[#261] July 22, 2024
1991 | Symphonic Wind Ensemble/Band | Grade 6 | 20’ – 25’ | Suite
American Games, by British composer Nicholas Maw is our Composition of the Week.
American Games was commissioned for the 1991 BBC Proms. It was premiered exactly 33 years ago, on July 23, 1991, by the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Band, with Tim Reynish conducting, on the BBC Promenade Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London.
American Games is approximately 22’ minutes long and set in seven continuous movements that are preceded by an introduction and closed with a brief coda. All movements have their own structure and individual character.
Maw's idea, which is reflected in the title of the work, is to evoke different moments of American life, with music that is fresh, enjoyable, fun and accessible to the listener.
American Games is scored for:
3333.ASax/433.Euph.1.Timpani.Percussion (3)
“If Nicholas Maw is best known as a master of expansive, often melancholy, musical statements, his riveting American Games for symphonic wind band displays a different side of his fascinating output. Unfolding as one continuous span, this driving, dynamic 7-movement work is filled with rhythmic zest and a sophisticated feeling for color”
From the editor’s website.
“A sequence of dances which make up a vigorous rhythmic romp, brilliantly written for the instruments.”
The Guardian (Edward Greenfield), 25th July 1991
American Games was the winner of the 1991 Louis and Virginia Sudler International Wind Band Competition.
The music is available at Faber Music.
Nicholas Maw is one of Britain’s most admired composers. He was an acknowledged master in whatever genre he expressed himself, and one whose musical language is instantly recognizable. Born in 1935 in Grantham, Lincolnshire, he studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London (1955-58) with Paul Steinitz and Lennox Berkeley, and in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and Schoenberg’s pupil, Max Deutsch. His career as a teacher has included positions at Trinity College Cambridge, Exeter University, Yale University and latterly he was Professor of Composition at the Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore. Prizes and awards he has won include the 1959 Lili Boulanger Prize, the 1980 Midsummer Prize of the City of London, the 1991 Sudler International Wind Band Composition Competition for American Games and the 1993 Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Maw received commissions from many of the major musical organizations in the United Kingdom such as the BBC, the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Royal Opera House, the Nash Ensemble, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta
Since 1984, Maw divided his time between Europe and the United States. There has been a resultant upsurge of performances in the US from many major American ensembles, soloists and orchestras: such as the orchestras of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, San Francisco and National Symphony (Washington DC), and the Lincoln Center Chamber Players.
From editor’s website
Other works for winds include:
Summer Dances (1981/2002), Arr: Adrian Connell
Fanfare for brass ensemble (2004