Below you can find Composers Datebook from today on Kurt Weill's "Three-penny Opera." Enjoy!
Composers Datebook audio
Weill's "Three-penny Opera" in Berlin
On today's date in 1928, Kurt Weill's "Three-Penny Opera" debuted at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, a small, but opulent Baroque-style theater in Berlin. It must have seemed a rather ironic setting for Kurt Weill's "opera for beggars," whose cast members portrayed thieves, murderers, prostitutes and other low-lifes.
"The Three-Penny Opera" was a 20th century updating of an 18th century British ballad-opera by John Gay, titled "The Beggar's Opera." The new German text was provided by playwright Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill provided a jazzy score, which was played by the seven piece Ruth Lewis Band, led by its keyboard player, Theo Mackeben.
"The Three-Penny Opera" was a smash success, and within a year was taken up by theaters all over Europe. But in 1933, when the Nazis came to power in Germany, all performances of "The Three-Penny Opera" were banned, since Kurt Weill was Jewish, and Bertolt Brecht a communist sympathizer.
Ironically, just as "The Three-Penny Opera" was being banned in Germany, its American premiere in 1933 was a flop, and the show closed after only a dozen performances in New York.
It wasn't until 1952 that "The Three-Penny" opera was successfully staged in America. In a new English translation by the American composer Marc Bliztstein, the "Three-Penny Opera" was reintroduced by Leonard Bernstein at a Music Festival at Brandeis University, and soon reopened on Broadway to sold-out houses and rave reviews.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sousa on Composers Datebook
Below is Composers Datebook which features the wind band icon John Philip Sousa. You can find the audio clip and the text below. Enjoy!
Composers Datebook audio (8/30/10)
Sousa gets stiffed in Minneapolis
It was on this day in 1929 that a new march by John Philip Sousa was played for the first -- and last -- time until almost 60 years later. The "Foshay Tower Washington Memorial March" was commissioned by Wilbur Foshay, a high-flying Minneapolis businessman of the Roaring 20's who fell victim to the stock market crash and criminal charges of mail fraud.
One of his extravagant projects was the Foshay Tower he built in downtown Minneapolis. An office building shaped like the Washingon Monument, it was for many years the tallest structure in the city. It still stands, with Foshay's name carved in huge letters on all sides of the obelisk, now renovated as a historic site. For many years the Tower's elegant lobby displayed Wilbur Foshay's portrait, along with the score of Sousa's march, which the March King himself conducted in Minneapolis on August 30, 1929.
Just two months after the Tower doors swung open, Wilbur Foshay's empire of public utilities, factories and banks crumbled to dust. A year and a half later he was convicted of fraud, and spent two years and eleven months in Leavenworth prison. Not surprisingly, John Philip Sousa never got paid for his commission. He considered giving it a new name: "The Washington Memorial March," but then decided to withdraw the piece completely, and the music was not published or performed again officially until 1988.
Composers Datebook audio (8/30/10)
Sousa gets stiffed in Minneapolis
It was on this day in 1929 that a new march by John Philip Sousa was played for the first -- and last -- time until almost 60 years later. The "Foshay Tower Washington Memorial March" was commissioned by Wilbur Foshay, a high-flying Minneapolis businessman of the Roaring 20's who fell victim to the stock market crash and criminal charges of mail fraud.
One of his extravagant projects was the Foshay Tower he built in downtown Minneapolis. An office building shaped like the Washingon Monument, it was for many years the tallest structure in the city. It still stands, with Foshay's name carved in huge letters on all sides of the obelisk, now renovated as a historic site. For many years the Tower's elegant lobby displayed Wilbur Foshay's portrait, along with the score of Sousa's march, which the March King himself conducted in Minneapolis on August 30, 1929.
Just two months after the Tower doors swung open, Wilbur Foshay's empire of public utilities, factories and banks crumbled to dust. A year and a half later he was convicted of fraud, and spent two years and eleven months in Leavenworth prison. Not surprisingly, John Philip Sousa never got paid for his commission. He considered giving it a new name: "The Washington Memorial March," but then decided to withdraw the piece completely, and the music was not published or performed again officially until 1988.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Vaughan Williams: Folk Song Suite
Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst are in many ways kindred spirits in the world of classical music and especially band music. Both were English composers fascinated with English folk song and both of them wrote multiple pieces for military band that have become staples of the wind band repertoire. Today's blog post will focus on Vaughan Williams's "Folk Song Suite." Below you can find program notes and a recording. Enjoy!
