Quarter Military Band Edition

History

The Boosey & Hawkes Quarter Military Band (Q.M.B.) Edition is a distinguished and influential series of published works for concert band that played a pivotal role in establishing the ensemble as a serious artistic medium throughout the 20th century. Its evolution from the earlier Boosey's Military Journal reflects a significant paradigm shift in the world of wind music, driven by a strategic corporate merger, the rise of the American school band movement, and a conscious effort to build a permanent canon of masterworks.  

The series' origins are tied to the 1930 merger of two rival British firms: Boosey & Company and Hawkes & Son. Boosey & Co., founded in the 1760s, was known for its extensive classical catalog and instrument manufacturing, while Hawkes & Son, established in 1865, specialized in music for military and brass bands. The new entity, Boosey & Hawkes, possessed an unparalleled combination of a world-class classical repertoire and deep expertise in wind band publishing.  

This merger coincided with the explosive growth of the educational band movement in the United States. This burgeoning American market created a demand for a new kind of repertoire—one that moved beyond the functional arrangements and marches that had characterized 19th-century British military band music. American school and university bands were developing into large, symphonic ensembles with standardized instrumentation, including full families of clarinets and saxophones, and they required substantial, original music for concert performance.  

The Q.M.B. series was created to meet this demand. Unlike its predecessor, the subscription-based Boosey's Military Journal which supplied a steady stream of music for the varied and often smaller British military bands, the Q.M.B. Edition was conceived as a curated library of individual, numbered works intended to form a permanent repertoire. A crucial innovation of the series was the standard inclusion of a full conductor's score, a departure from the condensed piano scores previously used, which allowed for serious study and nuanced interpretation.  

Editors

Publishers

• Boosey & Hawkes

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