Tonight, you can hear the Marine Band in performance on the West Front of the Capitol Building at 8:00 PM. Program information is below and you can follow this link to complete program notes on tonight's performance. Enjoy!
John Heins
Overture for Band
Charles Ives/trans. Sinclair
Fugue in C
Herbert L. Clarke
"Stars in a Velvety Sky"
SSgt Jeffrey Strong, cornet soloist
Robert Russell Bennett
Symphonic Songs for Band
Giuseppe Verdi/trans Sousa*
Bolero from The Sicilian Vespers
SSgt Sara Dell'Omo, mezzo-soprano
Antonín Dvorák/trans. Leidzén
Finale from Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Opus 95, From the New World
John Philip Sousa*
March, "The Gallant Seventh"
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Stravinsky Piano Concerto
In a manner of speaking, today's blog post is a continuation of yesterday's post on Igor Stravinsky's Mass and will deal with the Piano Concerto. Written between 1923 and 1924 (just four years after "Symphonies of Wind Instruments"), the Piano Concerto is an example of Stravinsky's early neoclassicism. The piece was composed at the request of Serge Koussevitzky and was premiered with the composer playing the piano part, as was Stravinsky's intent.
Wikipedia article on the Piano Concerto
Below are YouTube links to a performance by Yelena Beriyeva at the New England Conservatory.
Stravinsky Piano Concerto Mvt. I
Stravinsky Piano Concerto Mvt. II
Stravinsky Piano Concerto Mvt. III
Below are program notes on the Piano Concerto by Phillip Huscher from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Igor Stravinsky
Born June 18, 1882, Oranienbaum, Russia.
Died April 6, 1971, New York City.
Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
Stravinsky began this piano concerto in the summer of 1923 and completed it on April 21, 1924; he was the soloist at the first performance, conducted by Serge Koussevitzky, on May 22, 1924, in Paris. The orchestra consists of two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and english horn, two clarinets, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones and tuba, timpani, and double basses. Performance time is approximately twenty minutes.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s first subscription concert performances of Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments were given at Orchestra Hall on January 30 and 31, 1935, with Jane Anderson and Jean Williams as soloists (the work was performed twice; once before and once after intermission) and Eric DeLamarter conducting. Stravinsky himself conducted the work at Orchestra Hall on November 7 and 8, 1940, with Jane Anderson as soloist. Our most recent subscription concert performances were given on March 3, 4, 5, and 8, 2005, with Pierre-Laurent Aimard as soloist and David Robertson conducting. The Orchestra has performed this concerto at the Ravinia Festival only once, on July 10, 1993, with Peter Serkin as soloist and Libor Pešek conducting.
Stravinsky would offer a handful of ways to define the word “concerto” before his career was over. This work for piano and winds was the first, and it was followed by pieces that look back as far as the eighteenth-century concerto grosso and others that help us to hear the original meaning of the word (from the Italian concertare, to join together, and the Latin concertare, to fight or contend) in new ways.
In this work, Stravinsky joins a solo piano and a wind orchestra, and both choices deserve comment. The sound of winds alone, unsweetened by strings, was a characteristic Stravinsky sonority in the early 1920s (the Symphonies of Wind Instruments is the first important example). His urge to write for the piano was new—ignited, perhaps, by transcribing three movements from Petrushka for Artur Rubinstein in 1921. Stravinsky found the combination of piano and winds logical and apt. “Strings and piano, a sound scraped and a sound struck, do not sound well together,” he wrote, ignoring the achievements of Mozart and Beethoven, among others. “Piano and wind, sounds struck and blown, do.”
This concerto was written for Serge Koussevitzky’s Paris concerts, and when the score was nearly finished, the conductor suggested that Stravinsky play the solo himself. Stravinsky got into shape by spending long, happy hours with Czerny exercises. He was in fine form at the premiere, in May 1924, but his mind began to play tricks: “After finishing the first movement,” he recalled,
"and just before beginning the Largo which opens with a passage for solo piano, I suddenly realized that I had completely forgotten how it started. I said so quietly to Koussevitzky, who glanced at the score and hummed the first notes. That was enough to restore my balance and enable me to attack the Largo."
Despite this episode, Stravinsky enjoyed playing his own music, and he continued to perform the concerto, retaining exclusive performance rights for five years. But things did not always go smoothly. “Another time,” he recalled,
"while playing the same concerto, I suffered a lapse of memory because I was suddenly obsessed by the idea that the audience was a collection of dolls in a huge panopticon. Still another time, my memory froze because I suddenly noticed the reflection of my fingers in the glossy wood at the edge of the keyboard."
Every one of Stravinsky’s concertolike works both borrows and departs from tradition; this one takes as its backbone the classic layout in a three-movement, fast-slow-fast pattern. The first movement also is conventional in overall shape: it begins with a somber introduction for the winds; the piano enters boisterously to launch the body of the movement with fast and aggressive music that is persistently percussive and driven. The winds are forever indebted to the piano for ideas, and a sense of drama develops as material is transformed by the exchange. The gestures of eighteenth-century music—of Bach and Scarlatti in particular—tease the listener’s ears, but on closer inspection, every measure bears the unmistakable stamp of Stravinsky’s own hand.
The piano opens the second movement with a stately melody over the steady progression of heavy, left-hand chords. Like much memorable music, it is strikingly simple; one wonders how the composer could have forgotten it, even in a terrible moment of stage fright. After a rhapsodic cadenza, the tone changes; the piano launches a livelier new section, and—after another brief cadenza—leads without pause into the final Allegro. The pace of the third movement is relentless; the piano often dominates, and there is scarcely a measure to which it does not contribute. The writing throughout—for both piano and winds—is brilliant and vigorous. Just before the end, the music stops short (victim to another memory lapse?), then the piano quietly repeats a single chord in different rhythmic patterns. The concerto seems to start over again, from the top, but, with a parting glance at the dolls in the panopticon, all is recovered and the piano chases the orchestra to the final chord.
Wikipedia article on the Piano Concerto
Below are YouTube links to a performance by Yelena Beriyeva at the New England Conservatory.
Stravinsky Piano Concerto Mvt. I
Stravinsky Piano Concerto Mvt. II
Stravinsky Piano Concerto Mvt. III
Below are program notes on the Piano Concerto by Phillip Huscher from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Igor Stravinsky
Born June 18, 1882, Oranienbaum, Russia.
Died April 6, 1971, New York City.
Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
Stravinsky began this piano concerto in the summer of 1923 and completed it on April 21, 1924; he was the soloist at the first performance, conducted by Serge Koussevitzky, on May 22, 1924, in Paris. The orchestra consists of two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and english horn, two clarinets, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones and tuba, timpani, and double basses. Performance time is approximately twenty minutes.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s first subscription concert performances of Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments were given at Orchestra Hall on January 30 and 31, 1935, with Jane Anderson and Jean Williams as soloists (the work was performed twice; once before and once after intermission) and Eric DeLamarter conducting. Stravinsky himself conducted the work at Orchestra Hall on November 7 and 8, 1940, with Jane Anderson as soloist. Our most recent subscription concert performances were given on March 3, 4, 5, and 8, 2005, with Pierre-Laurent Aimard as soloist and David Robertson conducting. The Orchestra has performed this concerto at the Ravinia Festival only once, on July 10, 1993, with Peter Serkin as soloist and Libor Pešek conducting.
Stravinsky would offer a handful of ways to define the word “concerto” before his career was over. This work for piano and winds was the first, and it was followed by pieces that look back as far as the eighteenth-century concerto grosso and others that help us to hear the original meaning of the word (from the Italian concertare, to join together, and the Latin concertare, to fight or contend) in new ways.
In this work, Stravinsky joins a solo piano and a wind orchestra, and both choices deserve comment. The sound of winds alone, unsweetened by strings, was a characteristic Stravinsky sonority in the early 1920s (the Symphonies of Wind Instruments is the first important example). His urge to write for the piano was new—ignited, perhaps, by transcribing three movements from Petrushka for Artur Rubinstein in 1921. Stravinsky found the combination of piano and winds logical and apt. “Strings and piano, a sound scraped and a sound struck, do not sound well together,” he wrote, ignoring the achievements of Mozart and Beethoven, among others. “Piano and wind, sounds struck and blown, do.”
This concerto was written for Serge Koussevitzky’s Paris concerts, and when the score was nearly finished, the conductor suggested that Stravinsky play the solo himself. Stravinsky got into shape by spending long, happy hours with Czerny exercises. He was in fine form at the premiere, in May 1924, but his mind began to play tricks: “After finishing the first movement,” he recalled,
"and just before beginning the Largo which opens with a passage for solo piano, I suddenly realized that I had completely forgotten how it started. I said so quietly to Koussevitzky, who glanced at the score and hummed the first notes. That was enough to restore my balance and enable me to attack the Largo."
Despite this episode, Stravinsky enjoyed playing his own music, and he continued to perform the concerto, retaining exclusive performance rights for five years. But things did not always go smoothly. “Another time,” he recalled,
"while playing the same concerto, I suffered a lapse of memory because I was suddenly obsessed by the idea that the audience was a collection of dolls in a huge panopticon. Still another time, my memory froze because I suddenly noticed the reflection of my fingers in the glossy wood at the edge of the keyboard."
Every one of Stravinsky’s concertolike works both borrows and departs from tradition; this one takes as its backbone the classic layout in a three-movement, fast-slow-fast pattern. The first movement also is conventional in overall shape: it begins with a somber introduction for the winds; the piano enters boisterously to launch the body of the movement with fast and aggressive music that is persistently percussive and driven. The winds are forever indebted to the piano for ideas, and a sense of drama develops as material is transformed by the exchange. The gestures of eighteenth-century music—of Bach and Scarlatti in particular—tease the listener’s ears, but on closer inspection, every measure bears the unmistakable stamp of Stravinsky’s own hand.
The piano opens the second movement with a stately melody over the steady progression of heavy, left-hand chords. Like much memorable music, it is strikingly simple; one wonders how the composer could have forgotten it, even in a terrible moment of stage fright. After a rhapsodic cadenza, the tone changes; the piano launches a livelier new section, and—after another brief cadenza—leads without pause into the final Allegro. The pace of the third movement is relentless; the piano often dominates, and there is scarcely a measure to which it does not contribute. The writing throughout—for both piano and winds—is brilliant and vigorous. Just before the end, the music stops short (victim to another memory lapse?), then the piano quietly repeats a single chord in different rhythmic patterns. The concerto seems to start over again, from the top, but, with a parting glance at the dolls in the panopticon, all is recovered and the piano chases the orchestra to the final chord.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Navy Band and Air Force Band Concerts Tonight (6/29)
There are two wind band concerts in the Washington, D.C. area tonight. You can hear the Navy Band perform at the Navy Memorial at 8:00 PM featuring the Concert Band, the Cruisers, and the Sea Chanters. The concert is entitled "Concert on the Avenue." You can also hear the Air Force Band on the West Front of the Capitol Building at 8:00 PM and will feature "Celtic Aire" from the Singing Sergeants.
Stravinsky Mass
Igor Stravinsky's contributions to the wind repertoire cannot be overstated and his importance to winds is probably only second to Mozart. "L'Histoire du Soldat", "Symphonies of Wind Instruments" (1920 and 1947), Octet, Piano Concerto, and the Mass have all become standards in the wind world. Since we have already posted on the Octet and "Symphonies of Wind Instruments", this post will focus on the Mass.
Composed between 1944 and 1948, the Mass was composed in the second half of Stravinsky's neoclassical phase. Since the piece was not commissioned, many people believe the Mass to be a personal expression of Stravinsky's faith. According to Stravinsky, he drew his inspiration from the works of Mozart. There are links to a full recording below as well as the Wikipedia article and a Cal Tech website devoted to the Mass. Program notes can be found further below.
Kyrie from Mass
Gloria from Mass
Credo from Mass
Sanctus from Mass
Agnus Dei from Mass
Wikipedia article on the Stravinsky Mass
Cal Tech website devoted to Stravinsky's Mass
Below you will find program notes for the Mass from Barry Creasy, chairman of the Collegium Musicum of London.
In his 1929 monograph on Igor Stravinsky, Boris de Schloezer wrote: 'What ought we still to expect from Stravinsky, who is today in the prime of life and the full flowering of his genius? What will his next work be? … Logically, after Apollo Mustagetes he ought to give us a Mass: but our logic is not necessarily his.' In fact, de Schloezer's prediction was not to come true for some 19 years, and Stravinsky's next religious work was Symphony of Psalms. In 1926, Stravinsky re-joined the Russian Orthodox church after being lapsed since his departure from Russia. The Catholic Mass, however, is not consistent with Russian Orthodox tradition, where music has a very particular style and place and does not always fit into the Catholic liturgical strictures of the Mass form; moreover, Russian Orthodox tradition forbids the use of any instruments as part of worship, except the voice and bells.
So, why did Stravinsky, in 1944, begin work on a liturgical musical form which was alien to his own religious tradition? The answer may be found in his Expositions, where he recounts finding some Masses by Mozart in a second-hand shop in Los Angeles in 1942. He wrote: 'As I played through these rococo-operatic sweets-of-sin, I knew I had to write a Mass of my own, but a real one'. By 'real one' he may have meant a Roman Catholic one that would allow the use of instruments – Stravinsky wrote that he could '…endure unaccompanied singing in only the most harmoniously primitive music'. Like Howells, he eschewed the decorative style and set out to write a work which would be '…very cold music, absolutely cold, that will appeal directly to the spirit'. In a conversation with Evelyn Waugh, Stravinsky noted: 'My Mass was not composed for concert performances but for use in the church. It is liturgical and almost without ornament. In making a musical setting of the Credo, I wished only to preserve the text in a special way. One composes a march to facilitate marching men, so with my Credo I hope to provide an aid to the text. The Credo is the longest movement. There is much to believe'. The Mass is written for an unusual combination of mixed choir, two oboes, cor anglais, two bassoons, two trumpets and three trombones. The Kyrie and Gloria were finished in 1944, the remaining movements followed in 1947 and the whole was published in 1948, receiving its first performance in a concert (doubtless to Stravinsky's disappointment, following his earlier comments about the sacred nature of the work) on 27 October 1948 at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan. The Kyrie contains about ten short contrasted episodes for full chorus, accompanied by orchestra. Noteworthy is the change of key and instrumentation with every episode. Modulations to at least seven keys, and shifting instrumentation between brass and woodwind add colour to this movement. The final two choral phrases are identical to the initial two.
The Gloria begins with a dialogue between oboe and trumpet.; a solo alto joins and is answered by solo treble with an inversion of the alto's theme. The choir responds with a chanted chord alternating with snatches from the duet. The movement ends with a choral Amen. Given the length of the text of the Credo, in order not to make the Mass too long or complex, Stravinsky resorts to the use of choral chant, the instruments providing background colour. The volume is at a constant piano, except at three marcato passages in order to emphasize the words Ecclesiam... peccatorum... mortuorum. The movement then moves abruptly into the canonic a cappella Amen. The oboes and trumpet declare the short-long figure at the beginning of the Sanctus; this is followed by an answer of florid chant from two solo tenors; the full chorus then takes up the short-long rhythm, which is further echoed by the trombones. This pattern is repeated twice. A four-part fugue follows for solo voices, trumpet and trombone, leading to the Hosanna. The quiet and devotional Benedictus begins and is developed and intensified to conclude with a repeat of the Hosanna. The Agnus Dei consists of three a cappella passages for the choir alternated with the orchestra. In each repeat, the orchestral passages remain the same, but the choral passage is developed firstly for the high voices, then the low voices then all together. The work concludes on a breathless, unresolved chord.
Composed between 1944 and 1948, the Mass was composed in the second half of Stravinsky's neoclassical phase. Since the piece was not commissioned, many people believe the Mass to be a personal expression of Stravinsky's faith. According to Stravinsky, he drew his inspiration from the works of Mozart. There are links to a full recording below as well as the Wikipedia article and a Cal Tech website devoted to the Mass. Program notes can be found further below.
Kyrie from Mass
Gloria from Mass
Credo from Mass
Sanctus from Mass
Agnus Dei from Mass
Wikipedia article on the Stravinsky Mass
Cal Tech website devoted to Stravinsky's Mass
Below you will find program notes for the Mass from Barry Creasy, chairman of the Collegium Musicum of London.
