Spanish composer and conductor Jose Ignacio Blesa-Lull has won numerous awards for his works across genres, including chamber music, choral, brass band, and wind band works. Hailing originally from Valencia, a region known for its outstanding bands, he trained at the High Conservatoriums of Valencia and Castellón, studying composition, conducting, clarinet, and music education. He has continued his training through workshops with several luminaries in both composition and conducting (see his bio at …And We Were Heard for a full list), including a masters degree in Wind Conducting with Matthew Westgate at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Prior to his stint in the USA, he was the conductor of the band Unión Musical “San Roque” de Villargordo del Cabriel in Valencia, which was awarded with a 2nd prize at the XLII Valencian Regional Band Contest.

A Young Symphony was written in 2018 on a commission from a consortium led by WASBE and spearheaded by Darrell Brown at Carroll University in Wisconsin. Blesa-Lull provides program notes (machine-translated from Spanish) as follows:

This work tries to return to the fundamental principles of instrumental symphonic writing, with an easy-medium technical difficulty. Furthermore, the work tries to escape the abundant clichés present in this type of band repertoire, with a classic formal writing and a cyclical development of the same thematic material during the 4 movements in reduced format, appropriate to the level in question. These four movements are formally built according to the symphonic canon:

I: Sonata form
II: ABA ternary form
III: Rondo form (Scherzando)
IV: Sonata Form

Although the work is harmonically framed in a tonal language, it is enriched by the use of the “Major Hungarian” scale (CD # -EF # -GA-Bb), slightly moving away from the classical major-minor modal sound. Finally, far from looking for a gimmicky language, motor development and counterpoint play an essential role during the approximately 10 minutes of the play.

Hear Darrell Brown and the Carroll University Wind Symphony play A Young Symphony:

For more on this piece, visit the Wind Repertory Project.