Written by the living composers and our spring semester Apprentice Conducting Program students
Wind Symphony Program Notes
An Epic Fanfare from Three Fanfares
Julie Giroux (b. 1961)
by Julie Giroux:
Three different styles of Pomp for your Circumstances.
Epic Fanfare is modern and flashy.
Heroic Fanfare is slower with a classic Romanesque feel to it.
Fanfare for the Fallen is quite somber.
Stillwater for Wind Ensemble
Kelijah Dunton (b. 1999)
by Kelijah Dunton:
Inspired by the beauty of a small town, Stillwater Minnesota. This town has a big lake in its center, and out of everyone’s backyard it could be seen. During the winter, the very top of the lake freezes and creates this tranquil effect that could not be seen, but heard. When stepping out into your backyard, you’d see this frozen mass, stuck into place and completely unmovable, but if you listened closely, you could hear that the water underneath continued to flow.
Why is this important?
We as people forget sometimes that we are so much more deep and vast beneath our hard surfaces. We work, we go to school, we take care of our families, we deal with the struggles of the day-to-day routine militantly. But if we just take a moment to listen within ourselves; we discover our passions, our longings, and our sense of belongings.
English Dances
Malcolm Arnold (b.1921-2006)
by Leah Henning:
Malcolm Arnold was an English composer popularized in the 20th century. Arnold began his career playing trumpet professionally, but by the age of 30, his life was devoted to composition. His sets of dances comprised two sets of English Dances and one set of Scottish Dances, Cornish Dances, Irish Dances, and Welsh Dances. These works are mainly in a lighter tone and are popular both in their original orchestral composition and in later wind and brass band arrangements.
Arnold believed strongly in the power of music to connect people from all walks of life and is famously quoted as saying, “Music is a social act of communication among people, a gesture of friendship, the strongest there is.”
Written in 1950, Arnold’s Four English Dances, Set 1 consists of four movements, all based on country-folk tunes and dances. The first movement, titled Andantino, opens quietly to four-part chords by the French horn and oboe melody. Arnold described the movement as being reminiscent of a country breeze or flowing streams. The second movement, titled Vivace, begins with bell tones intended to set the scene of “signaling the start of festivities in a village town.” The third movement, Mesto, translates to sad or melancholy and creates a broad contrast to the final movement. Allegro risoluto, the final movement, is characterized by a driving and determined rhythm in the brass with ornamentation from the woodwinds. Despite being inspired by folk songs, each tune is original to Arnold and has become a widely performed piece of literature for wind ensembles across the country.
Through These Woods…
Robert Traugh (b. 1984)
by Robert Traugh:
“Through These Woods…” was written for the North Hills High School Band commissioning series in 2019 – Len Lavelle & Lucas Beaver, Directors. When Len asked me to create a new work for the series, we met to discuss the project with the opportunity to catch up on the relevant happenings of our lives. Len shared with me that he took some time during the spring to hike the Appalachian Trail. Through the summer I returned to a trail not far from where I lived in Appalachia at the time. It stuck with me after the initial meeting, that many of us share a feeling of being called back to the natural world when seeking freedom from the grind of daily life, and that though was used as a catalyst for this piece.
I believe as a species we crave this return to the natural world. This tends to manifest in different ways for each of us. As a whole we are not far from the collective realization that we must engineer our society to become more practical to the natural world. Perhaps the next step in our pursuit of happiness lies waiting for us to connect to it. There is a clarifying power in a hike through the woods.
This piece starts with a call by the ensemble, as if we are standing at the trailhead. The coloring of this environment in hues of green, brown, and gold is what we become aware of first. Then, the sounds, and subtle movements of levity and awe. The first build is filled with these thoughts into the pentatonic panorama of measure 49. The themes, of which we only had glimpses until this point, become more clear and stated with certainty. The rest of the journey musically reflects this perception of the natural world around us, as well as the journey inward as we travel through these woods…
“After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, love, and so on – have found that none of these finally satisfy or permanently wear – what remains? Nature remains.”
– Walt Whitman
Symphonette Program Notes
Eine kleine Nachtmusik
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
by Alison Smith:
ADD PROGRAM NOTES
Miniatures (*Premiere – Commissioned by Symphonette)
Hannah Ishizaki (b. 2000)
by Hannah Ishizaki:
For me, what makes playing the violin so fulfilling is being able to play together with other people. When you play in an orchestra or a chamber group, you are breathing together with your peers and creating sound that could only be made as a community. Miniatures is a piece in two contrasting movements, each movement exploring what it means to play with a communal sound. The first movement is lyrical, with canonic melodies that pass between instruments, eventually building to a climax. The second movement is energetic and includes two main themes: one rhythmic and driving and the other passionate and dramatic.
Suite for Violin and String Orchestra
Jean Sibelius (1865-1967)
by Hannah Bedeck:
Sibelius began studying violin at age ten but felt unable to compete with his virtuosic contemporaries. Continuing as a composer only, he composed one of the most demanding violin concertos in the repertoire, his Violin Concerto in D Minor. The success of this concerto inspired him to write another, but he decided instead to use his compositional fragments in his sixth symphony. Twenty-six years later, in 1929, Sibelius composed his Opus 117: Suite for Violin and Strings. He ordered that it not be published or performed, but this order was ignored as violinist John Storgards performed the piece with Osmo Vanska.
