The wind sextet of the Dutch Guards (doubling the oboes) at the Funeral Procession of the Dutch Stadhouder Willem IV (1752) 
The well-know silhouette of the Oettingen-Wallerstein band (1791). Far left the composer Antonio Rosetti, who also played the double bass and wrote obligato parts for his instrument.
Harmoniemusik started to function in the beginning of the 18th Century at the time the 'modern' oboes, clarinets and bassoons came into existence. The ensemble usually consisted of a pair of oboes (or clarinets), one or two bassoons and a pair of horns. The beloved genre was the so called partita or parthia, a suite of three to eight short mouvements and many of these partitas still exist in Central Europe archives. The repertoire artistically ranges from very modest compositions to the Six Symphonies by J.C. Bach or the Serenades K. 251-3 by W.A. Mozart. The music solely served as background to dinners, garden fêtes, hunting parties and militairy occasions.
Harmoniemusik started to function in the beginning of the 18th Century at the time the 'modern' oboes, clarinets and bassoons came into existence. The ensemble usually consisted of a pair of oboes (or clarinets), one or two bassoons and a pair of horns. The beloved genre was the so called partita or parthia, a suite of three to eight short mouvements and many of these partitas still exist in Central Europe archives. The repertoire artistically ranges from very modest compositions to the Six Symphonies by J.C. Bach or the Serenades K. 251-3 by W.A. Mozart. The music solely served as background to dinners, garden fêtes, hunting parties and militairy occasions.
This situation changed drastically in the Spring of the year 1782, when the Austrian emperor Joseph II ordered that his table music should be taken care of by an ensemble of eight instruments (two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and two horns) consisting of members of his Court Theatre Orchestra (the predecessors of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra). Thus, the music for wind band music was to be performed by professional musicians and the virtuosity of the Viennese k.k. Harmonie, the imperial wind band - with the Stadler brothers as clarinettists, became standard. The example was soon imitated and within a short period of time very many central European courts had a similar wind octet at their disposal.
The title page of the anonymous arrangement of Beethoven’s Sonate Pathétique for nine winds (Vienna, Chemische Druckerey, Plate Number 1488, ca 1810)
The article on Harmoniemusik from the Musikalisches Lexicon by Heinrich Christoph Koch(Frankfurt am Main, 1802, col. 737-738). It explains, why arrangements exist. […]
or arrangements are made for these instruments from operas or other music, that actually has another use, because so far an adequate number of original compositions is lacking.A practical problem was, that no compositions for this combination of instruments existed and that there was an extensive demand from a very large market. Numerous new compositions were written, but also a large body of music (primarily from operas and ballets) was arranged for winds. Thus Mozart 'enlarged' his six-piece Serenade K 375 into a work for octet and arranged his own new opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail for the same ensemble. Incidentally, arrangements of music for winds -more than in any other repertoire- still are as usual as original compositions.Around 1800 the double bassoon was added to the standard combination and also we find an extra trumpet or sometimes two extra flutes.
The music for nine to twelve winds bloomed till the end of the 1830s and comprises some 10.000 (!) works. The function remained the same. Meanwhile the larger band came into existence. The Harmoniemusik lived on in the concert hall. Dvorak and Richard Strauss composed brilliant works, that are the "tip of the iceberg". There is a large number of very attractive pieces by Gounod, Reinecke, Lachner and many others.
Commissions for Harmoniemusik initially came from the Courts. Later the musicians themselves ordered new music. Such a group was the Société des instruments à vent in Paris at the end of the 19th Century. Their leader the flautist Paul Taffanel (seated on the far left) inspired many contemporary composers to write for his wind ensemble.
The Paris Société des Instruments à vent founded by the flautist Taffanel in 1879 was the first ensemble, that commisisoned new works and this tradition has been followed since: the Bläserverein Wien, the Mainz Bläserensemble (Klaus -Rainer Schöll), the London Wind Soloïsts (Jack Brymer) and the first generation of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble (Thom de Klerk). The result is, that a large and quite varied repertoire of quality for small wind band is available.
The Floricor Editions catalogue presents this repertoire from all stages in Harmoniemusik history.
