The development of wind bands during the 19th Century revolutionized the soundscape of large cities and small towns in much of the world. It was usual to listen to their music in parades, at bandstands located at parks and promenades. Moreover, they also oversaw embellishing their communities’ social occasions with their music. Paradoxically its relevance for the population, Academia only has started to analyze these phenomena recently, and as a minor aspect of Western Music History.

However, Wind bands have performed in Music Halls and Theatres since the 19th Century, and composers have included them in operas, operettas, zarzuelas, and other genres with their diegetic character or behind the scenes. We can point out as examples: Paisiello (Pirro, 1787), Rossini (Ricciardo e Zoraide, 1818), Verdi (Un ballo in maschera, 1859), Chueca (Cádiz, 1886), Mascagni (L’amico Fritz, 1891), Chapí (Curro Vargas, 1898) or Britten (Gloriana, 1953). The use of a wind band in a theater such as the Apollo in Rome –opera– or the theater of the same name in Madrid –zarzuela– suggests that its use was not subject to a specific genre. Likewise, if there were no limitations on genres and countries; the relationship between wind bands and theatres was binomial, at least in the Western Culture.

Currently, when research on music bands is reaching the attention of researchers worldwide, the need arises to value wind bands and their participation in Western-style lyrical theater. For this reason, Estudios bandísticos · Wind Bands Studies proposes a monographic dossier to endure this issue from an international perspective. To this end, some guiding lines of research are presented for its next volume that can be enriched with other proposals by researchers:

– The history, development, and management of wind bands as permanent ensembles in theatres.

– Uses of the music band within the framework of the theaters. 

– Musical analysis of numbers written for wind bands in operas and music popular theater (operetta, zarzuela) from a semiological approach.

– Iconography of the wind bands in theatrical representations.

– Wind bands as a representation of identities in works.

– Organology of theater wind bands.

– The use of wind bands (military and civilian) for lyrical performances in large and small towns tours.

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Authors are encouraged to contact the editor Miguel Ángel Ríos (m.rios@estudiosbandisticos.com) in advance of submission if they are unsure of whether their papers are appropriate for this thematic dossier.

All papers will be double-blind refereed.

Word limits: No more than 8,000 words including notes and bibliography.

We encourage all authors to follow the journal guidelines:

https://www.estudiosbandisticos.com/en/for-authors/

Please submit your papers through the website:

https://www.estudiosbandisticos.com/journal/index.php/estudiosbandisticos/about/submissions