English Folk Song Suite-Wikipedia page
The program notes below are from the Claremont Winds although the Wikipedia site above is much more thorough.
British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams is one of the most eminent of 20th-century composers. He has been credited with establishing a "new nationalist style based on English folk traditions." He systematically rejected foreign Romantic influences and sought inspiration from native material, including Elizabethan and Jacobean music as well as English folk songs. He began collecting traditional folk songs from the counties of Somerset and Norfolk in 1902, and ultimately collected more than 800. Adapting their modal harmonies and striking rhythms, he created an entirely individual style. This suite, written in the early 1920s, blends his own ideas with well-known folk songs. He also composed nine symphonies and four operas and was active with amateur music groups, conducting and composing for choirs, brass bands and film.
English Folk Song Suite, I. March "Seventeen Come Sunday"
English Folk Song Suite, II. Intermezzo "My Bonny Boy"
English Folk Song Suite, III. March "Folk Songs from Somerset"
English Folk Song Suite-Wikipedia page
The program notes below are from the Claremont Winds although the Wikipedia site above is much more thorough.
British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams is one of the most eminent of 20th-century composers. He has been credited with establishing a "new nationalist style based on English folk traditions." He systematically rejected foreign Romantic influences and sought inspiration from native material, including Elizabethan and Jacobean music as well as English folk songs. He began collecting traditional folk songs from the counties of Somerset and Norfolk in 1902, and ultimately collected more than 800. Adapting their modal harmonies and striking rhythms, he created an entirely individual style. This suite, written in the early 1920s, blends his own ideas with well-known folk songs. He also composed nine symphonies and four operas and was active with amateur music groups, conducting and composing for choirs, brass bands and film.
English Folk Song Suite, I. March "Seventeen Come Sunday"
English Folk Song Suite, II. Intermezzo "My Bonny Boy"
English Folk Song Suite, III. March "Folk Songs from Somerset"
Monday, August 23, 2010
Composers Datebook from August 23
Today's Composers Datebook, although it does not pertain strictly to wind music, does mention two composers familiar to wind music fans. Enjoy!
Composers Datebook audio (8/23)
Barney Google meets Igor Stravinsky?
On today's date in 1944, the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky completed an orchestral score he titled "Scènes de Ballet " or "Ballet Scenes." Now, considering Stravinsky had achieved international fame for his earlier ballet scores for "The Firebird," "Petroushka" and "The Rite of Spring," perhaps the generic title "Ballet Scenes" was not all that surprising.
What was surprising was that the commission for this 1944 score came from an unusual source -- Broadway. New York impresario and nightclub owner Billy Rose had achieved fame the previous year for his Broadway production of "Carmen Jones," an updated American version of Bizet's opera "Carmen" with an all-black cast and a jazzed-up score. Rose decided to capitalize on this popular success with something more upscale and "highbrow."
Rose conceived of a stage review titled "The Seven Lively Arts," and for the dance component decided to commission the most famous living composer of ballet scores, Igor Stravinsky, who was then living in Los Angeles.
Rose liked the score when he heard it played on the piano, but he thought Stravinsky's orchestration a bit too far-out, and this led to a famous coast-to-coast telegraph exchange. After a preview performance in Philadelphia, Rose sent this telegram message to Stravinsky: "Great success, but could be sensational success if you would authorize Robert Russell Bennett to retouch orchestration." Stravinsky telegraphed this reply to Billy Rose: "Satisfied with great success."
Composers Datebook audio (8/23)
Barney Google meets Igor Stravinsky?
On today's date in 1944, the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky completed an orchestral score he titled "Scènes de Ballet " or "Ballet Scenes." Now, considering Stravinsky had achieved international fame for his earlier ballet scores for "The Firebird," "Petroushka" and "The Rite of Spring," perhaps the generic title "Ballet Scenes" was not all that surprising.
What was surprising was that the commission for this 1944 score came from an unusual source -- Broadway. New York impresario and nightclub owner Billy Rose had achieved fame the previous year for his Broadway production of "Carmen Jones," an updated American version of Bizet's opera "Carmen" with an all-black cast and a jazzed-up score. Rose decided to capitalize on this popular success with something more upscale and "highbrow."
Rose conceived of a stage review titled "The Seven Lively Arts," and for the dance component decided to commission the most famous living composer of ballet scores, Igor Stravinsky, who was then living in Los Angeles.