The work is composed in three movements: “Country Music,” “Evening in the Spring,” and “In the Summer”. The first two movements are both centered around a pastoral melody, and the piece concludes with a vibrant presto third movement accompanied by pizzicato strings. As the movement titles suggest, Sibelius was greatly inspired by nature. His biographer wrote, “he scanned the skies with his binoculars for the geese flying over the lake ice, listened to the screech of cranes, and heard the cries of the curlew echo over the marshy grounds of Ainola. He savored the spring blossoms every bit as much as he did autumnal scents and colors.”
Green Rhythmico
Kirt Mosier (b. 1963)
From the score:
Green Rhythmico was composed at the suggestion of the composer’s friend to write an “Irish-y” piece. This unique piece begins with the low strings setting the ostinato figure that drives the entire work. The viola section comes in with the vigorous successive downbow strokes that create that signature “rhythmico” sound. The melody is first introduced by pizzicato violins. It is a romping sound that is heard throughout the piece. The glissandi in this piece help exaggerate the carefree sound above the constantly moving bass lines. The violin and cello/viola solos offer individual players a chance to show off, while adding to the ad-lib feel of the music. You will hear great tension in cluster chords that announce the ending, and a Bartók pizz. that puts the final exclamation point on the work.
Young Peoples Orchestra Program Notes
Overture to Candide
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
By Leah Henning:
Leonard Bernstein was part performer, composer, conductor, lecturer, author, and teacher. In 1943 Bernstein was appointed assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic. From 1958 to 1969, Bernstein was conductor and musical director of the New York Philharmonic, becoming the first American-born holder of those posts. In 1989 he conducted two historical performances of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, held in East and West Berlin to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Candide was adapted by Leonard Bernstein as a neo-classical operetta, based on Voltaire’s 1759 novella. After its opening performance on Broadway in New York, critics called Candide a “spectacular disaster.” The operetta closed on Broadway shortly, after just 73 performances. The Overture to Candide was rescored for a full orchestra by Bernstein and has become one of his most performed works. The overture is composed of melodies from the show that are put together into asymmetrical rhythmic patterns, keeping a buoyant feel and constant drive to the last note. Bernstein conducted the premiere of the overture with the New York Philharmonic in 1957, just over ten years after the show had opened on Broadway.
Allegro Moderato from Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra in D Major, Op. 144
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
By Alison Smith:
ADD PROGRAM NOTES
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954)
Lyrics by James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)
by Riley Russell:
“Lift Every Voice and Sing” was originally a poem written by James Weldon Johnson. James Weldon Johnson was born in Florida in 1871, and he died June 26, 1938. James Weldon Johnson wrote this piece with his brother, John Rosamond Johnson. James wrote the words, and his brother composed the music. It was first performed for President Lincoln’s birthday by an ensemble of Black students. Everyone loved the piece, and the students loved singing it. As they grew up, they sang it to other students, who then became teachers and started teaching it to their students. The song’s popularity spread far, and eventually even to the north. James moved to New York to write more with his brother. He wrote for Broadway for a little bit but then became a U.S. consul to Venezuela. His song was adapted by the NAACP as their official song in 1919, and it became known as the “black national anthem”. He became an author and a professor, and he was the first Black professor appointed by NYU. He was a very accomplished man, and his song moved many people.
Of Our New Day Begun
Omar Thomas (b. 1984)
by Omar Thomas:
“Of Our New Day Begun” was written to honor nine beautiful souls who lost their lives to a callous act of hatred and domestic terrorism on the evening of June 17, 2015, while worshipping in their beloved sanctuary, the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church (affectionately referred to as “Mother Emanuel”) in Charleston, South Carolina. My greatest challenge in creating this work was walking the line between reverence for the victims and their families, and honoring my strong, bitter feelings towards both the perpetrator and the segments of our society that continue to create people like him. I realized that the most powerful musical expression I could offer incorporated elements from both sides of that line – embracing my pain and anger while being moved by the displays of grace and forgiveness demonstrated by the victims’ families.
Historically, Black Americans have, in great number, turned to the church to find refuge and grounding in the most trying of times. Thus, the musical themes and ideas for “Of Our New Day Begun” are rooted in the Black American church tradition. The piece is anchored by James and John Johnson’s time-honored song, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (known endearingly as the “Negro National Anthem”) and peppered with blues harmonies and melodies. Singing, stomping, and clapping are also prominent features of this work, as they have always been a mainstay of black music traditions, and the inclusion of the tambourine in these sections is a direct nod to black worship services.
