - Paru chez Decca Music Group Ltd. le 1 janv. 1999
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Hindemith: Symphony in B Flat; Schoenberg: Theme & Variations; Stravinsky: Symphonies for Wind
Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell
Classique - Paru chez Decca Music Group Ltd. le 17 juil. 2014
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Sousa: Stars and Stripes Forever
Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell
Classique - Paru chez Decca Music Group Ltd. le 1 janv. 1986
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Carousel Waltz & Other Favourites
The London Pops Orchestra, Eastman-Rochester "Pops" Orchestra, Frederick Fennell
Classique - Paru chez Decca Music Group Ltd. le 1 janv. 1995
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Gould: West Point Symphony/Hovhaness: Symphony No.4/Giannini: Symphony No. 3
Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell, A Clyde Roller
Classique - Paru chez Decca Music Group Ltd. le 1 janv. 1992
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Grainger Favourites
Frederick Fennell, Percy Grainger
Classique - Paru chez Musical Concepts le 6 mars 2020
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Hands Across The Sea - Marches From Around The World
Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell
Classique - Paru chez Decca Music Group Ltd. le 1 janv. 1994
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Fennell conducts Sousa: 24 Favorite Marches
Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell
Classique - Paru chez Decca Music Group Ltd. le 10 mars 1992
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Frederick Fennell Conducts Leroy Anderson
Frederick Fennell, Eastman Rochester "Pops" Orchestra, Orchestra Conducted by Frederick Fennell
Classique - Paru chez Mangora Classical le 21 mars 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo