Alchemy of Brass: Wind Music and Spirituality in Japan more

Investigates how the wind band genre has been adopted, radically reinvented, and imbued with new meanings by the Japanese. Wind band music only came to be popularized in Japan during recent generations, but the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra is now regarded as the world's leading professional wind ensemble, and the All-Japan Band Association (AJBA) national contest has become the world's largest music competition, with nearly 500,000 contestants. The role of spirituality within Japanese wind bands is considered (from grade school through professional levels) in their mission (outreach activities), practices (rehearsal strategies), and repertoire (hybrid repertoire by Japanese composers).