Rose liked the score when he heard it played on the piano, but he thought Stravinsky's orchestration a bit too far-out, and this led to a famous coast-to-coast telegraph exchange. After a preview performance in Philadelphia, Rose sent this telegram message to Stravinsky: "Great success, but could be sensational success if you would authorize Robert Russell Bennett to retouch orchestration." Stravinsky telegraphed this reply to Billy Rose: "Satisfied with great success."
Navy Band Concert Tonight (8/23)
Tonight you can hear the United States Navy Band at 8:00 PM at the West Front of the US Capitol Building. As always, the concert is free. Enjoy!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Wagner: Trauermusik
Written for the moving of Carl Maria von Weber's body from London back to Germany. The piece was composed for a large wind band and uses themes from "Euryanthe" as the basis for melodic material. The piece was originally edited by Erik Leidzen under the title "Trauersinfonie", but a new edition by John Boyd and Michael Votta been recently published under the title "Trauermusik." Below you will find program notes on the piece as well as a recording. Enjoy!
The program notes below are from UMWO's performance of the piece last year. Notes were written by Michael Votta.
On December 14, 1844, the remains of Carl Maria von Weber were moved from London, where he had died, to Germany. Wagner composed Trauermusik for the torch-light procession to Weber’s final resting place, the Catholic Cemetary in Friedrichstadt. As part of his musical remembrance, Wagner arranged several portions of Weber’s opera, Euryanthe, for a large wind band of 75 players including 7 oboes, 10 bassoons, 25 clarinets and 14 horns, among others. This wind band was accompanied during the funeral procession by 20 drums. The first part of Trauermusik is an arrangement of music from the overture to Euryanthe which represents the vision of Emma’s spirit in the opera. The main section of the work is taken from the cavatina Hier dicht am Quell, the text of which contains numerous references to death. The coda comes from a passage in Act II that recalls the opening “spirit music.” Wagner amassed all of the military bands around Dresden for the occasion, and was gratified by the effect. He remained fond of the work throughout his life and in Mein Leben he wrote, “I had never before achieved anything that corresponded so perfectly to its purpose.”
Trauermusik recording
The program notes below are from UMWO's performance of the piece last year. Notes were written by Michael Votta.
On December 14, 1844, the remains of Carl Maria von Weber were moved from London, where he had died, to Germany. Wagner composed Trauermusik for the torch-light procession to Weber’s final resting place, the Catholic Cemetary in Friedrichstadt. As part of his musical remembrance, Wagner arranged several portions of Weber’s opera, Euryanthe, for a large wind band of 75 players including 7 oboes, 10 bassoons, 25 clarinets and 14 horns, among others. This wind band was accompanied during the funeral procession by 20 drums. The first part of Trauermusik is an arrangement of music from the overture to Euryanthe which represents the vision of Emma’s spirit in the opera. The main section of the work is taken from the cavatina Hier dicht am Quell, the text of which contains numerous references to death. The coda comes from a passage in Act II that recalls the opening “spirit music.” Wagner amassed all of the military bands around Dresden for the occasion, and was gratified by the effect. He remained fond of the work throughout his life and in Mein Leben he wrote, “I had never before achieved anything that corresponded so perfectly to its purpose.”
Trauermusik recording
Friday, August 20, 2010
Ticheli: Blue Shades
Today's blog will feature another piece by Frank Ticheli: Blue Shades. Program notes are below as well as a recording. Enjoy!
Blue Shades: Part I
Blue Shades: Part II
These notes are from http://www.windband.org/
This composition reflects Frank Ticheli’s love for the traditional jazz music that he heard so often while growing up near new Orleans. Blue Shades was his opportunity to express his own musical style in this medium. He provides the following description of the work:
As its title suggests, the work alludes to the Blues, and a jazz feeling is prevalent — however, it is in not literally a Blues piece. There is not a single 12-bar blues progression to be found, and except for a few isolated sections, the eighth-note is not swung.
The work, however, is heavily influenced by the Blues: “Blue notes” (flatted 3rds, 5ths, and 7ths) are used constantly; Blues harmonies, rhythms, and melodic idioms pervade the work; and many “shades of blue” are depicted, from bright blue, to dark, to dirty, to hot blue.
At times, Blue Shades burlesques some of the clichés from the Big Band era, not as a mockery of those conventions, but as a tribute. A slow and quiet middle section recalls the atmosphere of a dark, smoky blues haunt. An extended clarinet solo played near the end recalls Benny Goodman’s hot playing style, and ushers in a series of “wailing” brass chords recalling the train whistle effects commonly used during that era.
