wind-band

views updated

wind-band. In medieval times, bands of roving pipers who later received official recognition as ‘town pipers’, providing mus. for civic occasions. In modern usage, the term denotes a band of mixed wind instr., often with perc., and is more often called a ‘military band’ to distinguish it from the ‘brass band’ in which no woodwind is used. In USA ‘wind band’ denotes a military band. Haydn's Wind-band Mass (Harmoniemesse), 1802, is named because the wind instr. are prominent in the scoring, not because they are the only instr. used.