In his 1929 monograph on Igor Stravinsky, Boris de Schloezer wrote: 'What ought we still to expect from Stravinsky, who is today in the prime of life and the full flowering of his genius? What will his next work be? … Logically, after Apollo Mustagetes he ought to give us a Mass: but our logic is not necessarily his.' In fact, de Schloezer's prediction was not to come true for some 19 years, and Stravinsky's next religious work was Symphony of Psalms. In 1926, Stravinsky re-joined the Russian Orthodox church after being lapsed since his departure from Russia. The Catholic Mass, however, is not consistent with Russian Orthodox tradition, where music has a very particular style and place and does not always fit into the Catholic liturgical strictures of the Mass form; moreover, Russian Orthodox tradition forbids the use of any instruments as part of worship, except the voice and bells.
So, why did Stravinsky, in 1944, begin work on a liturgical musical form which was alien to his own religious tradition? The answer may be found in his Expositions, where he recounts finding some Masses by Mozart in a second-hand shop in Los Angeles in 1942. He wrote: 'As I played through these rococo-operatic sweets-of-sin, I knew I had to write a Mass of my own, but a real one'. By 'real one' he may have meant a Roman Catholic one that would allow the use of instruments – Stravinsky wrote that he could '…endure unaccompanied singing in only the most harmoniously primitive music'. Like Howells, he eschewed the decorative style and set out to write a work which would be '…very cold music, absolutely cold, that will appeal directly to the spirit'. In a conversation with Evelyn Waugh, Stravinsky noted: 'My Mass was not composed for concert performances but for use in the church. It is liturgical and almost without ornament. In making a musical setting of the Credo, I wished only to preserve the text in a special way. One composes a march to facilitate marching men, so with my Credo I hope to provide an aid to the text. The Credo is the longest movement. There is much to believe'. The Mass is written for an unusual combination of mixed choir, two oboes, cor anglais, two bassoons, two trumpets and three trombones. The Kyrie and Gloria were finished in 1944, the remaining movements followed in 1947 and the whole was published in 1948, receiving its first performance in a concert (doubtless to Stravinsky's disappointment, following his earlier comments about the sacred nature of the work) on 27 October 1948 at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan. The Kyrie contains about ten short contrasted episodes for full chorus, accompanied by orchestra. Noteworthy is the change of key and instrumentation with every episode. Modulations to at least seven keys, and shifting instrumentation between brass and woodwind add colour to this movement. The final two choral phrases are identical to the initial two.
The Gloria begins with a dialogue between oboe and trumpet.; a solo alto joins and is answered by solo treble with an inversion of the alto's theme. The choir responds with a chanted chord alternating with snatches from the duet. The movement ends with a choral Amen. Given the length of the text of the Credo, in order not to make the Mass too long or complex, Stravinsky resorts to the use of choral chant, the instruments providing background colour. The volume is at a constant piano, except at three marcato passages in order to emphasize the words Ecclesiam... peccatorum... mortuorum. The movement then moves abruptly into the canonic a cappella Amen. The oboes and trumpet declare the short-long figure at the beginning of the Sanctus; this is followed by an answer of florid chant from two solo tenors; the full chorus then takes up the short-long rhythm, which is further echoed by the trombones. This pattern is repeated twice. A four-part fugue follows for solo voices, trumpet and trombone, leading to the Hosanna. The quiet and devotional Benedictus begins and is developed and intensified to conclude with a repeat of the Hosanna. The Agnus Dei consists of three a cappella passages for the choir alternated with the orchestra. In each repeat, the orchestral passages remain the same, but the choral passage is developed firstly for the high voices, then the low voices then all together. The work concludes on a breathless, unresolved chord.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Dvorak "Serenade, op. 44"
Dvorak's "Serenade, op. 44" for winds, cello, and bass is yet another standard of the wind band, although it belongs to the smaller (in terms of ensemble size) "wind orchestra" repertoire as opposed to the larger "band" repertoire.
Below are YouTube links to a complete performance of the piece. Enjoy!
Dvorak Serenade Part I
Dvorak Serenade Part II
Dvorak Serenade Part III
Dvorak Serenade Part IV
Below, you will find program notes on the piece from UMWO's performance in December of 2008.
ANTONÍN DVORÁK
Serenade, op. 44
In May 1879, Johannes Brahms wrote to his friend, the renowned violinist Joseph Joachim: “Take a look at Dvorák’s Serenade for Wind Instruments; I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do...It would be difficult to discover a finer, more refreshing impression of really abundant and charming creative talent. Have it played to you; I feel sure the players will enjoy doing it!” Only one year earlier, Brahms had recommended the music of Dvorák to his publisher in Berlin, Simrock, who accepted Dvorák for publication and suggested that he compose a set of Slavonic Dances as Brahms had composed Hungarian Dances. Dvorák’s newfound recognition came during a prolific period in his life.
The Wind Serenade was written in two weeks in January 1878, and during the rest of the year Dvorák composed the Slavonic Dances (for piano duet), several other orchestral works, a set of five folk choruses, two songs, a Capriccio for violin and piano, and some minor piano works. He also found time to orchestrate the Slavonic Dances when they became wildly popular throughout Europe.
Often called the “wind” serenade, to distinguish it from the slightly earlier E-major work, the Serenade, op. 44 employs a foundation of cello and string bass beneath the upper and middle voices assigned to the wind group of pairs of oboes, clarinets and bassoons, plus three horns. This general approach had been used previously by Brahms (who was, by 1878, much admired by Dvorák) in his Serenade in A, op. 16, although Dvorák dispensed with Brahms’s violas, and used solo cello and string bass. In contrast to his elegant string serenade, Dvorák wrote the D minor work in a fervently Czech nationalistic vein, and certainly the predominantly wind-instrument tone colors effectively reinforce that feeling.
The opening march pays tongue-in-cheek homage to the serenades of Mozart and central European wind-band music, “Harmoniemusik.” (Mozart often provided a march to introduce many of his serenades. While Mozart’s marches usually were formally separate from the actual serenade, the associations seem clear.) The second movement is actually comprised of two Czech folk dances, the “sousedska” (similar to the Austrian “Ländler”) and a “furiant” as the “Trio” section. In the third movement, Dvorák pays homage to the beautiful slow movement of Mozart’s Gran Partita. The finale begins with a polka-esque theme, the successive returns of which are separated by contrasting new material each time, until the first-movement march recurs just before the last appearance of the polka.
The new Serenade was very well received. The year after its premiere, Hermann Krigar wrote, “What fine artistic expression, what compelling melodies and touching harmonic progressions the composer has at his disposal.” It continues to be one of the most beloved works in the wind repertoire by both players and listeners.
Below are YouTube links to a complete performance of the piece. Enjoy!
Dvorak Serenade Part I
Dvorak Serenade Part II
Dvorak Serenade Part III
Dvorak Serenade Part IV
Below, you will find program notes on the piece from UMWO's performance in December of 2008.
ANTONÍN DVORÁK
Serenade, op. 44
In May 1879, Johannes Brahms wrote to his friend, the renowned violinist Joseph Joachim: “Take a look at Dvorák’s Serenade for Wind Instruments; I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do...It would be difficult to discover a finer, more refreshing impression of really abundant and charming creative talent. Have it played to you; I feel sure the players will enjoy doing it!” Only one year earlier, Brahms had recommended the music of Dvorák to his publisher in Berlin, Simrock, who accepted Dvorák for publication and suggested that he compose a set of Slavonic Dances as Brahms had composed Hungarian Dances. Dvorák’s newfound recognition came during a prolific period in his life.
The Wind Serenade was written in two weeks in January 1878, and during the rest of the year Dvorák composed the Slavonic Dances (for piano duet), several other orchestral works, a set of five folk choruses, two songs, a Capriccio for violin and piano, and some minor piano works. He also found time to orchestrate the Slavonic Dances when they became wildly popular throughout Europe.
Often called the “wind” serenade, to distinguish it from the slightly earlier E-major work, the Serenade, op. 44 employs a foundation of cello and string bass beneath the upper and middle voices assigned to the wind group of pairs of oboes, clarinets and bassoons, plus three horns. This general approach had been used previously by Brahms (who was, by 1878, much admired by Dvorák) in his Serenade in A, op. 16, although Dvorák dispensed with Brahms’s violas, and used solo cello and string bass. In contrast to his elegant string serenade, Dvorák wrote the D minor work in a fervently Czech nationalistic vein, and certainly the predominantly wind-instrument tone colors effectively reinforce that feeling.
The opening march pays tongue-in-cheek homage to the serenades of Mozart and central European wind-band music, “Harmoniemusik.” (Mozart often provided a march to introduce many of his serenades. While Mozart’s marches usually were formally separate from the actual serenade, the associations seem clear.) The second movement is actually comprised of two Czech folk dances, the “sousedska” (similar to the Austrian “Ländler”) and a “furiant” as the “Trio” section. In the third movement, Dvorák pays homage to the beautiful slow movement of Mozart’s Gran Partita. The finale begins with a polka-esque theme, the successive returns of which are separated by contrasting new material each time, until the first-movement march recurs just before the last appearance of the polka.
The new Serenade was very well received. The year after its premiere, Hermann Krigar wrote, “What fine artistic expression, what compelling melodies and touching harmonic progressions the composer has at his disposal.” It continues to be one of the most beloved works in the wind repertoire by both players and listeners.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Navy Band Concert Tonight (6/28)
Although program information is unavailable as of right now, the U.S. Navy Concert Band will be performing on the West Front of the Capitol Building tonight. It promises to be a great show and if we find program information, we will post it here for everyone. Enjoy!
Schoenberg "Theme and Variations" and Mahler's Ninth
Today's post will feature the last two days of posts from Composers Datebook. Schoenberg's "Theme and Variations, Op. 43a" is an obvious choice for this blog, but the datebook from yesterday featuring Mahler Nine was too good to pass up. Enjoy both!
Schoenberg's "Theme and Variations, Op. 43a", another cornerstone of the wind band repertoire was featured today on Composers Datebook from American Public Media. Schoenberg intended the piece to be played by a high school ensemble or amateur group, but as anyone who has performed the piece can tell you, it is much too difficult for high school students. The piece is also unusual, in that Schoenberg had firmly entrenched himself in atonality at the time of composition. You can find the text from today's Composers Datebook with more information below as well as a link to the audio clip. Enjoy!
Schoenberg for Winds
According to Emerson, "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Well, we're not sure if composer Arnold Schoenberg ever read Emerson, but we think the 20th-century Austrian composer must have in principle with the 19th-century American essayist. Just when many people had Schoenberg comfortably pigeon-holed as an "atonal" composer, he went and wrote a big tonal piece, all resolutely set in the key of G minor.
In the 1940's, Schoenberg's publisher asked him to write a piece for high school or amateur wind band. The only other specific request from the publisher was that the piece should contain "many different characters and moods."
The work Schoenberg finished during the summer of 1943 was entitled "Theme and Variations," and was described by its composer -- with his customary modesty -- as "one of those compositions which one writes in order to enjoy one's own virtuosity and . . . to give a certain group if music lovers something better to play."
Schoenberg's music proved a little too difficult for high school bands, however, so its first performance was given on today's date in 1946 by the Goldman Band, America's top wind ensemble of the day. This occured at a Central Park concert in New York City conducted by Richard Franko Goldman, an enthusiastic supporter of new works for band.
Audio Link to Composers Datebook on Schoenberg "Theme and Variations"
Below is the Composers Datebook on Mahler Nine. Enjoy the change of pace and the great music!
Mahler's Ninth
In the summer of 1912, the Vienna Philharmonic presented a week-long Music Festival that offered three "Ninths" -- Beethoven's Ninth conducted by Felix Weingartner, Bruckner's Ninth conducted by Artur Nikisch, and, on today's date, the world premiere of Gustav Mahler's Ninth, conducted by Bruno Walter.
Mahler had died the previous year, and the Viennese public greeted the posthumous premiere of his last complete work with a roar of applause -- and decidedly mixed reviews. The work's elegiac opening won over most of the professional critics, but many were frankly puzzled by some of the symphony's raucous middle movements.
Bruno Walter, the Mahler protégé who conducted the premiere, was singled out for special praise, however. Walter made two famous recordings of Mahler's Ninth: The first was made live during a January 16, 1938 Sunday morning concert of the Vienna Philharmonic, and documents one of the last performances by that orchestra before the Nazi takeover of Austria and the expulsion of many of its Jewish musicians. On January 16, 1961 -- exactly 23 years to the day after that famous 1938 recording -- Walter began making a stereo recording of Mahler's Ninth at the American Legion Hall in Hollywood, with the Columbia Symphony.
Walter was 84 in 1961, and despite repeated pleas from the control room, couldn't stop himself from vigorously stamping his foot on the upbeat to the string entrance 17 seconds into the second-movement Laendler -- a thump not written in Mahler’s score, but now part of this classic recording.
Audio Link to Composers Datebook on Mahler Nine
Schoenberg's "Theme and Variations, Op. 43a", another cornerstone of the wind band repertoire was featured today on Composers Datebook from American Public Media. Schoenberg intended the piece to be played by a high school ensemble or amateur group, but as anyone who has performed the piece can tell you, it is much too difficult for high school students. The piece is also unusual, in that Schoenberg had firmly entrenched himself in atonality at the time of composition. You can find the text from today's Composers Datebook with more information below as well as a link to the audio clip. Enjoy!
Schoenberg for Winds
According to Emerson, "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Well, we're not sure if composer Arnold Schoenberg ever read Emerson, but we think the 20th-century Austrian composer must have in principle with the 19th-century American essayist. Just when many people had Schoenberg comfortably pigeon-holed as an "atonal" composer, he went and wrote a big tonal piece, all resolutely set in the key of G minor.
In the 1940's, Schoenberg's publisher asked him to write a piece for high school or amateur wind band. The only other specific request from the publisher was that the piece should contain "many different characters and moods."
The work Schoenberg finished during the summer of 1943 was entitled "Theme and Variations," and was described by its composer -- with his customary modesty -- as "one of those compositions which one writes in order to enjoy one's own virtuosity and . . . to give a certain group if music lovers something better to play."
Schoenberg's music proved a little too difficult for high school bands, however, so its first performance was given on today's date in 1946 by the Goldman Band, America's top wind ensemble of the day. This occured at a Central Park concert in New York City conducted by Richard Franko Goldman, an enthusiastic supporter of new works for band.
Audio Link to Composers Datebook on Schoenberg "Theme and Variations"
Below is the Composers Datebook on Mahler Nine. Enjoy the change of pace and the great music!
Mahler's Ninth
In the summer of 1912, the Vienna Philharmonic presented a week-long Music Festival that offered three "Ninths" -- Beethoven's Ninth conducted by Felix Weingartner, Bruckner's Ninth conducted by Artur Nikisch, and, on today's date, the world premiere of Gustav Mahler's Ninth, conducted by Bruno Walter.
Mahler had died the previous year, and the Viennese public greeted the posthumous premiere of his last complete work with a roar of applause -- and decidedly mixed reviews. The work's elegiac opening won over most of the professional critics, but many were frankly puzzled by some of the symphony's raucous middle movements.
Bruno Walter, the Mahler protégé who conducted the premiere, was singled out for special praise, however. Walter made two famous recordings of Mahler's Ninth: The first was made live during a January 16, 1938 Sunday morning concert of the Vienna Philharmonic, and documents one of the last performances by that orchestra before the Nazi takeover of Austria and the expulsion of many of its Jewish musicians. On January 16, 1961 -- exactly 23 years to the day after that famous 1938 recording -- Walter began making a stereo recording of Mahler's Ninth at the American Legion Hall in Hollywood, with the Columbia Symphony.
Walter was 84 in 1961, and despite repeated pleas from the control room, couldn't stop himself from vigorously stamping his foot on the upbeat to the string entrance 17 seconds into the second-movement Laendler -- a thump not written in Mahler’s score, but now part of this classic recording.
Audio Link to Composers Datebook on Mahler Nine
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Good Soldier Schweik Suite
Another piece that might be unknown to people who are only familiar with the more traditional wind repertoire is Robert Kurka's "Good Soldier Schweik Suite." "Good Soldier Schweik" draws its inspiration from a novel by the Czech author Jaroslav Hašek. You can find more information on the novel by following this link to a Wikipedia article.
Kurka, an American composer who died a tragic early death at the age of 35, composed the suite as a series of character studies based on the novel. Below are notes on the suite and the opera version by Joseph Stevenson. Kurka composed the operatic "Good Soldier Schweik" in 1958 shortly before his death (he did not witness the premiere). You can find more information on the operatic version here from the Long Beach Opera.
The Good Soldier Schweik is one of the most frequently produced of American operas. It is a tonal work in a style that is a direct descendent of the stage works of Kurt Weill, Werner Egk, Paul Dessau, and Darius Milhaud. It is tuneful, witty, and edgy, a convincing operatic presentation of the prototypical "service comedy." Robert Kurka (1922 - 1957) was a prolific composer until his untimely death ten days short of his 36th birthday. (The orchestration of the opera was completed by composer Hershey Kay.) He was born in Cicero, IL, a suburb of Chicago, the son of a Czech immigrant father and an American-born Czech woman (i.e., both her parents were Czech immigrants). He was very close to his Czech roots and grew up on Jaroslav Hasek's great novel, Good Soldier Svejk (the Czech spelling), which was published just two years before Kurka's birth. The novel is the wellspring of virtually all service comedies since then. Whenever the protagonist is a lower rank outwitting -- or just surviving -- his superiors, he is a descendant of Josef Svejk. Seemingly guileless and simple-minded, always eager to obey, Svejk accepts what he cannot change with generally good grace, but usually manages to change things to his benefit. In 1968, with Czechoslovakia briefly appearing about to prevail through its gentle revolution over the armament of the Russian Army, the Soviet general on the scene was heard to complain that the place was "Nothing but a nation of Svejks." The Czechs were proud. Kurka composed a six-movement suite in the form of character studies of Hasek's novel in 1956, scoring it for seven woodwinds and percussion. This interested the composer and the New York City Opera in the novel as an opera. Kurka completed the two-act opera -- about the length of La Bohème -- but died with the orchestration incomplete. He expanded the scoring for 16 winds, including brass but not strings. The libretto was by Lewis Allan (real name Abel Meeropol). The first performance was in New York on April 18, 1958, and seems to have been a large success. The style is brisk, jazzy, and syncopated. The dryness of sound is reminiscent of Weill's The Threepenny Opera and Mahoganny, and there are aspects of its libretto that are adaptable to Bertolt Brecht's style of theater. It calls for "singing actors." They don't often get lyrical moments (the opera can be called anti-lyrical), but they do get entertaining fast numbers and strong opportunities for comic acting. After its premiere, it was picked up almost immediately by two of Europe's greatest companies, both of them associated with Brecht: the Komische Oper in Berlin and the Dresden Opera. By the year 2000, it had received nearly 100 productions in more than 12 languages. The opera follows Schweik's adventures as he is rounded up for making "traitorous" remarks, goes through a police station, an insane asylum, a military hospital, and finally into the Army. At the end, he is marching off with his fate unknown and his name a legend.
Below is a live performance from the 2009 Marrowstone Music Festival. This recording only features the overture and more complete recordings can be found below.
"Good Soldier Schweik Suite"-Overture
Below is a link to the Naxos database available to University of Maryland students. This recording is by the Cincinnati Wind Symphony under the direction of Eugene Migliaro Corporon. There is also a link to Amazon below that where the same recording can be purchased or downloaded.
Naxos link to CCM's "Made in America"
Amazon link to CCM's "Made in America"
Kurka, an American composer who died a tragic early death at the age of 35, composed the suite as a series of character studies based on the novel. Below are notes on the suite and the opera version by Joseph Stevenson. Kurka composed the operatic "Good Soldier Schweik" in 1958 shortly before his death (he did not witness the premiere). You can find more information on the operatic version here from the Long Beach Opera.
The Good Soldier Schweik is one of the most frequently produced of American operas. It is a tonal work in a style that is a direct descendent of the stage works of Kurt Weill, Werner Egk, Paul Dessau, and Darius Milhaud. It is tuneful, witty, and edgy, a convincing operatic presentation of the prototypical "service comedy." Robert Kurka (1922 - 1957) was a prolific composer until his untimely death ten days short of his 36th birthday. (The orchestration of the opera was completed by composer Hershey Kay.) He was born in Cicero, IL, a suburb of Chicago, the son of a Czech immigrant father and an American-born Czech woman (i.e., both her parents were Czech immigrants). He was very close to his Czech roots and grew up on Jaroslav Hasek's great novel, Good Soldier Svejk (the Czech spelling), which was published just two years before Kurka's birth. The novel is the wellspring of virtually all service comedies since then. Whenever the protagonist is a lower rank outwitting -- or just surviving -- his superiors, he is a descendant of Josef Svejk. Seemingly guileless and simple-minded, always eager to obey, Svejk accepts what he cannot change with generally good grace, but usually manages to change things to his benefit. In 1968, with Czechoslovakia briefly appearing about to prevail through its gentle revolution over the armament of the Russian Army, the Soviet general on the scene was heard to complain that the place was "Nothing but a nation of Svejks." The Czechs were proud. Kurka composed a six-movement suite in the form of character studies of Hasek's novel in 1956, scoring it for seven woodwinds and percussion. This interested the composer and the New York City Opera in the novel as an opera. Kurka completed the two-act opera -- about the length of La Bohème -- but died with the orchestration incomplete. He expanded the scoring for 16 winds, including brass but not strings. The libretto was by Lewis Allan (real name Abel Meeropol). The first performance was in New York on April 18, 1958, and seems to have been a large success. The style is brisk, jazzy, and syncopated. The dryness of sound is reminiscent of Weill's The Threepenny Opera and Mahoganny, and there are aspects of its libretto that are adaptable to Bertolt Brecht's style of theater. It calls for "singing actors." They don't often get lyrical moments (the opera can be called anti-lyrical), but they do get entertaining fast numbers and strong opportunities for comic acting. After its premiere, it was picked up almost immediately by two of Europe's greatest companies, both of them associated with Brecht: the Komische Oper in Berlin and the Dresden Opera. By the year 2000, it had received nearly 100 productions in more than 12 languages. The opera follows Schweik's adventures as he is rounded up for making "traitorous" remarks, goes through a police station, an insane asylum, a military hospital, and finally into the Army. At the end, he is marching off with his fate unknown and his name a legend.
Below is a live performance from the 2009 Marrowstone Music Festival. This recording only features the overture and more complete recordings can be found below.
"Good Soldier Schweik Suite"-Overture
Below is a link to the Naxos database available to University of Maryland students. This recording is by the Cincinnati Wind Symphony under the direction of Eugene Migliaro Corporon. There is also a link to Amazon below that where the same recording can be purchased or downloaded.
Naxos link to CCM's "Made in America"
Amazon link to CCM's "Made in America"
Friday, June 25, 2010
Hammersmith Prelude and Scherzo
Anyone who played in a high school band is probably familiar with the two Gustav Holst suites for band. The first in Eb is slightly more famous, but the second in F holds an important place in the wind repertoire. However, Holst's finest piece for band, "Hammersmith Prelude and Scherzo", is likely unfamiliar to those who are only familiar with band from a high school standpoint. For college and professional ensembles, though, "Hammersmith" is as familiar if not more so than the Holst suites.
Here are program notes on the piece available from the Wind Repertory Project. These were contributed by Nikk Pilato.
Nineteen long years passed between the composition of Holst's last two works for winds, the Second Suite in F and the masterful Hammersmith. Commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for its military band, Hammersmith was Holst's first band work for professional musicians, the earlier suites having been composed for amateur bands. Holst was to have conducted the first perfomance at the third annual convention of the American Bandmasters Association, but he was forced to cancel his appearance due to illness. The premiere took place as scheduled on April 17, 1932 at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. by the United States Marine Band led by their director, Taylor Branson. Hammersmith (in its original incarnation, Holst later re-wrote it for symphony orchestra) remained unpublished and did not receive another performance until nearly 22 years later. When that long-delayed second performance finally arrived, it was given by an American band (the Kiltie Band of the Carnegie Institute of Technology -now Carnegie Melon University- in Pittsburgh, PA on 14 April 1954, Robert Cantrick, conductor).
The score bears the dedication "To the Author of the Water Gypsies." This author is Alan P. Herbert, and his 1930 novel deals with a working-class girl from Hammersmith who shares her life with two very different types of men: An illiterate barge worker and an an artist, a duality that obviously appealed to Holst.
Hammersmith is a Prelude and Scherzo, its composition a result of Holst's long familiarity with the Hammersmith metropolitan borough of London, which sits on the Thames River. At the time, 125,000 inhabitants were packed into an area of 3.6 square miles. Holst's fascination with the duality of his surroundings is reflected in his composition. The Prelude (representing the inexorable, "unnoticed and unconcerned" river) is slow and unconcerned, reflecting a duality in its very key: E Major set against F minor. The Scherzo (representing the Cockney street markets and the laughing, bustling crowds) is boisterous, exuberant, and vulgar. The music and mood of the Prelude returns at the end of the composition, bringing us back to the great slow-moving river, passing relentlessly out to sea.
Below is an recorded excerpt from "Hammersmith" at the beginning of the scherzo. This recording is by the Eastman Wind Ensemble with Frederick Fennell conducting.
"Hammersmith"-Beginning of scherzo
Below is a link to the Naxos database with a full recording of "Hammersmith" by the United States Marine Band. This recording is only available to University of Maryland students.
"Hammersmith" link to Marine Band recording
Finally, below is a link to the classic Eastman Wind Ensemble recording "British and American Band Classics." This recording is available for purchase or download through Amazon. Highly recommended!
"British and American Band Classics" link
Here are program notes on the piece available from the Wind Repertory Project. These were contributed by Nikk Pilato.
Nineteen long years passed between the composition of Holst's last two works for winds, the Second Suite in F and the masterful Hammersmith. Commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for its military band, Hammersmith was Holst's first band work for professional musicians, the earlier suites having been composed for amateur bands. Holst was to have conducted the first perfomance at the third annual convention of the American Bandmasters Association, but he was forced to cancel his appearance due to illness. The premiere took place as scheduled on April 17, 1932 at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. by the United States Marine Band led by their director, Taylor Branson. Hammersmith (in its original incarnation, Holst later re-wrote it for symphony orchestra) remained unpublished and did not receive another performance until nearly 22 years later. When that long-delayed second performance finally arrived, it was given by an American band (the Kiltie Band of the Carnegie Institute of Technology -now Carnegie Melon University- in Pittsburgh, PA on 14 April 1954, Robert Cantrick, conductor).
The score bears the dedication "To the Author of the Water Gypsies." This author is Alan P. Herbert, and his 1930 novel deals with a working-class girl from Hammersmith who shares her life with two very different types of men: An illiterate barge worker and an an artist, a duality that obviously appealed to Holst.
Hammersmith is a Prelude and Scherzo, its composition a result of Holst's long familiarity with the Hammersmith metropolitan borough of London, which sits on the Thames River. At the time, 125,000 inhabitants were packed into an area of 3.6 square miles. Holst's fascination with the duality of his surroundings is reflected in his composition. The Prelude (representing the inexorable, "unnoticed and unconcerned" river) is slow and unconcerned, reflecting a duality in its very key: E Major set against F minor. The Scherzo (representing the Cockney street markets and the laughing, bustling crowds) is boisterous, exuberant, and vulgar. The music and mood of the Prelude returns at the end of the composition, bringing us back to the great slow-moving river, passing relentlessly out to sea.
Below is an recorded excerpt from "Hammersmith" at the beginning of the scherzo. This recording is by the Eastman Wind Ensemble with Frederick Fennell conducting.
"Hammersmith"-Beginning of scherzo
Below is a link to the Naxos database with a full recording of "Hammersmith" by the United States Marine Band. This recording is only available to University of Maryland students.
"Hammersmith" link to Marine Band recording
Finally, below is a link to the classic Eastman Wind Ensemble recording "British and American Band Classics." This recording is available for purchase or download through Amazon. Highly recommended!
"British and American Band Classics" link
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Marine Band Concert Tonight (6/24)
As mentioned in yesterday's post, you can hear the Marine Band Dixieland Band at 8:00 PM at the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument. Program information and links can be found in yesterday's post. Enjoy!
Lincolnshire Posy
Among wind band enthusiasts, Percy Grainger's "Lincolnshire Posy" certainly needs no introduction. It is easily one of the most famous and well-known pieces written for bands and has become a cornerstone of the wind repertoire.
There are several unique characteristics of the piece that may be of interest. These should serve to give you a brief overview of the piece before the more specific information below. The piece is in six movements and each movement draws its musical inspiration from a different folksong. These six folksongs were collected by Grainger in Lincolnshire, England thirty years before the composition of "Lincolnshire Posy." Grainger used an Edison wax cylinder recorder to document (sometimes secretly) each singer and each movement is intended to represent the singer rather than a simply set the folk song. In that way, "Posy" is certainly unique when compared to other folksong-inspired works by other composers and Grainger himself. The piece was commissioned by CBDNA and premiered at the 1937 convention .
Below is a recording of "Lincolnshire Posy" by the North Texas Wind Symphony under the direction of Eugene Corporon.
"Lincolnshire Posy", I. Lisbon
"Lincolnshire Posy", II. Horkstow Grange
"Lincolnshire Posy", III. Rufford Park Poachers
"Lincolnshire Posy", IV. The Brisk Young Sailor
"Lincolnshire Posy", V. Lord Melbourne
"Lincolnshire Posy", VI. The Lost Lady Found
Below are the program notes on "Lincolnshire Posy" by the composer.
Lincolnshire Posy was commissioned by the American Bandmasters Association and premiered at their convention with the composer conducting. It is in six movements, all based on folk songs from Lincolnshire, England. Grainger's settings are not only true to the verse structure of the folk songs, but attempt to depict the singers from whom Grainger collected the songs. Since its premiere, it has been recognized as a cornerstone of the wind band repertoire.
Lincolnshire Posy, as a whole work, was conceived and scored by me direct for wind band early in 1937. Five, out of the six, movements of which it is made up existed in no other finished form, though most of these movements (as is the case with almost all my compositions and settings, for whatever medium) were indebted, more or less, to unfinished sketches for a variety of mediums covering many years (in this case, the sketches date from 1905 to 1937). These indebtednesses are stated in the score.
This bunch of "musical wildflowers" (hence the title) is based on folksongs collected in Lincolnshire, England (one notated ny Miss Lucy E. Broadwood; the other five noted by me, mainly in the years 1905-1906, and with the help of the phonograph), and the work is dedicated to the old folksingers who sang so sweetly to me. Indeed, each number is intended to be a kind of musical portrait of the singer who sang its underlying melody - a musical portrait of the singer's personality no less than of his habits of song - his regular or irregular wonts of rhythm, his preference for gaunt or ornately arabesqued delivery, his contrasts of legato and staccato, his tendency towards breadth or delicacy of tone.
A more detailed history of the events leading up to the composition of "Lincolnshire Posy" can be found below.
Philharmonic Winds Program Notes on "Lincolnshire Posy"
Below is an extensive article on the source material for "Lincolnshire Posy."
"A Source Guide to the Music of Percy Grainger" by Thomas Lewis
There are several unique characteristics of the piece that may be of interest. These should serve to give you a brief overview of the piece before the more specific information below. The piece is in six movements and each movement draws its musical inspiration from a different folksong. These six folksongs were collected by Grainger in Lincolnshire, England thirty years before the composition of "Lincolnshire Posy." Grainger used an Edison wax cylinder recorder to document (sometimes secretly) each singer and each movement is intended to represent the singer rather than a simply set the folk song. In that way, "Posy" is certainly unique when compared to other folksong-inspired works by other composers and Grainger himself. The piece was commissioned by CBDNA and premiered at the 1937 convention .
Below is a recording of "Lincolnshire Posy" by the North Texas Wind Symphony under the direction of Eugene Corporon.
"Lincolnshire Posy", I. Lisbon
"Lincolnshire Posy", II. Horkstow Grange
"Lincolnshire Posy", III. Rufford Park Poachers
"Lincolnshire Posy", IV. The Brisk Young Sailor
"Lincolnshire Posy", V. Lord Melbourne
"Lincolnshire Posy", VI. The Lost Lady Found
Below are the program notes on "Lincolnshire Posy" by the composer.
Lincolnshire Posy was commissioned by the American Bandmasters Association and premiered at their convention with the composer conducting. It is in six movements, all based on folk songs from Lincolnshire, England. Grainger's settings are not only true to the verse structure of the folk songs, but attempt to depict the singers from whom Grainger collected the songs. Since its premiere, it has been recognized as a cornerstone of the wind band repertoire.
Lincolnshire Posy, as a whole work, was conceived and scored by me direct for wind band early in 1937. Five, out of the six, movements of which it is made up existed in no other finished form, though most of these movements (as is the case with almost all my compositions and settings, for whatever medium) were indebted, more or less, to unfinished sketches for a variety of mediums covering many years (in this case, the sketches date from 1905 to 1937). These indebtednesses are stated in the score.
This bunch of "musical wildflowers" (hence the title) is based on folksongs collected in Lincolnshire, England (one notated ny Miss Lucy E. Broadwood; the other five noted by me, mainly in the years 1905-1906, and with the help of the phonograph), and the work is dedicated to the old folksingers who sang so sweetly to me. Indeed, each number is intended to be a kind of musical portrait of the singer who sang its underlying melody - a musical portrait of the singer's personality no less than of his habits of song - his regular or irregular wonts of rhythm, his preference for gaunt or ornately arabesqued delivery, his contrasts of legato and staccato, his tendency towards breadth or delicacy of tone.
A more detailed history of the events leading up to the composition of "Lincolnshire Posy" can be found below.
Philharmonic Winds Program Notes on "Lincolnshire Posy"
Below is an extensive article on the source material for "Lincolnshire Posy."
"A Source Guide to the Music of Percy Grainger" by Thomas Lewis
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Marine Band Concert Tonight (6/23)
As they do almost every night during the summer in Washington, D.C., a service band will be performing on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Building. Below you can find information on tonight's concert which will feature the Marine Dixieland Band. Next week's Marine Band performance will feature the concert ensemble, so stay tuned for updates on that performance next Wednesday. You have two chances to hear the Dixieland Band--tonight at 8:00 PM at the Capitol and Thursday at 8:00 PM in the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument. Enjoy the warm weather and some great music!
You can access a full list of which service band will performing on which days by following this link.
Link to tonight's program information
Marine Dixieland Band
8 p.m., Wednesday, June 23
U.S. Capitol
8 p.m., Thursday, June 24
Sylvan Theatre, Washington Monument
Free, no tickets required
Program Highlights:
Jelly Roll Morton
"Wolverine Blues"
Paul Barbarin
"Bourbon Street Parade"
Fred E. Ahlert
"I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter"
GySgt Alan Prather, vocals
George Gershwin
"Fidgety Feet"
Joe Primrose
"St. James Infirmary"
You can access a full list of which service band will performing on which days by following this link.
Link to tonight's program information
Marine Dixieland Band
8 p.m., Wednesday, June 23
U.S. Capitol
8 p.m., Thursday, June 24
Sylvan Theatre, Washington Monument
Free, no tickets required
Program Highlights:
Jelly Roll Morton
"Wolverine Blues"
Paul Barbarin
"Bourbon Street Parade"
Fred E. Ahlert
"I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter"
GySgt Alan Prather, vocals
George Gershwin
"Fidgety Feet"
Joe Primrose
"St. James Infirmary"
Winds of Nagual
Do you like tripping on peyote? If so, then Michael Colgrass's "Winds of Nagual" is right up your alley.
"Winds of Nagual" draws its programmatic inspiration from the writings of Carlos Castaneda who has become somewhat of a cult icon. Castaneda's writings center on his work for fourteen years in Mesoamerican shamanism with Don Juan Matus. Below are program notes from Williams College on "Winds of Nagual" with a brief biography on Colgrass.
There is not currently a recording available of this piece on YouTube, but Maryland students can access a Marine Band recording here. If you are interested in purchasing or downloading a recording, Amazon has several, one of which is by The Ohio State University and can be found here.
The final work on the program is Michael Colgrass’s Winds of Nagual (1985), based on the writings of Carlos Castaneda about his 14-year apprenticeship with Don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian sorcerer from Northwestern Mexico. Castaneda met don Juan while researching hallucinogenic plants for his master's thesis in Anthropology at UCLA; however, Castaneda became Juan’s apprentice, training in techniques of pre-Colombian sorcery, the overall purpose of which was to find the creative self—what Juan calls the nagual. As Colgrass writes, “[Although] the score is laced with programmatic indications…, the listener need not have read Castaneda's books to enjoy the work, and I don't expect anyone to follow any exact scenario. My object is to capture the mood and atmosphere created by the books and to convey a feeling of the relationship that develops as a man of ancient wisdom tries to cultivate heart in an analytical young man of the technological age.” One of the techniques Juan utilizes to enable Carlos to alter his view of the world is to induce experiences of what Carlos labels “states of non-ordinary reality,” through the ingestion of peyote buttons or mushrooms. In Winds of Nagual, Colgrass vividly captures several of these hallucinogenic episodes. As Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe wrote after the work’s premiere, “Winds of Nagual is extraordinarily visual, story-telling music in a way that has gone wholly out of fashion since the great Strauss tone poems like Don Quixote… The music is full of the mystery and the matter-of-fact, it has mountains and rivers and bubbles in it, singing and dancing, meditation and the moon, all precisely, colorfully and imaginatively caught. There is even an audible philosophical point about coexistent worlds of spirit and body.” Just as Carlos was initially caught-up only on the superficial aspects of his experiences, trying to understand every nuance and detail of his hallucinations while missing the deeper message of his mentor don Juan, so does Winds of Nagual overwhelm with the dazzling and intricately-detailed surface of Colgrass’s compositional and orchestrational craft. This is music, though, of great depth and emotional potency which, despite its vastly different language, is not far removed from the Andriessen’s philosophical masterpiece, De Materie, performed by the Symphonic Winds this past February. Winds of Nagual won First Prize in the Barlow and Sudler International Wind Ensemble Competitions in 1985.
Michael Colgrass (b. 1932) was first drawn to music when he saw drummer Ray Bauduc in a movie playing Big Noise from Winnetka with the Bob Crosby Band. When he entered the University of Illinois as a percussion student of Paul Price, he had every intention of studying only jazz; in fact, he made his living as a jazz drummer, performing 5-6 nights a week. Eventually, his interests began to widen, encompassing composition studies with Darius Milhaud, Wallingford Riegger, and Lukas Foss. After graduation, he spent twenty-one months as timpanist in the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra in Stuttgart, Germany, before moving to New York City in l956, where he free-lanced as a percussionist with such diverse groups as the New York Philharmonic, Dizzy Gillespie's band, the original West Side Story orchestra on Broadway, the Columbia Recording Orchestra's Stravinsky conducts Stravinsky series, and numerous ballet, opera and jazz ensembles.
Colgrass has an uncanny ability to write accessible music that simultaneously challenges the intellect and stirs the emotions. His highly personal compositional technique draws on a diversity of styles, reflecting his widespread interests, and involves a free-flowing mixture of tonal and atonal harmonic language. His compositions have been commissioned and performed by such groups as the Boston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, The Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, the Manhattan and Muir String Quartets, the Brighton Festival in England, and numerous other orchestras, wind ensembles, chamber groups, choral groups and soloists. Colgrass is the recipient of many grants and fellowships, including two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Music for Déjà vu and an Emmy Award in 1982 for the Public Broadcasting System documentary "Soundings: The Music of Michael Colgrass." Besides composing, Colgrass has for twenty-five years been giving workshops throughout North America in performance excellence, combining Grotowski physical training, mime, dance and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). He is the author of My Lessons with Kumi - How I Learned to Perform with Confidence in Life and Work.
"Winds of Nagual" draws its programmatic inspiration from the writings of Carlos Castaneda who has become somewhat of a cult icon. Castaneda's writings center on his work for fourteen years in Mesoamerican shamanism with Don Juan Matus. Below are program notes from Williams College on "Winds of Nagual" with a brief biography on Colgrass.
There is not currently a recording available of this piece on YouTube, but Maryland students can access a Marine Band recording here. If you are interested in purchasing or downloading a recording, Amazon has several, one of which is by The Ohio State University and can be found here.
The final work on the program is Michael Colgrass’s Winds of Nagual (1985), based on the writings of Carlos Castaneda about his 14-year apprenticeship with Don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian sorcerer from Northwestern Mexico. Castaneda met don Juan while researching hallucinogenic plants for his master's thesis in Anthropology at UCLA; however, Castaneda became Juan’s apprentice, training in techniques of pre-Colombian sorcery, the overall purpose of which was to find the creative self—what Juan calls the nagual. As Colgrass writes, “[Although] the score is laced with programmatic indications…, the listener need not have read Castaneda's books to enjoy the work, and I don't expect anyone to follow any exact scenario. My object is to capture the mood and atmosphere created by the books and to convey a feeling of the relationship that develops as a man of ancient wisdom tries to cultivate heart in an analytical young man of the technological age.” One of the techniques Juan utilizes to enable Carlos to alter his view of the world is to induce experiences of what Carlos labels “states of non-ordinary reality,” through the ingestion of peyote buttons or mushrooms. In Winds of Nagual, Colgrass vividly captures several of these hallucinogenic episodes. As Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe wrote after the work’s premiere, “Winds of Nagual is extraordinarily visual, story-telling music in a way that has gone wholly out of fashion since the great Strauss tone poems like Don Quixote… The music is full of the mystery and the matter-of-fact, it has mountains and rivers and bubbles in it, singing and dancing, meditation and the moon, all precisely, colorfully and imaginatively caught. There is even an audible philosophical point about coexistent worlds of spirit and body.” Just as Carlos was initially caught-up only on the superficial aspects of his experiences, trying to understand every nuance and detail of his hallucinations while missing the deeper message of his mentor don Juan, so does Winds of Nagual overwhelm with the dazzling and intricately-detailed surface of Colgrass’s compositional and orchestrational craft. This is music, though, of great depth and emotional potency which, despite its vastly different language, is not far removed from the Andriessen’s philosophical masterpiece, De Materie, performed by the Symphonic Winds this past February. Winds of Nagual won First Prize in the Barlow and Sudler International Wind Ensemble Competitions in 1985.
Michael Colgrass (b. 1932) was first drawn to music when he saw drummer Ray Bauduc in a movie playing Big Noise from Winnetka with the Bob Crosby Band. When he entered the University of Illinois as a percussion student of Paul Price, he had every intention of studying only jazz; in fact, he made his living as a jazz drummer, performing 5-6 nights a week. Eventually, his interests began to widen, encompassing composition studies with Darius Milhaud, Wallingford Riegger, and Lukas Foss. After graduation, he spent twenty-one months as timpanist in the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra in Stuttgart, Germany, before moving to New York City in l956, where he free-lanced as a percussionist with such diverse groups as the New York Philharmonic, Dizzy Gillespie's band, the original West Side Story orchestra on Broadway, the Columbia Recording Orchestra's Stravinsky conducts Stravinsky series, and numerous ballet, opera and jazz ensembles.
Colgrass has an uncanny ability to write accessible music that simultaneously challenges the intellect and stirs the emotions. His highly personal compositional technique draws on a diversity of styles, reflecting his widespread interests, and involves a free-flowing mixture of tonal and atonal harmonic language. His compositions have been commissioned and performed by such groups as the Boston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, The Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, the Manhattan and Muir String Quartets, the Brighton Festival in England, and numerous other orchestras, wind ensembles, chamber groups, choral groups and soloists. Colgrass is the recipient of many grants and fellowships, including two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Music for Déjà vu and an Emmy Award in 1982 for the Public Broadcasting System documentary "Soundings: The Music of Michael Colgrass." Besides composing, Colgrass has for twenty-five years been giving workshops throughout North America in performance excellence, combining Grotowski physical training, mime, dance and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). He is the author of My Lessons with Kumi - How I Learned to Perform with Confidence in Life and Work.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Dahl "Saxophone Concerto"
Ingolf Dahl's "Saxophone Concerto" is certainly one of the more famous concertos written for wind band. This piece is part of a pair of very significant pieces that Dahl contributed to the wind repertoire--the second being his "Sinfonietta."
Below are program notes from a University of Virginia performance of the piece as well as a dissertation on the "Saxophone Concerto" and a YouTube recording of the Northwestern University Symphonic Wind Ensemble performing the piece.
Ingolf Dahl was born in Hamburg, Germany. As a young man, he studied at the Koln Hochschule fur Musik as well as the Zurich Conservatory. In 1945, six years after immigrating to the United States, Dahl became part of the faculty at the University of Southern California. His responsibilities there included conducting the University Orchestra, lecturing on film and commercial music, and teaching theory, composition, orchestration, conducting, music history and literature. The breadth of his musical skills was wide. By the time of his death in 1970, he had been acclaimed as a composer, conductor, piano soloist and accompanist, historian, writer and arranger, and editor. Dahl was not a prolific composer, but several of his works have become classics of American modern music.
The Concerto for Alto Saxophone is certainly one of Dahl’s most celebrated works, but the story of its creation is quite unique. It was first conceived by Dahl in 1948 after receiving a letter from virtuoso saxophonist Sigurd Rascher expressing interest in a large scale work for saxophone. It was finished and premiered in May of 1949 by Rascher and the University of Illinois Concert Band. Henry Cowell told Dahl that it was “one of the most important and well-written band pieces he had ever seen.” The piece was so moving that it brought tears to the eyes of Igor Stravinsky, one of Dahl’s closest contemporaries. It soon dawned on Dahl, however, that Rascher was the only saxophonist in the world able to play the concerto due to its utilization of the very high “altissimo” register in many passages. This led to the concerto’s first revision in 1954, in which the third movement was substantially rewritten to give the soloist an alternative to the altissimo passages. A third revision was made in 1959, which included the removal of several sections, shortening the piece to about three quarters its original length. As for the differences between the original and published versions, saxophone historian Paul Cohen writes: “When listening to the revised version of the concerto in comparison to the original, it is clear that Dahl was operating from a different compositional perspective. Neither better or worse, but certainly different.”
Chris Rettie's Dissertation entitled "A Perfomer's and Conductor's Analysis of Ingolf Dahl's Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Orchestra"
Dahl "Saxophone Concerto" Mvt. I
Dahl "Saxophone Concerto" Mvt. II
Dahl "Saxophone Concerto" Mvt. III
Below are program notes from a University of Virginia performance of the piece as well as a dissertation on the "Saxophone Concerto" and a YouTube recording of the Northwestern University Symphonic Wind Ensemble performing the piece.
Ingolf Dahl was born in Hamburg, Germany. As a young man, he studied at the Koln Hochschule fur Musik as well as the Zurich Conservatory. In 1945, six years after immigrating to the United States, Dahl became part of the faculty at the University of Southern California. His responsibilities there included conducting the University Orchestra, lecturing on film and commercial music, and teaching theory, composition, orchestration, conducting, music history and literature. The breadth of his musical skills was wide. By the time of his death in 1970, he had been acclaimed as a composer, conductor, piano soloist and accompanist, historian, writer and arranger, and editor. Dahl was not a prolific composer, but several of his works have become classics of American modern music.
The Concerto for Alto Saxophone is certainly one of Dahl’s most celebrated works, but the story of its creation is quite unique. It was first conceived by Dahl in 1948 after receiving a letter from virtuoso saxophonist Sigurd Rascher expressing interest in a large scale work for saxophone. It was finished and premiered in May of 1949 by Rascher and the University of Illinois Concert Band. Henry Cowell told Dahl that it was “one of the most important and well-written band pieces he had ever seen.” The piece was so moving that it brought tears to the eyes of Igor Stravinsky, one of Dahl’s closest contemporaries. It soon dawned on Dahl, however, that Rascher was the only saxophonist in the world able to play the concerto due to its utilization of the very high “altissimo” register in many passages. This led to the concerto’s first revision in 1954, in which the third movement was substantially rewritten to give the soloist an alternative to the altissimo passages. A third revision was made in 1959, which included the removal of several sections, shortening the piece to about three quarters its original length. As for the differences between the original and published versions, saxophone historian Paul Cohen writes: “When listening to the revised version of the concerto in comparison to the original, it is clear that Dahl was operating from a different compositional perspective. Neither better or worse, but certainly different.”
Chris Rettie's Dissertation entitled "A Perfomer's and Conductor's Analysis of Ingolf Dahl's Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Orchestra"
Dahl "Saxophone Concerto" Mvt. I
Dahl "Saxophone Concerto" Mvt. II
Dahl "Saxophone Concerto" Mvt. III
Monday, June 21, 2010
Aaron Copland: "Emblems"
Aaron Copland is certainly not considered a "band composer" by any stretch of the imagination, but he certainly contributed quite a piece to the wind repertoire. "Emblems" is generally regarded Copland's only piece written for band as the result of Keith Wilson and the CBDNA in 1964. However, Copland did notably compose two other pieces for winds alone ("Fanfare for the Common Man" and "Ceremonial Fanfare") as well as arrange many of his own pieces for concert band ("Outdoor Overture", "Lincoln Portrait", "Preamble for a Solemn Occasion", "Variations on a Shaker Melody", and "Suite from the Red Pony"). Other arrangers have also worked out some other pieces for band as well.
An NPR piece on the Copland Centennial describes "Emblems" as: "an 11-minute, one-movement work is a sampler of Copland's varied output: simple triadic passages, polytonality, folk melodies, dissonance, waltzes, polymeters, and elements of jazz all appear. The work's initial reception was lukewarm, in part due to its technical challenges, but as Copland's only work for band it won a secure place in the repertoire. Of the work's cryptic title, Copland said only that it was meant 'to suggest musical states of being ... the exact nature of which must be determined by the listener.'"
As part of the NPR article, you can download the Coast Guard Band's Copland concert that was broadcast on NPR. That link is available here and the full NPR article can be accessed here.
The notes below are from the U.S. Army Field Band's recording of Copland's music entitled "The Legacy of Aaron Copland" and the full notes can be accessed here. This recording is an excellent Copland resource for anyone interested in the wind music of Aaron Copland.
Emblems (1964)
For a number of years, conductors of high school and university symphonic bands had hoped that America’s most revered composer would write an original work for them. In the summer of 1964, Copland began work on a commission from Keith Wilson, president of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA). Wilson’s intent was for Copland to add to the repertoire an original piece for band that would be “representative of the composer’s best work, and not one written with all sorts of technical or practical limitations.” The result of this commission, Emblems, is a single-movement, eleven minute work in ternary form. The entire
composition is unified through the use of a harmonic germ, which in certain sections unfolds similar to an extended chaconne. Despite its polytonal character, Emblems uses fewer harmonic complexities and significantly less dissonance than Copland’s previous two works, the twelve-tone Connotations (1962) for orchestra and Nonet (1960) for strings.
According to Copland, embedded in the quiet, slow music the listener may hear a brief quotation of a well known hymn tune, Amazing Grace, published by William Walker in The Southern Harmony in 1835. Curiously enough, the accompanying harmonies had been conceived first, without reference to any tune. It was only a chance perusal of a recent anthology of old ‘Music in America’ that made me realize a connection existed between my harmonies and the old hymn tune.”
Regarding the title, Copland writes: “An emblem stands for something— it is a symbol. I called the work Emblems because it seemed to me to suggest musical states of being: noble or aspirational feelings, playful or spirited feelings. The exact nature of the emblematic sounds must be determined for himself by each listener.”
Emblems was premiered at the CBDNA National Convention in Tempe, Arizona, on December 18, 1964, by the Trojan Band of the University of Southern California, conducted by William Schaefer. As Copland’s only original work for band, Emblems has firmly established itself in the twentieth century wind band repertoire. This recording of Emblems is led by Captain Otis C. French, Associate Conductor of the U.S. Army Field Band.
The performance linked below is by the California State University, Long Beach Wind Orchestra with John Carnahan conducting. Enjoy!
"Emblems" Part I
"Emblems" Part II
An NPR piece on the Copland Centennial describes "Emblems" as: "an 11-minute, one-movement work is a sampler of Copland's varied output: simple triadic passages, polytonality, folk melodies, dissonance, waltzes, polymeters, and elements of jazz all appear. The work's initial reception was lukewarm, in part due to its technical challenges, but as Copland's only work for band it won a secure place in the repertoire. Of the work's cryptic title, Copland said only that it was meant 'to suggest musical states of being ... the exact nature of which must be determined by the listener.'"
As part of the NPR article, you can download the Coast Guard Band's Copland concert that was broadcast on NPR. That link is available here and the full NPR article can be accessed here.
The notes below are from the U.S. Army Field Band's recording of Copland's music entitled "The Legacy of Aaron Copland" and the full notes can be accessed here. This recording is an excellent Copland resource for anyone interested in the wind music of Aaron Copland.
Emblems (1964)
For a number of years, conductors of high school and university symphonic bands had hoped that America’s most revered composer would write an original work for them. In the summer of 1964, Copland began work on a commission from Keith Wilson, president of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA). Wilson’s intent was for Copland to add to the repertoire an original piece for band that would be “representative of the composer’s best work, and not one written with all sorts of technical or practical limitations.” The result of this commission, Emblems, is a single-movement, eleven minute work in ternary form. The entire
composition is unified through the use of a harmonic germ, which in certain sections unfolds similar to an extended chaconne. Despite its polytonal character, Emblems uses fewer harmonic complexities and significantly less dissonance than Copland’s previous two works, the twelve-tone Connotations (1962) for orchestra and Nonet (1960) for strings.
According to Copland, embedded in the quiet, slow music the listener may hear a brief quotation of a well known hymn tune, Amazing Grace, published by William Walker in The Southern Harmony in 1835. Curiously enough, the accompanying harmonies had been conceived first, without reference to any tune. It was only a chance perusal of a recent anthology of old ‘Music in America’ that made me realize a connection existed between my harmonies and the old hymn tune.”
Regarding the title, Copland writes: “An emblem stands for something— it is a symbol. I called the work Emblems because it seemed to me to suggest musical states of being: noble or aspirational feelings, playful or spirited feelings. The exact nature of the emblematic sounds must be determined for himself by each listener.”
Emblems was premiered at the CBDNA National Convention in Tempe, Arizona, on December 18, 1964, by the Trojan Band of the University of Southern California, conducted by William Schaefer. As Copland’s only original work for band, Emblems has firmly established itself in the twentieth century wind band repertoire. This recording of Emblems is led by Captain Otis C. French, Associate Conductor of the U.S. Army Field Band.
The performance linked below is by the California State University, Long Beach Wind Orchestra with John Carnahan conducting. Enjoy!
"Emblems" Part I
"Emblems" Part II
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Grande symphonie funebre et triomphale
Berlioz's "Grande symphonie funebre et triomphale" is a work that was "rediscovered" and given a modern adaptation by Richard Franko Goldman. Since that time, the piece has established itself as a staple of the modern wind band repertoire. Below is information on the piec from Wikipedia and a link to a Time magazine article on the work as a "forgotten" piece of music. The piece, rightfully so, draws many comparisons to Messiaen's "Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum" (information is available to the right) and Tchaikovsky's "Overture 1812." Enjoy the YouTube recording and the reading!
Time magazine article on "Grande symphonie funebre et triomphale"
"Grande symphonie" Part I
"Grande symphonie" Part II
"Grande symphonie" Part III
"Grande symphonie" Part IV
Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale (English: Grand Funeral and Triumphal Symphony), Op. 15, is the fourth and last symphony by the French composer Hector Berlioz, first performed on 28 July 1840 in Paris. The symphony was a commission by the French government which wanted to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the July Revolution which had brought Louis-Philippe to power, by erecting the July Column in the place de la Bastille, Paris. Berlioz had little sympathy for the régime, but he accepted the opportunity to write the work which brought him a payment of 10,000 francs. It allowed him to return to the style of the open-air music festivities of the French Revolution in the 1790s and thus, unlike his other symphonic works, shows little of the influence of Beethoven. In fact, it is believed that much of the work is based on material which had been composed long before, such as the unperformed Fête musicale funèbre of 1835.
The symphony was originally scored for a wind band of 200 players who were to accompany the procession which moved the coffins of those who had died fighting in the 1830 revolution for reburial beneath a memorial column which had been set up on the site of the Bastille. On the actual day of the parade, little of the music could be heard over the cheering crowds who lined the way. Nevertheless, the work had been such a success at the dress rehearsal that it was given two more performances in August which sealed its reputation as one of the composer's most popular works during his lifetime. Berlioz revised the score in 1842, adding strings and a final chorus to words by Antony Deschamps.
The symphony is in three movements (the last two are linked together):
Marche funèbre (Funeral march)
Oraison funèbre (Funeral oration)
Apothéose (Apotheosis) A triumphal march in B flat major
Berlioz's handling of wind instruments was particularly admired by Richard Wagner. Berlioz reused an aria from Act III of his abandoned opera Les francs-juges, replacing the voice part with a trombone.
Time magazine article on "Grande symphonie funebre et triomphale"
"Grande symphonie" Part I
"Grande symphonie" Part II
"Grande symphonie" Part III
"Grande symphonie" Part IV
Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale (English: Grand Funeral and Triumphal Symphony), Op. 15, is the fourth and last symphony by the French composer Hector Berlioz, first performed on 28 July 1840 in Paris. The symphony was a commission by the French government which wanted to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the July Revolution which had brought Louis-Philippe to power, by erecting the July Column in the place de la Bastille, Paris. Berlioz had little sympathy for the régime, but he accepted the opportunity to write the work which brought him a payment of 10,000 francs. It allowed him to return to the style of the open-air music festivities of the French Revolution in the 1790s and thus, unlike his other symphonic works, shows little of the influence of Beethoven. In fact, it is believed that much of the work is based on material which had been composed long before, such as the unperformed Fête musicale funèbre of 1835.
The symphony was originally scored for a wind band of 200 players who were to accompany the procession which moved the coffins of those who had died fighting in the 1830 revolution for reburial beneath a memorial column which had been set up on the site of the Bastille. On the actual day of the parade, little of the music could be heard over the cheering crowds who lined the way. Nevertheless, the work had been such a success at the dress rehearsal that it was given two more performances in August which sealed its reputation as one of the composer's most popular works during his lifetime. Berlioz revised the score in 1842, adding strings and a final chorus to words by Antony Deschamps.
The symphony is in three movements (the last two are linked together):
Marche funèbre (Funeral march)
Oraison funèbre (Funeral oration)
Apothéose (Apotheosis) A triumphal march in B flat major
Berlioz's handling of wind instruments was particularly admired by Richard Wagner. Berlioz reused an aria from Act III of his abandoned opera Les francs-juges, replacing the voice part with a trombone.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
...and the mountains rising nowhere
Joseph Schwantner's "...and the mountains rising nowhere" has become a symbol of the current trend in wind music. The piece was premiered by the Eastman Wind Ensemble in 1977 in College Park, MD at the national CBDNA conference. UMWO performed the piece in 2009 and you can find the program notes from that performance below. The YouTube recording is by the Texas Tech Wind Ensemble under the direction of Sarah McKoin.
...and the mountains rising nowhere Part I
...and the mountains rising nowhere Part II
Joseph Schwantner (b. 1943) is an American composer and educator. His first musical instrument was the guitar, which he began studying with Robert Stein at the age of eight. Schwantner credits Stein as the most important influence of his young musical life. Of his initial experiences on the guitar, Schwantner writes:
I didn’t realize until many years later just how important the guitar was in my thinking...to get to the bottom line, when I think about my music, its absolutely clear to me the profound influence of the guitar
in my music. When you look at my pieces, first of all is the preoccupation with color. The guitar is a wonderfully resonant and colorful instrument. Secondly, the guitar is a very highly articulate instrument. You don’t bow it, you pluck it and so the notes are very incisive. My musical ideas, the world I seem to inhabit, is highly articulate. Lots of percussion where everything is sharply etched, and then finally, those sharply articulated ideas often hang in the air, which is exactly what happens when you play an E major chord on the guitar. There are these sharp articulations, and then this kind of sustained resonance that you can easily do in percussion — a favorite trick of mine! I think it is right in my bone marrow. I don’t think there is any question about that. I think my music would look differently if I were a clarinet player. So it doesn’t mean I sit around thinking about the guitar when I am writing a piece. Not at all! There is something fundamental about how I think about music, that I think comes from my experiences as a young kid trying to play everything I could on the instrument.
Known for his dramatic and unique style and as a gifted orchestral colorist, Schwantner is one of the most prominent American composers today. He received his musical and academic training at the Chicago Conservatoryand Northwestern University and has served on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music and the Yale School of Music, simultaneously establishing himself as a sought-after composition instructor. Schwantner’s compositional career has been marked by many awards, grants and fellowships, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for his orchestral composition aftertones of Infinity and several Grammy nominations. Among his many commissions is his Percussion Concerto, which was commissioned for the 150th anniversary season of the New York Philharmonic and is one of the most performed concert works of the past decade. Schwantner is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
and the mountains rising nowhere was Joseph Schwantner’s first composition for wind ensemble. The premiere was given in College Park, Maryland, at the 1977 National Conference of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) by the Eastman Wind Ensemble, Donald Hunsberger conducting. It is dedicated to children’s author Carol Adler — its title inspired by a line in her poem “Arioso:”
arioso bells
sepia
moon-beams
an afternoon sun blanked by rain
and the mountains rising nowhere
the sound returns
the sound and the silence chimes
Schwantner commented: “While the work is not specifically programmatic, the poem nevertheless acted as the creative impetus for the composition and provided for me an enigmatic, complex, and powerful imagery creating a wellspring of musical ideas and feelings in sympathetic resonance with the poem.”
In writing the work, Schwantner strove to create a composition for winds and percussion that did not ound like the typical band piece, and he succeeded brilliantly. He said: “When I first started to write for wind ensemble there wasn’t much to look at other than Hindemith and Schoenberg. My whole band experience in the public schools had been mostly third-rate music and transcriptions. I grew up with a certain envy of my colleagues who were in orchestra: they got great music to play and we got bad transcriptions and this third-rate “educational” music. You’ll notice in and the mountains rising nowhere that I go a long way to avoid typical band sounds. I had to overcome my school experience.”
...and the mountains rising nowhere Part I
...and the mountains rising nowhere Part II
Joseph Schwantner (b. 1943) is an American composer and educator. His first musical instrument was the guitar, which he began studying with Robert Stein at the age of eight. Schwantner credits Stein as the most important influence of his young musical life. Of his initial experiences on the guitar, Schwantner writes:
I didn’t realize until many years later just how important the guitar was in my thinking...to get to the bottom line, when I think about my music, its absolutely clear to me the profound influence of the guitar
in my music. When you look at my pieces, first of all is the preoccupation with color. The guitar is a wonderfully resonant and colorful instrument. Secondly, the guitar is a very highly articulate instrument. You don’t bow it, you pluck it and so the notes are very incisive. My musical ideas, the world I seem to inhabit, is highly articulate. Lots of percussion where everything is sharply etched, and then finally, those sharply articulated ideas often hang in the air, which is exactly what happens when you play an E major chord on the guitar. There are these sharp articulations, and then this kind of sustained resonance that you can easily do in percussion — a favorite trick of mine! I think it is right in my bone marrow. I don’t think there is any question about that. I think my music would look differently if I were a clarinet player. So it doesn’t mean I sit around thinking about the guitar when I am writing a piece. Not at all! There is something fundamental about how I think about music, that I think comes from my experiences as a young kid trying to play everything I could on the instrument.
Known for his dramatic and unique style and as a gifted orchestral colorist, Schwantner is one of the most prominent American composers today. He received his musical and academic training at the Chicago Conservatoryand Northwestern University and has served on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music and the Yale School of Music, simultaneously establishing himself as a sought-after composition instructor. Schwantner’s compositional career has been marked by many awards, grants and fellowships, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for his orchestral composition aftertones of Infinity and several Grammy nominations. Among his many commissions is his Percussion Concerto, which was commissioned for the 150th anniversary season of the New York Philharmonic and is one of the most performed concert works of the past decade. Schwantner is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
and the mountains rising nowhere was Joseph Schwantner’s first composition for wind ensemble. The premiere was given in College Park, Maryland, at the 1977 National Conference of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) by the Eastman Wind Ensemble, Donald Hunsberger conducting. It is dedicated to children’s author Carol Adler — its title inspired by a line in her poem “Arioso:”
arioso bells
sepia
moon-beams
an afternoon sun blanked by rain
and the mountains rising nowhere
the sound returns
the sound and the silence chimes
Schwantner commented: “While the work is not specifically programmatic, the poem nevertheless acted as the creative impetus for the composition and provided for me an enigmatic, complex, and powerful imagery creating a wellspring of musical ideas and feelings in sympathetic resonance with the poem.”
In writing the work, Schwantner strove to create a composition for winds and percussion that did not ound like the typical band piece, and he succeeded brilliantly. He said: “When I first started to write for wind ensemble there wasn’t much to look at other than Hindemith and Schoenberg. My whole band experience in the public schools had been mostly third-rate music and transcriptions. I grew up with a certain envy of my colleagues who were in orchestra: they got great music to play and we got bad transcriptions and this third-rate “educational” music. You’ll notice in and the mountains rising nowhere that I go a long way to avoid typical band sounds. I had to overcome my school experience.”
Friday, June 18, 2010
Hindemith "Symphony in B-flat"
In 1952, when Frederick Fennell founded the Eastman Wind Ensemble, part of the stated mission of the ensemble was the perform pieces like Paul Hindemith's newly composed "Symphony in B-flat" that were not part of the traditional band repertoire. Since that time, this piece has become a cornerstone of the wind repertoire. Below are liner notes from the Peabody Conservatory's recording "Trendsetters" and links to a performance by the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra.
Hindemith Symphony Mvt. I
Hindemith Symphony Mvt. II
Hindemith Symphony Mvt. III
Paul Hindemith (1895–1963): Symphony in B flat
The Symphony in B flat for Concert Band by Paul Hindemith was composed at the request of Lt Col Hugh Curry, leader of the United States Army Band, and had its première in Washington, D.C. on 5th April, 1951, with the composer conducting. The three-movement symphony shows Hindemith’s great contrapuntal skill, and the organized logic of his thematic material. His melodies develop ever-expanding lines, and his skill in the organization and utilization of complex rhythmic variation adds spice and zest to the strength of his melodies. The first movement is in sonata allegro form in three sections, with the recapitulation economically utilizing both themes together in strong counterpoint. The second and third movements develop and expand their thematic material in some of the most memorable contrapuntal writing for winds. The second movement opens with an imitative duet between alto saxophone and cornet, accompanied by a repeated chord figure. The duet theme, along with thematic material from the opening movement, provides the basic material for the remainder of the movement. The closing section of the third movement utilizes the combined themes while the woodwinds amplify the incessant chattering of the first movement. The brass and percussion adamantly declare a halt with a powerful final cadence. The symphony rivals any orchestra composition in length, breadth and content, and served to convince other first-rank composers, including Giannini, Persichetti, Creston and Hovahness, that the band is a legitimate medium for serious music.
Hindemith Symphony Mvt. I
Hindemith Symphony Mvt. II
Hindemith Symphony Mvt. III
Paul Hindemith (1895–1963): Symphony in B flat
The Symphony in B flat for Concert Band by Paul Hindemith was composed at the request of Lt Col Hugh Curry, leader of the United States Army Band, and had its première in Washington, D.C. on 5th April, 1951, with the composer conducting. The three-movement symphony shows Hindemith’s great contrapuntal skill, and the organized logic of his thematic material. His melodies develop ever-expanding lines, and his skill in the organization and utilization of complex rhythmic variation adds spice and zest to the strength of his melodies. The first movement is in sonata allegro form in three sections, with the recapitulation economically utilizing both themes together in strong counterpoint. The second and third movements develop and expand their thematic material in some of the most memorable contrapuntal writing for winds. The second movement opens with an imitative duet between alto saxophone and cornet, accompanied by a repeated chord figure. The duet theme, along with thematic material from the opening movement, provides the basic material for the remainder of the movement. The closing section of the third movement utilizes the combined themes while the woodwinds amplify the incessant chattering of the first movement. The brass and percussion adamantly declare a halt with a powerful final cadence. The symphony rivals any orchestra composition in length, breadth and content, and served to convince other first-rank composers, including Giannini, Persichetti, Creston and Hovahness, that the band is a legitimate medium for serious music.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Symphonies of Wind Instruments
Today's post was again inspired by Composers Datebook that discusses Igor Stravinsky and his pieces "Fireworks" and "Agon". Although both of these are fantastic pieces, they don't really fit into the theme of this blog, but you are highly encouraged to listen to both pieces if you don't know them. "Agon"'s use of the rarely used (at least in orchestral settings) mandolin is particularly striking
Instead, today's post will focus on Stravinsky's most famous work for winds, "Symphonies of Wind Instruments." Below are the program notes from our performance of "Symphonies" last February. There are links below to today's Composers Datebook audio and recordings of "Symphonies of Wind Instruments." Enjoy!
Composers Datebook Text (June 17, 2010)
Stravinsky on a date?
Until 1918, all dates in Russia were officially given under the "Old-Style" Julian calendar, which lagged behind the "New-Style" Gregorian calendar by 12 days in the 19th century and 13 in the 20th. Since composer Igor Stravinsky was born in Russia in the 19th century, but lived well into the 20th, he could choose to celebrate his June 5th, 1882, Russian birth date as either June 17th or 18th under the calendar the rest of the world used.
Stravinsky opted for June 18th, but everyone else said the 17th was his "official" birthdate. By a nice coincidence, one of Stravinsky's early successes, his orchestral piece entitled "Fireworks," premiered on June 17 in 1908. The performance was part of the wedding celebrations for the daughter of Stravinsky's teacher and mentor, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
The young Stravinsky's "Fireworks," not surprisingly, sounds a lot like the music of Rimsky-Korsakov. But in the course of his long creative life, Stravinsky would shift musical styles several times, inventing, reinventing, and transforming his late Romantic Russian musical roots into something quite different.
For example, on today's date in 1957, when Stravinsky was living in Los Angeles, the composer's 75th birthday was celebrated with the premiere of his new "Agon" ballet -- music as far removed from "Fireworks" as a piece of lean, clean, 20th century designer furniture would be from a plush, plump, and gloriously ornate 19th century sofa.
Composers Datebook Audio from June 17, 2010
"Symphonies of Wind Instruments" (1920 version) Audio
"Symphonies of Wind Instruments" (1920) Program Notes
The "Symphonies of Wind Instruments", composed in 1920--seven years after "The Rite of Spring"--is one of Igor Stravinsky's most original and influential compositions. A poor premiere performance (Stravinsky later referred to it as the "execution of my "Symphonies" in the literal, firing-squad sense") and the work's austere effect meant that it was not greeted with the rioting of "The Rite of Spring"'s premiere. Nevertheless, later composers have been fascinated and influenced by the work and it has left an indelible mark on twentieth- and twenty-first century music.
It began as a chorale for piano composed in honor of Debussy (who had died not long before), and Stravinsky expanded the chorale into the "Symphonies" very shortly thereafter.
Stravinsky intended the title to refer to "sounding together" rather than to symphonic music--the work stands at a distance from traditionally "symphonic" music, presenting the listener with a mosaic of related fragments that juxtaposed, rather than developed. The most tranquil and extended passage, the memorial chorale, is used as a finale, ending the work with an air of quiet meditation.
Stravinsky's unorthodox approach to form baffled audiences, critics, theorists, and fellow composers for decades until the musicologist Richard Taruskin demonstrated that the form of the piece follows that of the Russian Orthodox panikhida--the service for the dead. The panikhida contains hymns and litanies with choral responses as well as ritual bells and chanting, and all of these elements can be heard as the work unfolds. The "Symphonies", therefore, are connected both with Stravinsky's "Russian" pieces and with his lifelong fascination with rituals and memorials--from early works like "Les Noces" and "The Rite of Spring" to later memorials such as "In Memoriam Dylan Thomas", "Elegy for JFK", and "Monumentum pro Gesualdo."
The pankhida service begins with bells and a reading of Psalm 118 followed by a litany with choral responses, all of which can be heard in the opening passage of Stravinsky's work. The sections that follow are references to chant, litanies, and choral refrains, and the final choral sublimates an eclectic wealth of material into the mass's "Eternal Remembrance."
The ensemble eschews strings in favor of austere yet colorful winds. The work is performed this evening in its original version from 1920. Stravinsky revised it in 1947, simplifying both the instrumentation and the problems for the conductor (perhaps because he was often conducting his own works at that time--most available evidence indicates that the revision was made for practical rather than artistic reasons). The 1947 version was the only one known until recently, but a modern edition of the 1920 version makes it possible for us now to hear Stravinsky's original.
According to Stravinsky, in 1936: "I did not, and indeed I could not, count on any immediate success for this work. It lacks all those elements that infallibly appeal to the ordinary listener, or to which he is accustomed...It is an austere ritual which is unfolded in terms of short litanies...This music is not meant to 'please' and audience, not to arouse its passions."
Panikhida [Eastern Orthodox Service for the Dead]
I. Psalm 118
II. Velikaya ykteniya (Great litany; with choral response)
III. Tropar'o usopshikh (Strophic choral anthem, with refrain)
IV. Ekteniya (Small litany)
V. Kanon
VI. Vechnaya panjat (Eternal Remembrance)
-Notes by Michael Votta
Instead, today's post will focus on Stravinsky's most famous work for winds, "Symphonies of Wind Instruments." Below are the program notes from our performance of "Symphonies" last February. There are links below to today's Composers Datebook audio and recordings of "Symphonies of Wind Instruments." Enjoy!
Composers Datebook Text (June 17, 2010)
Stravinsky on a date?
Until 1918, all dates in Russia were officially given under the "Old-Style" Julian calendar, which lagged behind the "New-Style" Gregorian calendar by 12 days in the 19th century and 13 in the 20th. Since composer Igor Stravinsky was born in Russia in the 19th century, but lived well into the 20th, he could choose to celebrate his June 5th, 1882, Russian birth date as either June 17th or 18th under the calendar the rest of the world used.
Stravinsky opted for June 18th, but everyone else said the 17th was his "official" birthdate. By a nice coincidence, one of Stravinsky's early successes, his orchestral piece entitled "Fireworks," premiered on June 17 in 1908. The performance was part of the wedding celebrations for the daughter of Stravinsky's teacher and mentor, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
The young Stravinsky's "Fireworks," not surprisingly, sounds a lot like the music of Rimsky-Korsakov. But in the course of his long creative life, Stravinsky would shift musical styles several times, inventing, reinventing, and transforming his late Romantic Russian musical roots into something quite different.
For example, on today's date in 1957, when Stravinsky was living in Los Angeles, the composer's 75th birthday was celebrated with the premiere of his new "Agon" ballet -- music as far removed from "Fireworks" as a piece of lean, clean, 20th century designer furniture would be from a plush, plump, and gloriously ornate 19th century sofa.
Composers Datebook Audio from June 17, 2010
"Symphonies of Wind Instruments" (1920 version) Audio
"Symphonies of Wind Instruments" (1920) Program Notes
The "Symphonies of Wind Instruments", composed in 1920--seven years after "The Rite of Spring"--is one of Igor Stravinsky's most original and influential compositions. A poor premiere performance (Stravinsky later referred to it as the "execution of my "Symphonies" in the literal, firing-squad sense") and the work's austere effect meant that it was not greeted with the rioting of "The Rite of Spring"'s premiere. Nevertheless, later composers have been fascinated and influenced by the work and it has left an indelible mark on twentieth- and twenty-first century music.
It began as a chorale for piano composed in honor of Debussy (who had died not long before), and Stravinsky expanded the chorale into the "Symphonies" very shortly thereafter.
Stravinsky intended the title to refer to "sounding together" rather than to symphonic music--the work stands at a distance from traditionally "symphonic" music, presenting the listener with a mosaic of related fragments that juxtaposed, rather than developed. The most tranquil and extended passage, the memorial chorale, is used as a finale, ending the work with an air of quiet meditation.
Stravinsky's unorthodox approach to form baffled audiences, critics, theorists, and fellow composers for decades until the musicologist Richard Taruskin demonstrated that the form of the piece follows that of the Russian Orthodox panikhida--the service for the dead. The panikhida contains hymns and litanies with choral responses as well as ritual bells and chanting, and all of these elements can be heard as the work unfolds. The "Symphonies", therefore, are connected both with Stravinsky's "Russian" pieces and with his lifelong fascination with rituals and memorials--from early works like "Les Noces" and "The Rite of Spring" to later memorials such as "In Memoriam Dylan Thomas", "Elegy for JFK", and "Monumentum pro Gesualdo."
The pankhida service begins with bells and a reading of Psalm 118 followed by a litany with choral responses, all of which can be heard in the opening passage of Stravinsky's work. The sections that follow are references to chant, litanies, and choral refrains, and the final choral sublimates an eclectic wealth of material into the mass's "Eternal Remembrance."
The ensemble eschews strings in favor of austere yet colorful winds. The work is performed this evening in its original version from 1920. Stravinsky revised it in 1947, simplifying both the instrumentation and the problems for the conductor (perhaps because he was often conducting his own works at that time--most available evidence indicates that the revision was made for practical rather than artistic reasons). The 1947 version was the only one known until recently, but a modern edition of the 1920 version makes it possible for us now to hear Stravinsky's original.
According to Stravinsky, in 1936: "I did not, and indeed I could not, count on any immediate success for this work. It lacks all those elements that infallibly appeal to the ordinary listener, or to which he is accustomed...It is an austere ritual which is unfolded in terms of short litanies...This music is not meant to 'please' and audience, not to arouse its passions."
Panikhida [Eastern Orthodox Service for the Dead]
I. Psalm 118
II. Velikaya ykteniya (Great litany; with choral response)
III. Tropar'o usopshikh (Strophic choral anthem, with refrain)
IV. Ekteniya (Small litany)
V. Kanon
VI. Vechnaya panjat (Eternal Remembrance)
-Notes by Michael Votta
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Music for the Royal Fireworks
Along with Giovanni Gabrieli's "Sonata Pian'e Forte", George Frideric Handel's "Music for the Royal Fireworks" is one of the earliest and best pieces for winds. This information on Handel came from today's Composers Datebook:
"Handel and the Royals
It was on today's date in 1710 that a German composer by the name of Georg Friedrich Händel was appointed Kapellmeister to Georg Ludwig, the Elector of Hanover. The annual salary was to be 1000 thaler. Herr Händel accepted on the condition that he receive an immediate 12-month leave of absence so that he could travel to London, where he was eager to make a name for himself as an opera composer.
And so, early the following year, Händel's opera "Rinaldo" premiered in London at the Queen's Theater, and was such a hit that Händel asked for, and received, permission to return to London in 1712 -- on condition, said his tolerant German boss, that he return to Hanover "within a reasonable time."
Well, Händel never did return, and, not surprisingly, was dismissed from his post. "Why go back to a German Elector," Händel must have thought, "when the British Queen Anne was granting me an annual pension of 200 pounds a year, and London audiences were positively ga-ga about my Italian operas, which were being staged at the Queen’s Theater in the Haymarket?" Herr Händel set to work learning English and changed his name to George Frideric Handel.
By a perverse quirk of fate, when Queen Anne died in 1714, her successor turned out to be -- you guessed it -- Georg Ludwig, the Elector of Hanover, who changed his name to King George the First.
Not to worry, though: Handel soon made amends with his on-again, off-again former employer, and henceforth Handel's operas were performed in the King's Theater in the Haymarket."
For George I, Handel would write "Water Music" and for his son, George II, Handel would compose his six movement "Music for the Royal Fireworks" to commemorate the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle which ended the War of Austrian Succession. Together, these two pieces make up Handel's most significant "orchestral" output. You can find more detailed information on "Music for the Royal Fireworks" here. A complete recording is available on YouTube at the following links. Enjoy!
"Music for the Royal Fireworks" Mvt. I--Ouverture
"Music for the Royal Fireworks" Mvt. II--Allegro, Lentement, Allegro
"Music for the Royal Fireworks" Mvt. III, IV--Bouree, La Paix
"Music for the Royal Fireworks" Mvt. V--Rejouissance
"Music for the Royal Fireworks" Mvt. VI--Menuet I/II
"Handel and the Royals
It was on today's date in 1710 that a German composer by the name of Georg Friedrich Händel was appointed Kapellmeister to Georg Ludwig, the Elector of Hanover. The annual salary was to be 1000 thaler. Herr Händel accepted on the condition that he receive an immediate 12-month leave of absence so that he could travel to London, where he was eager to make a name for himself as an opera composer.
And so, early the following year, Händel's opera "Rinaldo" premiered in London at the Queen's Theater, and was such a hit that Händel asked for, and received, permission to return to London in 1712 -- on condition, said his tolerant German boss, that he return to Hanover "within a reasonable time."
Well, Händel never did return, and, not surprisingly, was dismissed from his post. "Why go back to a German Elector," Händel must have thought, "when the British Queen Anne was granting me an annual pension of 200 pounds a year, and London audiences were positively ga-ga about my Italian operas, which were being staged at the Queen’s Theater in the Haymarket?" Herr Händel set to work learning English and changed his name to George Frideric Handel.
By a perverse quirk of fate, when Queen Anne died in 1714, her successor turned out to be -- you guessed it -- Georg Ludwig, the Elector of Hanover, who changed his name to King George the First.
Not to worry, though: Handel soon made amends with his on-again, off-again former employer, and henceforth Handel's operas were performed in the King's Theater in the Haymarket."
