The wind band I used as main example when speaking about how to create a sound identity is the Royal Symphonic Band of the Belgian Guides which is the professional wind band in Europe who more than others managed, thanks to the mentality of its musicians and conductors, to preserve its own unique sound identity from its birth till today.
I have already spoken about the history of this wind band but let's take one last moment to listen to how perfectly blended the instruments are. The setting includes a complete woodwind section which is built with very similar principles as the French national school and, what makes the difference, is the full use of the Saxhorn family in the brass section. The combination of these aspects plus the fact all the musicians come from the same "school", allows this wind band to play and sound as an organ. The reason is the extremely careful way of using the rich instrument variety which conductors and composers who made many transcriptions especially for this wind band kept in mind as starting point.
Here is an example of the Guides Band performing the Toccata and Fugue by J.S.Bach in 1958.
Another extremely important national school was in France, the heart of which was the Conservatoire de Paris. This wind instrument school instead, didn't focus as much on the brass but more on the woodwind family. The French traditional, typical instrumentation used the high woodwind mainly at the top of their higher range creating a sharp sound (piccolo, flutes, oboes, Eb and Bb clarinets). Very interesting is also how composers coming from the French school used to use the complete woodwind section as a family. The bass reed instruments had an independent role and their function was to be the bass of the woodwind family, not the bass to the whole wind band which mostly occurred in other Countries. This means the two fundamental sections of a wind band, woodwinds and brass, were complete from the soprano instruments to the basses creating a very well balanced sound, in strength but also in timbre allowing a vast pallette of colours. If we should give an adjective for the French instrumentation, this would certainly be "colorful".
Here is an example of the professional French wind band "Les Gardiens de la Paix" performing under the direction of Désiré Dondeyne who more than others took care about preserving the identity of the sound of this band through the decades.
Throughout the Research we have clearly understood that REPERTOIRE is certainly the starting point to build an own "sound identity".
A "sound identity" is created with a good mix of knowledge of the historical development process and repertoire consciousness.
In our days globalization is overriding traditions and cultures, in the wind band scene this is creating a big loss of repertoire milestones. The main problem is given by the standardization of the modern wind orchestra settings.
Transcriptions often destroy the natural sound of a composition because in absence of specific “old” instruments, a sound/color study is not made when re-writing or performing the music for/with a modern setting.
Composers and conductors must understand the importance of preserving and considering the “sound identity” of the wind band they have in front.
Music is a global language but everyone speaks with their own accent, this accent is the “sound identity” which characterises the musical culture of each European country. People have fought in order to recognise their dialects as a language and preserve it from disappearing, the same must be done for the traditional musical language of our wind orchestras.
In conclusion I would like to give an answer to the Research questions:
A specific "sound identity" comes from HISTORY, only by knowing what happened in the past we can understand what we experience now. The development of the instruments through the second half of the XIX° century led to the carachteristic sound of the professional wind bands we could listen to in some of the audio/video samples I inserted in my Research.
The unique sound difference was given by the NATIONAL SCHOOLS which shaped their students/musicians with the same musical culture.
One of these important centers was in the south of Italy, Naples and Rome were the most influential conservatories in Italy and were very connected with the opera world. To be able to perform opera music (overtures, arias...) on the village squares for people who could not afford to go to the theatres many composers started making transcriptions for wind band and they included the complete flugelhorn family in the wind band setting which was used to include the opera singers' parts by giving them to wind instruments which could by nature have a more "bel canto" timbre, these instruments were mostly from the flugelhorn family which could covere the complete range from top to bottom.
Here is an example of the famous Italian professional military wind band "Banda dell'Arma dei Carabinieri" based in Rome performing the overture of "I Vespri Siciliani" by Verdi. This recording is taken from an LP of a performance dated 1964 and shows the real sound identity of this wind band counting 102 musicians and including the complete flugelhorn family as traditional in the Italian national school.