Exuding his characteristic wry humor, British conductor Timothy Reynish broke the invisible screen dividing the audience from the musicians as he walked onto the stage of Spaulding Auditorium for the Dartmouth Wind Symphony's Saturday performance. Together with Wind Symphony conductor Matthew Marsit, Reynish brought a repertoire to the Hopkins Center on Saturday that lived up to the theme "British Invasion."
The Stephen Fry of the classical world, Reynish incited laughter after the first piece of the program, a march composed by Frank Bridge, when he addressed the audience about the piece's pace.
"The British march slowly," he said. "That's why we lost the war here. My other theory is that they lost it on purpose."
Reynish could have been a battle commander as he conducted with his entire body, focusing the attention of both musicians and audience.
The Dartmouth Wind Symphony, comprised of both Dartmouth students and community members, rehearsed the repertoire for four weeks before the performance, but Reynish only joined them last week, according to Marsit. The program featured the works of modern British composers, including the world premiere of the rising young composer Daniel Basford's "Partita in D."
"In the beginning, the music was terrible, but then Matthew [Marsit] brought us up to concert level," Nathaniel Schmucker '15, an oboist in the Dartmouth Wind Symphony, said. "We [then] had eight hours with Reynish. With him, it kind of came together."
This was Reynish's first time guest conducting at Dartmouth. Marsit first met Reynish when they were colleagues at Cornell University. Since then, they kept in touch, and Marsit has been programming much of the music Reynish has been advocating, according to Marsit.
Reynish joked that his collegiate allegiances have changed since his years at Cornell with Marsit, however, explaining that "Dartmouth beat Cornell at ladies' lacrosse."
A household name in the world of wind music, Reynish began studying the development of the American wind band movement while on the Churchill Traveling Fellowship in 1982, he said.
"I never really heard of wind [music] in 1981," he said. "We then hosted concerts in Manchester, England, and I was blown away by American bands. For five weeks, I toured around America for ideas and took a lot of the music back and since then I've been doing more and more wind ensembles."
Reynish has emerged as one of the leading conductors of wind ensembles in the world.
"[Reynish] changed the shape of wind ensemble worldwide," Marsit said in his introduction of Reynish at the performance. "His name may not be well-known in America, but [it is] in the U.K. and [has] spread throughout Europe."
Reynish has given classes, lectured and guest conducted all over the world, according to the Hopkins Center program notes. Before coming to Dartmouth a week ago, he was in Hong Kong and North Dakota, he said,
"People ask me how I keep fresh when I move around," Reynish said. "But that's one of the most exciting aspects. I work with all my friends."
Reynish considers Marsit one of his "most important mentors," he said. Marsit joined the Hopkins Center in 2009 as the director of the Dartmouth Wind Symphony, and he previously held conducting positions at various other institutions, including the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and Dartmouth's Handel Society.
"[Reynish and I] were at Cornell as colleagues, but he was truly my mentor," Marsit said.
At first glance, the program may have seemed puzzling because of the repertoire of lesser-known, more contemporary composers, but the first half was a success, consisting of Frank Bridge's "Pageant of London," Daniel Basford's "Partita in D," Timothy Jackson's "Passacaglia" and Kenneth Hesketh's "Masque." The second half equally exceeded expectations, showcasing Guy Woolfenden's "French Impressions" and Adam Gorb's "Dances from Crete."
"There was a wide scope of music types," Angela Jin '15, a member of the Dartmouth Wind Symphony, said. "The audience might not have appreciated the music to the full extent as we did because we really immersed and worked on the music."
All except for Bridge are contemporary composers and close friends and associates of Reynish. Woolfenden, for instance, was Reynish's best man at his wedding, he said.
"They're all friends except Frank Bridge," he said. "I don't know why he didn't like me that much. When did he die? 1941. I was three years old. We could have still been friends."
The program included the premiere of Basford's "Partita," which Reynish commissioned five years ago when he met Basford, a student of Adam Gorb in Manchester. The piece is based on the letters in the word "dance," according to Reynish. Each movement contains a little recurring theme based on the notes D, A, C and E, he said. The piece has not been published but will be published near Christmas, according to Reynish.
Jackson's "Passacaglia," which followed Brasford's piece in the concert, was originally written for 32 horns, he said.
"How stupid is that?" Reynish said to the audience playfully before performing the piece. "So I told him, it's never going to be played, so why don't we play it as a wind band?"
Woolfenden's "French Impressions," however, stood out in the second half of the concert as the highlight of the performance.
"I really liked the French Impressions,'" Schumucker said. "The first movement is beautiful. The second is more like circus music and more fun to play."
Reynish, who has written a series of articles on the importance of programming, developed Saturday's repertoire with Marsit over a long time to get the order of the performance right, according to Marsit.
"My goal was to come up with a program that [Reynish] commissioned or inspired," Marsit said. "I look at this as a tribute to his career."
Reynish has commissioned many works for the Wind Symphony, including the Basford piece that premiered on Saturday. These selections were among roughly 26 pieces commissioned as part of the William Reynish Memorial Project, a memorial to Reynish's son who passed away while mountain climbing.
Through all of his performances and commissioned pieces, Reynish said he hopes to establish that there are great pieces for wind bands to perform.
"The trouble is it's either education or entertainment or ceremonial marching or universities doing horrible avant-garde stuff," he said. "The wind band suffers because of these perceptions."
Those who missed the opportunity to hear the Dartmouth Wind Symphony perform on Saturday can hear them perform again this term at the President's Study Break Concert on the Green on May 31.
"It's about getting [wind music] accepted as a serious medium of music," Marsit added. "Audiences see symphony orchestras as a more serious endeavor, but band music often doesn't have that same perception. It is entertainment, but it can also be very fulfilling and enriching."
