Alfred Reed – The Hounds of Spring

Back when I first started to learn about classical music, it was mostly through wind ensemble pieces. I remember being in middle school and attending one of my sister’s concert band performances: being in the top band, she played some amazing works, one of them being The Hounds of Spring. At that age you start to pay attention to some passions more and more, all I knew was that the connection of sounds and different colors had a tremendous effect on me. Later, as I got into high school, I had the chance to play this same piece and that’s where more of my affection grew. Anyways, long story short, this piece has both memories and is well, flawless.

It’s called The Hounds of Spring, sure, but it’s all about the conveying of this feeling – this bursting, budding, helplessly striving drive – into sounds emitted from a concert band. There’s no strings so you won’t hear any rousing resonations of tone but the piece evokes a spirit of hope and optimism. The woodwinds at the beginning surely act as strings with highly technical rows of jagged notes that intertwine between a myriad set of meters and abruptly cohesive rhythms. There’s swirling flutes that definitely flutter a lot and there’s a chugging force from the snare drum, while everyone passes the melody back and forth. The piece delves into dissimilar sections – slow, long passages of melting beauty where the embrace is in the air, plummeting and pounding sections where the dynamics exhilarate – but it all ties into one massively heavy lull.

Sure, my favorite part is right around the two minute mark, right before the twinkle of the bells and after the mesmerizing battle between some bassoons and French horns. Those horns lead the ‘love theme’ here with a gorgeous melody that simply begs for words to be sung to it. Here’s where you definitely realize that the piece stretches much further than a period piece set during one of America’s springs where all the herds – the dogs, the horses, the hounds – roam and joyously reach jubilant feelings together and yet, well, it is.

I’m not sure what really else to say about it although I’m sure I could maybe really write something professionally awesome about it some day. Ha, til now, I was listening to Hounds of Love and today I woke up with The Hounds of Spring in my head so here it is. Haha. It’s a beautiful piece, really, and the version here is by the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, regarded by some as the finest wind symphony/ensemble in the whole world! Well, it’s rivaled by one very closely – the Dallas Wind Symphony – but this version is killer, and well it’s a classic, American classical piece seamlessly performed in Japan by some of the best musicians in the world. Maybe Hounds of Love is next, who knows. – Bryan