“Of Our New Day Begun” begins with a unison statement of a melodic cell from “Lift Every Voice….” before suddenly giving way to ghostly, bluesy chords in the horns and bassoons. This section moves to a dolorous and bitter dirge presentation of the anthem in irregularly shifting 12/8 and 6/8 meter, which grows in intensity as it offers fleeting glimmers of hope and relief answered by cries of blues-inspired licks. A maddening, ostinato-driven section representing a frustration and weariness that words cannot, grows into a group singing of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” fueled by the stomping and clapping reminiscent of the black church.
In the latter half of the piece the music turns hopeful, settling into 9/8 time and modulating up a step during its ascent to a glorious statement of the final lines of “Lift Every Voice….” in 4/4, honoring the powerful display of humanity set forth by the families of the victims. There is a long and emotional decrescendo that lands on a pensive and cathartic gospel-inspired hymnsong. Returning to 9/8 time, the piece comes to rest on a unison F that grows from a very distant hum to a thunderous roar, driven forward by march-like stomping to represent the ceaseless marching of black Americans towards equality.
Let us march on ‘til victory is won.
Capriccio Espagnole, Op. 34
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
by Hannah Bedeck:
“According to my plans, it was to glitter with dazzling orchestral color,” Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov wrote in his journal regarding his “Capriccio Espagnol.” Originally a work for solo violin, the Italian style Capriccio allowed for the demonstration of many virtuosic effects. The reorchestrated version of the piece features clarinet, harp, flute, cello, and violin to recreate the Spanish Countryside.
The work opens with an Alborada, a brilliant morning serenade ending. The second movement consists of five variations introduced initially by a horn quartet. It is then carried by a rich string melody featuring an interesting compositional technique called voice crossing. The celli continue the lilting theme while the violin harmony is harmonically composed in a lower register. It comes to a close with chromaticism from solo flute and is then interrupted by the ebullient third movement. This movement features a duet between the concertmaster and clarinet, reviving the Alborada theme from the first movement in flourishes of arpeggios. The fourth movement begins with a scene that opens with a trumpet fanfare followed by cadenzas by solo violin, flute, clarinet, and harp. These cadenzas are transferred to other orchestral groups throughout the movement and intertwined into a Gypsy song—the last movement, the fandango, which features the castanets and ends in a furious coda.
The Pines of the Appian Way from Pines of Rome
Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)
by James M. Keller:
Though he was schooled in his native Bologna, Ottorino Respighi started his career in earnest as an orchestral viola player in Russia, where he had the opportunity to study with Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, renowned as a master of orchestral color. Further work ensued in Berlin, with Max Bruch, before Respighi returned to Italy, where he would make his mark.
Respighi was appointed composition professor at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and when Alfredo Casella came on board as his colleague in 1915, bringing with him some of the radical ideas he had picked up during a recent residence in France, Respighi was swept up in a burst of modernist enthusiasm; but, he soon retreated to his essentially conservative stance. By 1932 we find him joining nine other conservative composers to sign a manifesto condemning the deleterious effect of music by such figures as Schoenberg and Stravinsky and encouraging a return to established Italian tradition. Respighi was by then very famous and very rich. Success had come his way through his hugely popular tone poem Fountains of Rome. He followed up with two further, vaguely related, tone poems—Pines of Rome (1923-24) and Roman Festivals (1928)—and these three works are not infrequently presented together as a “Roman Triptych.”
One of the traits that set Respighi apart as an individual voice was his fascination with the music of Italy’s distant past. Another distinctive Respighian hallmark surfaces in works such as his ballet Belkis, Queen of Sheba and certain pages of the “Roman Triptych”: his willingness to go what many would consider over the top in terms of orchestral sonority and color.
When the New York Philharmonic performed the American premiere of Pines of Rome in 1926, the composer (referring to himself in the third person) wrote to Lawrence Gilman, then the orchestra’s program annotator: “While in his preceding work, Fountains of Rome, the composer sought to reproduce by means of tone an impression of Nature, in Pines of Rome he uses Nature as a point of departure, in order to recall memories and vision. The centuries-old trees which so characteristically dominate the Roman landscape become witnesses to the principal events in Roman life.”
Respighi left extensive prose descriptions of his Pines of Rome:
The Pines of the Villa Borghese (Allegretto vivace)—Children are at play in the pine groves of the Villa Borghese, dancing the Italian equivalent of “Ring around a Rosy.” They mimic marching soldiers and battles. They twitter and shriek like swallows at evening, coming and going in swarms. Suddenly the scene changes.
The Pines Near a Catacomb (Lento)—We see the shadows of the pines, which overhang the entrance of a catacomb. From the depths rises a chant, which echoes solemnly, like a hymn, and is then mysteriously silenced.
The Pines of the Janiculum (Lento)—There is a thrill in the air. The full moon reveals the profile of the pines of Gianicolo’s Hill. A nightingale sings.
The Pines of the Appian Way (Tempo di Marcia)—Misty dawn on the Appian Way. The tragic country is guarded by solitary pines. Indistinctly, incessantly, the rhythm of unending steps. The poet has a fantastic vision of past glories. Trumpets blare, and the army of the Consul bursts forth in the grandeur of a newly risen sun toward the Sacred Way, mounting in triumph the Capitoline Hill.