An examination of the influences on twentieth-century wind music would be incomplete without the consideration of composer, organist, pianist, conductor, teacher, and critic Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979). Students from the United States began studying with Boulanger between World War I and World War II, and continued to travel to study with her for over fifty years. The respect awarded this legendary French woman was gained as a result of her effectiveness as a teacher, her influence on the development of each student's unique compositional style, and her guidance of an emerging American musical style. The correlation between the teacher's lessons and the compositional output of her students must be explored. Boulanger did not compose specifically for winds, and she did not encourage her students to compose for the wind symphony. However, this document will outline the influence that this powerful pedagogue exerted over the creation of repertoire by her students by providing insight into the pedagogical style and philosophical foundations of Boulanger as reflected in the literature and by the writings, comments, and compositions of three successful students who composed literature for the wind symphony: Aaron Copland (1900-1990), Leslie Bassett (b. 1923), and Donald Grantham (b. 1947). Three significant works for …

The United States government began paying pensions to disabled Union veterans before the Civil War ended in April 1865. By 1890 its pension programs included any Union veteran who had fought in the Civil War, regardless of his financial means, as well as surviving family members, including mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters. Union veterans did not hesitate to "wave the bloody shirt" in their attempts to liberalize pension laws. Pension programs for Confederate veterans were much slower to develop. Lacking any higher organization, each southern state assumed the responsibility of caring for disabled and/or indigent Confederate veterans and widows. Texas began paying Confederate pensions in 1899, Georgia in 1888 and Virginia in 1889. Unlike Texas, Georgia and Virginia provided artificial limbs for their veterans long before they started paying pensions. At the time of his enlistment in the 1860s, the typical future pensioner was twenty-five years of age, and fewer than half were married heads of households. Very few could be considered wealthy and most were employed in agriculture. The pensioners of Georgia, Texas, and Virginia were remarkably similar, although there were some differences in nativity and marital status. They were all elderly and needy by the time they asked …