For George I, Handel would write "Water Music" and for his son, George II, Handel would compose his six movement "Music for the Royal Fireworks" to commemorate the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle which ended the War of Austrian Succession. Together, these two pieces make up Handel's most significant "orchestral" output. You can find more detailed information on "Music for the Royal Fireworks" here. A complete recording is available on YouTube at the following links. Enjoy!
"Music for the Royal Fireworks" Mvt. I--Ouverture
"Music for the Royal Fireworks" Mvt. II--Allegro, Lentement, Allegro
"Music for the Royal Fireworks" Mvt. III, IV--Bouree, La Paix
"Music for the Royal Fireworks" Mvt. V--Rejouissance
"Music for the Royal Fireworks" Mvt. VI--Menuet I/II
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Sleepless Slumber Update
These program notes on "Sleepless Slumber" came from the Nederlands Blazer Ensemble [Netherlands Wind Ensemble] website. A special thank you to Bryan Crumpler for the translation from Dutch to English. You can reach Bryan at http://www.proz.com/pro/40804 and at http://whosthatguy.com.
Guusje (Dutch for "Gussie" or Augusta, in its extended form) and her little sister Puck are the brains behind this collaborative work. Guusje plays the piano, and Puck sings. Here is what they themselves have to say concerning their piece:
"Our composition represents one of those nights where you just can't seem to get any sleep. As you lie there, you are constantly distracted by noises and the flurry of thoughts or words rushing through your head. Imagine a word popping into mind and being unable to grab hold of the trail of thought as it scurries by, only to feel compelled to chase after it. You end up drifting between a state of sleep and wakefulness, lying there for hours on end in a sort of sleepless slumber."
They have also incorporated the use of a metronome in order to represent this distraction that the outside world presents. Below are some of the lyrics to their work:
"Sleepless slumber
Cucumber
Bicycle, twicycle, tricycle, volcano
Paperdoll
Drifting off at dawn"
Translation courtesy of:
Bryan A. Crumpler
http://www.proz.com/pro/40804
Guusje (Dutch for "Gussie" or Augusta, in its extended form) and her little sister Puck are the brains behind this collaborative work. Guusje plays the piano, and Puck sings. Here is what they themselves have to say concerning their piece:
"Our composition represents one of those nights where you just can't seem to get any sleep. As you lie there, you are constantly distracted by noises and the flurry of thoughts or words rushing through your head. Imagine a word popping into mind and being unable to grab hold of the trail of thought as it scurries by, only to feel compelled to chase after it. You end up drifting between a state of sleep and wakefulness, lying there for hours on end in a sort of sleepless slumber."
They have also incorporated the use of a metronome in order to represent this distraction that the outside world presents. Below are some of the lyrics to their work:
"Sleepless slumber
Cucumber
Bicycle, twicycle, tricycle, volcano
Paperdoll
Drifting off at dawn"
Translation courtesy of:
Bryan A. Crumpler
http://www.proz.com/pro/40804
Sleepless Slumber
This will be the final blog post introducing everyone to our repertoire for next year. After today's post, the blog will focus on a greater variety of wind repertoire, concerts in and around the DC area, and other art happenings in DC that UMWO fans might be interested in.
Today's post is about "Sleepless Slumber" by Guusje and Puck Ingen Housz. The piece is written for voice, piano, winds, and metronome and was the winner of the Youth Composition Contest for the Netherlands Wind Ensemble's "On to New Year's Concert 2008." The NBE has recorded this piece and you can download the .mp3 or buy the whole album here. You can also listen to a piano/vocal/metronome reduced version here, which is linked through the NBE's website. If you listen to the reduced version, which is a full realization of the piece, you might find it valuable to at least listen to the sample that is available through Amazon for comparison. That sample can be found here.
The piece is difficult to find information on, unless you speak Dutch, so it is probably best to let the music speak for itself. You can find a copy of the vocal text below. Enjoy!
Sleepless slumber
Cucumber
Bicycle, twicycle, tricycle, volcano
Paperdoll
Drifting off at dawn
Today's post is about "Sleepless Slumber" by Guusje and Puck Ingen Housz. The piece is written for voice, piano, winds, and metronome and was the winner of the Youth Composition Contest for the Netherlands Wind Ensemble's "On to New Year's Concert 2008." The NBE has recorded this piece and you can download the .mp3 or buy the whole album here. You can also listen to a piano/vocal/metronome reduced version here, which is linked through the NBE's website. If you listen to the reduced version, which is a full realization of the piece, you might find it valuable to at least listen to the sample that is available through Amazon for comparison. That sample can be found here.
The piece is difficult to find information on, unless you speak Dutch, so it is probably best to let the music speak for itself. You can find a copy of the vocal text below. Enjoy!
Sleepless slumber
Cucumber
Bicycle, twicycle, tricycle, volcano
Paperdoll
Drifting off at dawn
Monday, June 14, 2010
Jennifer Higdon--Again
Based on our previous posts about Jennifer Higdon in the past two months, this information from Composers Datebook might be good for the blog. This is from last Saturday. The audio is linked below the post. Enjoy!
Jennifer Higdon
On today's date [June 12] in 2002, a high profile musical event occurred at Philadelphia's new Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. The city was hosting the 57th National Conference of the American Symphony Orchestra League, and the Philadelphia Orchestra was celebrating its 100th anniversary with eight new commissions, all to be premiered in the Orchestra's new Verizon Hall.
On June 12th, the new piece was a "Concerto for Orchestra" by 39-year old composer Jennifer Higdon. Higdon's "Concerto" opened the Philadelphia Orchestra's program, followed by Richard Strauss's big tone-poem "Ein Heldenleben" -- both pieces performed before an audience of orchestral professionals from around the country-- not to mention Higdon's proud mother.
Higdon, understandably a little nervous, quipped to a newspaper reporter covering the event: "You'll know my mother because she'll be the one crying before the piece starts."
Higdon needn't have worried. Her "Concerto for Orchestra" was greeted with cheers from both its audience and performers, the latter in typically irreverent fashion, dubbing the new piece "Ein Higdonleben."
Higdon, the only woman among the eight composers commissioned for the orchestra's centennial project, calls herself a "late bloomer" as a composer. She taught herself the flute at age 15 and didn't pursue formal music training until college. She was almost finished with her bachelor's degree requirements at Bowling Green State University when she started composing her own music. She now teaches at Philadelphia's prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, and is regarded as one of America's most promising composers and in 2010 won that year's Pulizter Prize for Music.
Audio Link for June 12, 2010
Jennifer Higdon
On today's date [June 12] in 2002, a high profile musical event occurred at Philadelphia's new Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. The city was hosting the 57th National Conference of the American Symphony Orchestra League, and the Philadelphia Orchestra was celebrating its 100th anniversary with eight new commissions, all to be premiered in the Orchestra's new Verizon Hall.
On June 12th, the new piece was a "Concerto for Orchestra" by 39-year old composer Jennifer Higdon. Higdon's "Concerto" opened the Philadelphia Orchestra's program, followed by Richard Strauss's big tone-poem "Ein Heldenleben" -- both pieces performed before an audience of orchestral professionals from around the country-- not to mention Higdon's proud mother.
Higdon, understandably a little nervous, quipped to a newspaper reporter covering the event: "You'll know my mother because she'll be the one crying before the piece starts."
Higdon needn't have worried. Her "Concerto for Orchestra" was greeted with cheers from both its audience and performers, the latter in typically irreverent fashion, dubbing the new piece "Ein Higdonleben."
Higdon, the only woman among the eight composers commissioned for the orchestra's centennial project, calls herself a "late bloomer" as a composer. She taught herself the flute at age 15 and didn't pursue formal music training until college. She was almost finished with her bachelor's degree requirements at Bowling Green State University when she started composing her own music. She now teaches at Philadelphia's prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, and is regarded as one of America's most promising composers and in 2010 won that year's Pulizter Prize for Music.
Audio Link for June 12, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Milhaud's "Suite Francaise" on Composers Datebook
Today, the featured piece on Composers Datebook from American Public Media was Darius Milhaud's "Suite Francaise." Although this piece does not receive the performances that it did in the mid to late twentieth century, it still remains an important part of the wind band repertoire.
This piece is also representative of a movement that took place in the middle part of the twentieth century. In the middle part of the century, American wind groups commissioned some of the best composers in the world to write for bands in order to add to the wind band repertoire. Some of these composers included (among others) Copland, Persichetti, Schoenberg, Gould, and Schuman. Many of these pieces were commissioned under the auspices of the American Bandmasters Association, although some were done by high school groups.
Below is the text from today's Composers Datebook on "Suite Francaise." You can also listen to the audio link here.
Milhaud's "French Suite"
In 1944, the French composer Darius Milhaud was in California, teaching at Mills College in Oakland, California, and around that time he received a commission to write a piece suitable for school bands. With a world at war, the Jewish composer had found safe refuge in the U.S., and so eagerly accepted the commission for a number of reasons.
Milhaud, confined to a wheelchair for most of his adult life, sent his wife Madaleine to the College library to obtain a collection of French folk tunes. His idea was to arrange some into a suite. As the composer himself explained after his "Suite Française" was finished:
"The five parts of [my] Suite are named after French Provinces, the very ones in which the American and Allied armies fought together with the French underground of the liberation of my country: Normandy, Brittany, Ile-de-France (of which Paris is the center), Alsace-Lorraine, and Provence (my birthplace). I used some folk tunes of these Provinces, as I wanted the young American to hear the popular melodies of those parts of France where their fathers and brothers fought on behalf of the peaceful and democratic people of France."
Milhaud's "Suite Française" was premiered by the Goldman Band in New York City on today's date in 1945, and rapidly became one the best-known and most often performed of Milhaud's works and one of the established classics of the wind-band repertory.
This piece is also representative of a movement that took place in the middle part of the twentieth century. In the middle part of the century, American wind groups commissioned some of the best composers in the world to write for bands in order to add to the wind band repertoire. Some of these composers included (among others) Copland, Persichetti, Schoenberg, Gould, and Schuman. Many of these pieces were commissioned under the auspices of the American Bandmasters Association, although some were done by high school groups.
Below is the text from today's Composers Datebook on "Suite Francaise." You can also listen to the audio link here.
Milhaud's "French Suite"
In 1944, the French composer Darius Milhaud was in California, teaching at Mills College in Oakland, California, and around that time he received a commission to write a piece suitable for school bands. With a world at war, the Jewish composer had found safe refuge in the U.S., and so eagerly accepted the commission for a number of reasons.
Milhaud, confined to a wheelchair for most of his adult life, sent his wife Madaleine to the College library to obtain a collection of French folk tunes. His idea was to arrange some into a suite. As the composer himself explained after his "Suite Française" was finished:
"The five parts of [my] Suite are named after French Provinces, the very ones in which the American and Allied armies fought together with the French underground of the liberation of my country: Normandy, Brittany, Ile-de-France (of which Paris is the center), Alsace-Lorraine, and Provence (my birthplace). I used some folk tunes of these Provinces, as I wanted the young American to hear the popular melodies of those parts of France where their fathers and brothers fought on behalf of the peaceful and democratic people of France."
Milhaud's "Suite Française" was premiered by the Goldman Band in New York City on today's date in 1945, and rapidly became one the best-known and most often performed of Milhaud's works and one of the established classics of the wind-band repertory.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
"Tumbao" from Symphony No. 3
On our May concerts, we will be joined by Mark Scatterday, conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble and his arrangement of "Tumbao" from Roberto Sierra's Symphony No. 3. Scatterday has been a proponent of Sierra's music and you can read Roberto Sierra's biography here. There is a link of Eastman's performance of this arrangement at the 2009 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic below. Enjoy!
"Tumbao" from Symphony No. 3
"Tumbao" from Symphony No. 3
Friday, June 11, 2010
Colin McPhee--Concerto for Wind Orchestra
Composed in 1960, Canadian composer Colin McPhee's "Concerto for Wind Orchestra" is another commission by the American Wind Symphony Orchestra. This is another piece that is difficult to get information on, but there are a couple of recordings available.
Recordings can be downloaded from Amazon by following this link and this link will take UMD students to the Naxos database where a recording can be streamed. The piece is only about fifteen minutes long, but is certainly worthy of a listen. Enjoy!
Recordings can be downloaded from Amazon by following this link and this link will take UMD students to the Naxos database where a recording can be streamed. The piece is only about fifteen minutes long, but is certainly worthy of a listen. Enjoy!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Paeans and Dances of Heathen Iberia
Carlos Surinach's "Paeans and Dances of Heathen Iberia", featured on our December concerts, is one of the hidden gems of the wind repertoire. The piece was commissioned by Robert Boudreau and the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, a wind ensemble that is notably missing saxophones and euphoniums. For many conductors, this instrumentation is ideal, thus making the American Wind Symphony Orchestra commissions of even greater importance. To date, Boudreau has commissioned approximately 500 pieces from some of the best composers in the world (Bolcom, Francaix, Penderecki, etc).
"Paeans and Dances" is a piece that many people know about, but few have heard. This problem is mainly due to the lack of available recordings. There is only one recording available (at least that I have found) by the Eastman Wind Ensemble conducted by Donald Hunsberger. This recording, "Fiesta!" (1968/1980) features H. Owen Reed's "La Fiesta Mexicana", Roger Nixon's "Fiesta del Pacifico", and "Paeans and Dances." However, this recording is currently only available in LP format and no digital copy exists (with the exception of the MIDI version linked below). If you are a Maryland student and would like to listen to the recording, it is available in the MSPAL as MD2583 and MD64. If you are not, I'm sure the record is available through an online dealer.
Here are the MIDI links to YouTube that were mentioned above.
"Paeans and Dances" Mvt. I
"Paeans and Dances" Mvt. II
"Paeans and Dances" Mvt. III
"Paeans and Dances" Mvt. IV
"Paeans and Dances" Mvt. V
"Paeans and Dances" Mvt. VI
To give you an idea of what Surinach's music sounds like, here is the third movement of his Piano Concerto from 1973. The Spanish flavor of Surinach's music is evident right from the start and makes for quite a wild ride. Enjoy.
"Paeans and Dances" is a piece that many people know about, but few have heard. This problem is mainly due to the lack of available recordings. There is only one recording available (at least that I have found) by the Eastman Wind Ensemble conducted by Donald Hunsberger. This recording, "Fiesta!" (1968/1980) features H. Owen Reed's "La Fiesta Mexicana", Roger Nixon's "Fiesta del Pacifico", and "Paeans and Dances." However, this recording is currently only available in LP format and no digital copy exists (with the exception of the MIDI version linked below). If you are a Maryland student and would like to listen to the recording, it is available in the MSPAL as MD2583 and MD64. If you are not, I'm sure the record is available through an online dealer.
Here are the MIDI links to YouTube that were mentioned above.
"Paeans and Dances" Mvt. I
"Paeans and Dances" Mvt. II
"Paeans and Dances" Mvt. III
"Paeans and Dances" Mvt. IV
"Paeans and Dances" Mvt. V
"Paeans and Dances" Mvt. VI
To give you an idea of what Surinach's music sounds like, here is the third movement of his Piano Concerto from 1973. The Spanish flavor of Surinach's music is evident right from the start and makes for quite a wild ride. Enjoy.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Sparrows
Joseph Schwantner's "Sparrows" will appear on our first program of the year in September. Although there is not a recording available online, you can access a Naxos recording through the Naxos database by following this link. This is only available to UMD students (or others who have access to the Naxos database through their institution), but it is one of the only recordings available.
If you are interested in purchasing the CD or downloading it through Amazon, you can follow this link to Amazon. It is available on the Naxos American label (ASIN#: B0002TNGZ0) and features the Holst Sinfonietta with Klaus Simon conducting.
Below are program notes on the piece that have been taken from the CD insert. Enjoy!
Sparrows, was written in 1979 for the Twentieth Century Consort. The text consists of fifteen haiku by the eighteenth-century Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa. Instead of reproducing the aesthetic of the haiku, with its sharply outlined images, Schwantner's music absorbs the meaning and character of these naturalistic and universalism images and expresses them in a comprehensively lyrical musical form. He thus creates a series of what might be called dream-stages. These stages reach from exuberant harmonies, harsh dissonance, and effusiveness finally to gentle hope. Schwantner draws freely from fully varied stylistic precursors to represent the poetic imagery. Reminiscences of Renaissance dances and baroque polyphony can be heard.
