The Growth of Third Stream Music In the Wind Band Repertory: A Study of Jazz Influences In Three Selected Compositions

The development of an original repertoire for the wind band has been a concerted effort by many since the beginning of the twentieth century. Figures like Edwin Franko Goldman, Richard Franko Goldman, Frederick Fennell, and Robert Boudreau along with organizations such as the American Bandmasters Association and the College Band Directors National Association have played key roles in encouraging composers to write for the wind band. At the same time jazz, America\u27s unique art form, also began to grow and has developed into a widely popular style of music. Composers in the Western art music tradition began to incorporate elements of jazz early in the twentieth century. As the century progressed, more and more composers utilized jazz into their classical music but the two styles remained largely separate until the middle of the century when this combination developed to a point where it became a unique style of music. In 1957, Gunther Schuller coined the term third stream music to identify this fusion of classical music and jazz. Wind band composers have also integrated jazz into their compositions that has become a growing trend over the last fifty years. This document examines how elements of jazz have been successfully incorporated in compositions for wind band of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries through investigating three select pieces. The compositions selected include: Blue Shades (1997) by Frank Ticheli, Storyville (1996) by James Syler, and My Hands Are a City (2008) by Jonathan Newman