Southeast Concert Band and Wind Symphony play together

Southeast Missouri State University's Wind Symphony and Concert Band have been preparing for their upcoming performance since the beginning of the semester.

The two bands have been practicing pieces that are described as "a collection of musical gems and magical moments" on the River Campus website.

The Wind Symphony mostly consists of music majors who must audition for the band. The Concert Band is primarily non-music majors and is open to anyone with musical experience.

"We're going to cover a wide range of material like the Baroque period in music history, which would be the 18th century all the way up until present day -- things as recent as 2012. There will be a wide variety of things, not only style wise or period wise. There's a lot of different music being presented," Martin Reynolds, director of bands at Southeast, said.

The Wind Symphony will perform a piece entitled, "Variants on a Mediaeval Tune" by Norman Dello Joio.

"It's like a set of variations on a theme. It's a tune that most people know as a Christmas tune. Composers throughout music history have used that tune and written variations on it. This particular piece is one of those sets of variations. It's the main theme plus five variations," Reynolds said.

The Concert Band will perform a piece by native Missourian composer Claude T. Smith called "Incidental Suite."

"Incidental Suite has three different movements in it," Reynolds said. "The first one uses a really kind of advanced composition technique. Then there is a real pretty nocturne. A nocturne is a night song. The last section is a rondo. A rondo is a musical form where the theme keeps coming back. So that particular piece is a real challenge, and it's a really cool piece. It's got all kinds of different things in it that make it interesting."

This concert is entitled "Elements and Moments" because of the different styles of music that will be performed.

"Some of the music that we playing is considered to be like classical literature for bands," Reynolds said. "Just like classic literature by classic authors, these are like classical musical pieces for the band. They're also not just your run of the mill pieces either. They're important in terms of our students knowing them and the audience being exposed to them. That's kind of where the 'Moments' side of it came from. The elements part is really the idea of earth, fire, wind and water. Based on the elements of the earth. Not that all of the pieces on the program fit that bill."

This is one of two concerts that these two bands will perform this semester. "Elements and Moments" is at 7:30 p.m. on March. 4 in the Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall. There will be another concert at the end of April.