Christopher Rouse's Wolf Rounds: Compositional Insight and World Premiere Performance Preparation

by Rand, Catherine A.

The purpose of this essay is to explore the commissioning process of a wind ensemble piece by notable composer Christopher Rouse, and its significance to the wind ensemble repertoire. This essay will use the University of Miami Frost Wind Ensemble and Christopher Rouses Wolf Rounds as the primary example. This discussion will provide an extensive background review of Christopher Rouses early musical experience and lifes accomplishments. It will focus on his creative process and document the performance preparation of Wolf Rounds as experienced by the Frost Wind Ensemble, conducted by Professor Gary D. Green. The final part of this essay will investigate the compositional insight of Wolf Rounds as well as the inspiration and motivation of Rouse to write for the wind ensemble genre. While Rouse has written for many different types of ensembles, this will be his first published addition to the wind repertoire. Wolf Rounds was chosen as the primary composition because of its significance to the composer as his first composition for winds and percussion.