By the process of reconciling contrasting musical styles with the continuity of the work, Schwantner successfully makes these styles his. The wide range of atmospheres and colours is created by a setting whose acoustical possibilities are used in a most profound and creative way. The voice is supported by three instrumental groups, woodwind, strings (tuned a semitone lower, to add a particular fullness to the whole ensemble), and a combination of piano, harp and percussion. The sound of the percussion is strengthened by the strings, which strike the crotales or antique cymbals with their bows, evoking an otherworldly sound to accompany The River of Heaven. The instrumentalists must also sing at various key points in the whole work. This chorus element accompanies the references to sparrows at the beginning and end of the text. On the first occasion this exotic effect produces a mysterious atmosphere of threatening danger, while at the end this effect is particularly intimate, touching and even soothing.
If you are interested in purchasing the CD or downloading it through Amazon, you can follow this link to Amazon. It is available on the Naxos American label (ASIN#: B0002TNGZ0) and features the Holst Sinfonietta with Klaus Simon conducting.
Below are program notes on the piece that have been taken from the CD insert. Enjoy!
Sparrows, was written in 1979 for the Twentieth Century Consort. The text consists of fifteen haiku by the eighteenth-century Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa. Instead of reproducing the aesthetic of the haiku, with its sharply outlined images, Schwantner's music absorbs the meaning and character of these naturalistic and universalism images and expresses them in a comprehensively lyrical musical form. He thus creates a series of what might be called dream-stages. These stages reach from exuberant harmonies, harsh dissonance, and effusiveness finally to gentle hope. Schwantner draws freely from fully varied stylistic precursors to represent the poetic imagery. Reminiscences of Renaissance dances and baroque polyphony can be heard.
By the process of reconciling contrasting musical styles with the continuity of the work, Schwantner successfully makes these styles his. The wide range of atmospheres and colours is created by a setting whose acoustical possibilities are used in a most profound and creative way. The voice is supported by three instrumental groups, woodwind, strings (tuned a semitone lower, to add a particular fullness to the whole ensemble), and a combination of piano, harp and percussion. The sound of the percussion is strengthened by the strings, which strike the crotales or antique cymbals with their bows, evoking an otherworldly sound to accompany The River of Heaven. The instrumentalists must also sing at various key points in the whole work. This chorus element accompanies the references to sparrows at the beginning and end of the text. On the first occasion this exotic effect produces a mysterious atmosphere of threatening danger, while at the end this effect is particularly intimate, touching and even soothing.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Overnight Mail
A quick Google search for "Overnight Mail" by Michael Torke will give you quite a few results. Most of them, however, are for FedEx and UPS. It is hard to find information on this piece of music. But, there is certainly one bright spot for those of you who are interested in the wind music of Torke. It was featured on Composers Datebook on September 28, 2009--you can get the audio link by clicking here. The audio includes information on Torke, the piece itself, and excerpts from "Overnight Mail."
Torke has certainly established himself as one of the more popular contemporary composers by combining elements of pop and classical music in a "post-Minimalist" style. One of his more famous pieces is entitled "July" for saxophone quartet. You can follow this link to a YouTube performance of this piece. Enjoy!
Torke has certainly established himself as one of the more popular contemporary composers by combining elements of pop and classical music in a "post-Minimalist" style. One of his more famous pieces is entitled "July" for saxophone quartet. You can follow this link to a YouTube performance of this piece. Enjoy!
Monday, June 7, 2010
John Corigliano
On our February concert, we will perform John Corigliano's "Two Tarantellas." In light of this, this write-up on his "Gazebo Dances" by the Composers Datebook through American Public Media might prove to be very interesting to some of you.
"Gazebo Dances" (originally written for piano four hands) includes, as its last movement, a tarantella, that precedes the one found in his Symphony No. 1. These two tarantellas, both of which have been arranged for band, make up the two tarantellas that will be performed in February. Enjoy the notes from Composers Datebook and the performances below.
Merriam-Webster's defines a "gazebo" as "a freestanding roofed structure usually open on the sides," and suggests the word's etymology might derive from the combination of the word "gaze" plus the Latin verb ending "-ebo" resulting in "gaze-ebo" or "I shall gaze."
To most Americans, however, "gazebo" conjures up warm, summer days spent out-of-doors: if you imagine yourself inside a gazebo, you're probably enjoying a cool beverage while gazing out at the greenery; or, if you fancy yourself outside one, you're probably seated in a lawn chair, gazing at a group of gazebo-sheltered band musicians playing a pops concert for your entertainment.
In the early 1970’'s, the American composer John Corigliano wrote a series of whimsical four-hand piano dances he dedicated to certain of his pianist friends, and later arranged these same pieces for concert band, entitling the resulting suite "Gazebo Dances."
"The title," explained Corigliano, "was suggested by the pavilions often seen on village greens in towns throughout the countryside, where public band concerts are given in the summer. The delights of that sort of entertainment are portrayed in this set of dances, which begins with a Rossini-like 'Overture,' followed by a rather peg-legged 'Waltz,' a long-lined 'Adagio,' and a bouncy 'Tarantella.'"
The concert band version of Corigliano's "Gazebo Dances" was first performed in Indiana on today's date in 1973, by the University of Evansville Wind Ensemble, with Robert Bailey conducting.
Tarantella from Symphony No. 1
Tarantella from Gazebo Dances
"Gazebo Dances" (originally written for piano four hands) includes, as its last movement, a tarantella, that precedes the one found in his Symphony No. 1. These two tarantellas, both of which have been arranged for band, make up the two tarantellas that will be performed in February. Enjoy the notes from Composers Datebook and the performances below.
Merriam-Webster's defines a "gazebo" as "a freestanding roofed structure usually open on the sides," and suggests the word's etymology might derive from the combination of the word "gaze" plus the Latin verb ending "-ebo" resulting in "gaze-ebo" or "I shall gaze."
To most Americans, however, "gazebo" conjures up warm, summer days spent out-of-doors: if you imagine yourself inside a gazebo, you're probably enjoying a cool beverage while gazing out at the greenery; or, if you fancy yourself outside one, you're probably seated in a lawn chair, gazing at a group of gazebo-sheltered band musicians playing a pops concert for your entertainment.
In the early 1970’'s, the American composer John Corigliano wrote a series of whimsical four-hand piano dances he dedicated to certain of his pianist friends, and later arranged these same pieces for concert band, entitling the resulting suite "Gazebo Dances."
"The title," explained Corigliano, "was suggested by the pavilions often seen on village greens in towns throughout the countryside, where public band concerts are given in the summer. The delights of that sort of entertainment are portrayed in this set of dances, which begins with a Rossini-like 'Overture,' followed by a rather peg-legged 'Waltz,' a long-lined 'Adagio,' and a bouncy 'Tarantella.'"
The concert band version of Corigliano's "Gazebo Dances" was first performed in Indiana on today's date in 1973, by the University of Evansville Wind Ensemble, with Robert Bailey conducting.
Tarantella from Symphony No. 1
Tarantella from Gazebo Dances
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Tommasini Part II
As promised, here is Part II of the Matthew Tommasini music that will be part of our February concert. Below are the program notes for "Three Spanish Songs" (2005). You can access the full note here.
This cycle is a setting of three contrasting poems by Latin-American poets Leopoldo Lugones, Rubén Darío, and José Martí. Olas grises uses evocative rain and sea imagery to meditate on the nature of life and death. Set as a lyrical, quasi-strophic song, these images are portrayed through the opening percussion rain drop motive and the moaning vocal line used throughout the movement. Nocturno is a frantic soliloquy set as an extended opera scene. The piano and percussion accompany the soprano in the opening recitative which is followed by a surreal aria accompanied by the rest of the ensemble. This is followed by a re-statement of both sections. Sueño despierto is a short poem about the contrasting images of a waking dream. Based on a fragment of the lullaby Nanita nana, heard in its entirety at the opening, the song is a set of three variations, followed by a coda, which portray these various images.
Full .mp3's of each movement can be downloaded from Tommasini's website here (Olas grises), here (Nocturno), and here (Sueño despierto).
This cycle is a setting of three contrasting poems by Latin-American poets Leopoldo Lugones, Rubén Darío, and José Martí. Olas grises uses evocative rain and sea imagery to meditate on the nature of life and death. Set as a lyrical, quasi-strophic song, these images are portrayed through the opening percussion rain drop motive and the moaning vocal line used throughout the movement. Nocturno is a frantic soliloquy set as an extended opera scene. The piano and percussion accompany the soprano in the opening recitative which is followed by a surreal aria accompanied by the rest of the ensemble. This is followed by a re-statement of both sections. Sueño despierto is a short poem about the contrasting images of a waking dream. Based on a fragment of the lullaby Nanita nana, heard in its entirety at the opening, the song is a set of three variations, followed by a coda, which portray these various images.
Full .mp3's of each movement can be downloaded from Tommasini's website here (Olas grises), here (Nocturno), and here (Sueño despierto).
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Gubaidulina Link
The Sofia Gubaidulina entry that was entered a few days ago did not have a link to accompany it. That has now been updated. Please take a listen (and look) and the posted video. Very cool stuff!
Matthew Tommasini: Part I
On our February concert, we will have the privilege of working with Matthew Tommasini, a young composer whose work the wind world is certainly starting to take note of. The concert will feature two of his pieces: "Torn Canvases" and "Three Spanish Songs". The next two days will feature program notes about each piece as well as full recordings of each that are available for download from his website.
Below is the program note from "Torn Canvases." His full notes on the piece are available at this link.
Torn Canvases is inspired by the abstract expressionist painting style of Jackson Pollock. The piece imagines a video camera panning across a large canvas made up of layers of fragmented paint drippings and splotches. The ensemble is divided into three groups on stage, each representing musical "layers" of chiming chords and fragmented jazz riffs, which are piled on one another, creating rhythmically charged collages of sound. The climax of the work comes when the entire ensemble plays together, evoking the sound of a giant bell, transforming into the sound of a driving jazz ensemble.
You can find more information on Matthew Tommasini on his website at http://www.matthewtommasini.com/ and a full .mp3 of "Torn Canvases" can be downloaded by following this link through his website. Enjoy!
Below is the program note from "Torn Canvases." His full notes on the piece are available at this link.
Torn Canvases is inspired by the abstract expressionist painting style of Jackson Pollock. The piece imagines a video camera panning across a large canvas made up of layers of fragmented paint drippings and splotches. The ensemble is divided into three groups on stage, each representing musical "layers" of chiming chords and fragmented jazz riffs, which are piled on one another, creating rhythmically charged collages of sound. The climax of the work comes when the entire ensemble plays together, evoking the sound of a giant bell, transforming into the sound of a driving jazz ensemble.
You can find more information on Matthew Tommasini on his website at http://www.matthewtommasini.com/ and a full .mp3 of "Torn Canvases" can be downloaded by following this link through his website. Enjoy!
Friday, June 4, 2010
More Messiaen: Colors of the Celestial City
On our final concert of the year, we will perform our second Messiaen piece of this year and the third in two years. "Couleurs de la Cite Celeste" was written the year before "Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum" and portrays colors as represented by the multi-colored wall in the book of Revelation. Below is the program note from Messiaen.
Couleurs de la Cité Celeste was composed in 1963, and first performed on October 17, 1964 at a concert at the Donaueschingen Festival under the direction of Pierre Boulez. These "inner colours" spring from five quotations from the Apocalypse: Revelations IV, 3; Revelations VIII,6; Revelations IX,1; Revelations XXI,11; and Revelations XXI,19-20. The form of the piece depends entirely on colours. The themes, melodic or rhythmic and the complexes of sounds and timbres evolve like colours. In their perpetually renewed variations, there can be found (by analogy) colours that influence their neighbors, shading down to white, or toned down to black. These transformations can be compared to the superimposition of plays enacted on several stages, the simultaneous unfolding of several different stories that assume and call out for it. Plainsong Alleluias, Greek and Hindu rhythms, permutations of note-values, the bird-song of different countries were all collected and used in this work. All these accumulated materials are placed at the service of colour and of the combinations of sounds that assume and call out for it. The sound-colours, in their turn, are a symbol of the Celestial City and of Him who dwells there. Above all time, above all place, in a light without light, in a night without night... That which the Apocalypse, still more terrifying in its humility than in its visions of glory, describes only in a blaze of colours... To the song of two New Zealand birds is opposed "the abyss", with its pedal-notes for the trombones and the resonance of tam-tams. To the cries of the Brazilian Araponga is opposed "the coloured ecstasy" of pedal points. The work ending no differently from the way it began, but turning on itself like a rose-window of flamboyant and invisible colours.
- Oliver Messiaen
Before you listen to the piece, you should take advantage of the resources available to the right. You will find that, among other things, each piece by Messiaen is very unique and the differences between this piece and "Et exspecto" are worty of discussion. Enjoy!
Colors of the Celestial City
Couleurs de la Cité Celeste was composed in 1963, and first performed on October 17, 1964 at a concert at the Donaueschingen Festival under the direction of Pierre Boulez. These "inner colours" spring from five quotations from the Apocalypse: Revelations IV, 3; Revelations VIII,6; Revelations IX,1; Revelations XXI,11; and Revelations XXI,19-20. The form of the piece depends entirely on colours. The themes, melodic or rhythmic and the complexes of sounds and timbres evolve like colours. In their perpetually renewed variations, there can be found (by analogy) colours that influence their neighbors, shading down to white, or toned down to black. These transformations can be compared to the superimposition of plays enacted on several stages, the simultaneous unfolding of several different stories that assume and call out for it. Plainsong Alleluias, Greek and Hindu rhythms, permutations of note-values, the bird-song of different countries were all collected and used in this work. All these accumulated materials are placed at the service of colour and of the combinations of sounds that assume and call out for it. The sound-colours, in their turn, are a symbol of the Celestial City and of Him who dwells there. Above all time, above all place, in a light without light, in a night without night... That which the Apocalypse, still more terrifying in its humility than in its visions of glory, describes only in a blaze of colours... To the song of two New Zealand birds is opposed "the abyss", with its pedal-notes for the trombones and the resonance of tam-tams. To the cries of the Brazilian Araponga is opposed "the coloured ecstasy" of pedal points. The work ending no differently from the way it began, but turning on itself like a rose-window of flamboyant and invisible colours.
- Oliver Messiaen
Before you listen to the piece, you should take advantage of the resources available to the right. You will find that, among other things, each piece by Messiaen is very unique and the differences between this piece and "Et exspecto" are worty of discussion. Enjoy!
Colors of the Celestial City
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Hour of the Soul
On our November concert, "Music of the Night", we will perform Sofia Gubaidulina's "Hour of the Soul" with Delores Ziegler, mezzo-soprano. This is the same concert that we will perform the Mahler "Um Mitternacht" that was mentioned in a previous post with Ziegler.
We cannot post a recording of "Hour of the Soul", but the linked performance will give you an idea of her aesthetic. She is a composer that is unfamiliar to most people, so giving this music a listen will probably be eye opening. You can also easily access more information on her through a quick Google search. You should also enjoy the eurythmy that accompanies the music. It's an interesting interpretation of the piece. Enjoy!
Gubaidulina "Seven Words" in Eurythmy
We cannot post a recording of "Hour of the Soul", but the linked performance will give you an idea of her aesthetic. She is a composer that is unfamiliar to most people, so giving this music a listen will probably be eye opening. You can also easily access more information on her through a quick Google search. You should also enjoy the eurythmy that accompanies the music. It's an interesting interpretation of the piece. Enjoy!
Gubaidulina "Seven Words" in Eurythmy
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Grand Pianola Music
Below is the second movement of John Adams's "Grand Pianola Music." Not necessarily a so-called "band" piece (Adams has not written one), "Grand Pianola Music" is written for winds, two pianos, and three female vocalists. The piece has some absolutely beautiful moments and you should certainly take the time to listen to this piece and Adams's music in general if you are not familiar with it. This piece will be performed on our first concert of the year in September.
Also below is a link of John Adams speaking about pop culture and music. This is certainly an enlightening talk and can give you some more insight into the creative process for one of the most important contemporary composers. If you have a chance, check it out!
"Grand Pianola Music", II. On the Dominant Divide
John Adams Dishes on Pop Culture
Also below is a link of John Adams speaking about pop culture and music. This is certainly an enlightening talk and can give you some more insight into the creative process for one of the most important contemporary composers. If you have a chance, check it out!
"Grand Pianola Music", II. On the Dominant Divide
John Adams Dishes on Pop Culture
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