The Passing Of A Wind Band Icon: W. Francis McBeth

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The Passing Of A Wind Band Icon: W. Francis McBeth

Posted by Thomas J. West on January 6, 2012 at 1:15 PM

While sharing a few articles with the Facebook Band Directors PLN today, I saw the announcement that W. Francis McBeth had passed away.

Read Southern Music Company's Announcement HERE

McBeth had a long and prosperous career as a band and orchestra composer. His wind band piece Chant and Jubilo was one of the first works as a young high school student that struck a chord with me and made me fall in love with the wind band. A fellow Sinfonian, McBeth received the Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award in 1988 for his continued contributions to American music.

As I glanced at his collected works on his Wikipedia page, I saw the titles of so many great works, and so many more that I have never had the chance to perform. Kaddish, They Hung Their Harps in the Willows, Of Sailors and Whales - so many great performances.

May we all have as strong an impact on the world around us as W. Francis McBeth.

This article (c) 2012 Thomas J. West. All content on ThomasJWestMusic dot com is licensed under a Creative Contributions Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Please contact the author before publishing on or off-line.

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