-- Joseph Wagner1
the 20th century has seen a steady growth in original literature for the wind band, especially
since 1940. Significant efforts have been made to improve the band's repertoire, both in
substance and originality, while creating more functional and consistent instrumentation.
However, this trend was been somewhat slow in coming. For decades the wind band relied on the
orchestra for much of its repertoire because of the obvious similarities between the two. Using
orchestral transcriptions created a "symphonic" sound for the band, and also created the tendency
for composers writing original works for band to incorporate something of an orchestral style in their
compositional technique.2