Blue Shades: Part I
Blue Shades: Part II
These notes are from http://www.windband.org/
This composition reflects Frank Ticheli’s love for the traditional jazz music that he heard so often while growing up near new Orleans. Blue Shades was his opportunity to express his own musical style in this medium. He provides the following description of the work:
As its title suggests, the work alludes to the Blues, and a jazz feeling is prevalent — however, it is in not literally a Blues piece. There is not a single 12-bar blues progression to be found, and except for a few isolated sections, the eighth-note is not swung.
The work, however, is heavily influenced by the Blues: “Blue notes” (flatted 3rds, 5ths, and 7ths) are used constantly; Blues harmonies, rhythms, and melodic idioms pervade the work; and many “shades of blue” are depicted, from bright blue, to dark, to dirty, to hot blue.
At times, Blue Shades burlesques some of the clichés from the Big Band era, not as a mockery of those conventions, but as a tribute. A slow and quiet middle section recalls the atmosphere of a dark, smoky blues haunt. An extended clarinet solo played near the end recalls Benny Goodman’s hot playing style, and ushers in a series of “wailing” brass chords recalling the train whistle effects commonly used during that era.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Ticheli: Postcards
Since it's the end of the summer, a piece entitled "Postcard" would seem to be appropriate. Below you can find information on Frank Ticheli's "Postcard" and a recording. Enjoy!
"Postcard" recording
These program notes are by the composer.
Postcard
Postcard was commissioned by my friend, colleague, and mentor, H. Robert Reynolds, in memory of his mother, Ethel Virginia Curry. He requested that I compose not an elegy commemorating her death, but a short energetic piece celebrating her life. In response, I have composed this brief "postcard" as a musical reflection of her character -- vibrant, whimsical, succinct.
It is cast in an ABA' form. The primary theme, first heard in the flute and clarinet and used in the outer sections, is a palindrome -- that is, it sounds the same played forwards or backwards. This theme honors a long-standing tradition in the Reynolds family of giving palindromic names (such as Hannah and Anna) to their children. H. Robert Reynolds' first name is Harrah. The theme's symmetry is often broken, sometimes being elongated, other times being abruptly cut off by unexpected events.
The B section is based on a five-note series derived from the name Ethel: E (E natural) T (te in the solfeggio system, B flat) H (in the German system, B natural) E (E-flat this time) L (la in the solfeggio system, A natural). The development of this motive can be likened to a journey through a series of constantly changing landscapes.
The A' section is articulated by the return of the main melody. This section is not identical to the A section, but is close enough in spirit to it to give the effect of a large-scale palindrome surrounding the smaller ones. Postcard was completed in the summer of 1991. The first performance was on April 17, 1992, at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, by the University of Michigan Symphony Band conducted by H. Robert Reynolds.
"Postcard" recording
These program notes are by the composer.
Postcard
Postcard was commissioned by my friend, colleague, and mentor, H. Robert Reynolds, in memory of his mother, Ethel Virginia Curry. He requested that I compose not an elegy commemorating her death, but a short energetic piece celebrating her life. In response, I have composed this brief "postcard" as a musical reflection of her character -- vibrant, whimsical, succinct.
It is cast in an ABA' form. The primary theme, first heard in the flute and clarinet and used in the outer sections, is a palindrome -- that is, it sounds the same played forwards or backwards. This theme honors a long-standing tradition in the Reynolds family of giving palindromic names (such as Hannah and Anna) to their children. H. Robert Reynolds' first name is Harrah. The theme's symmetry is often broken, sometimes being elongated, other times being abruptly cut off by unexpected events.
The B section is based on a five-note series derived from the name Ethel: E (E natural) T (te in the solfeggio system, B flat) H (in the German system, B natural) E (E-flat this time) L (la in the solfeggio system, A natural). The development of this motive can be likened to a journey through a series of constantly changing landscapes.
The A' section is articulated by the return of the main melody. This section is not identical to the A section, but is close enough in spirit to it to give the effect of a large-scale palindrome surrounding the smaller ones. Postcard was completed in the summer of 1991. The first performance was on April 17, 1992, at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, by the University of Michigan Symphony Band conducted by H. Robert Reynolds.
Marine Band Concert Tonight (8/19)
Tonight you can hear the United States Marine Band beginning at 8:00 PM at the Washington Monument in a repeat performance of last night's program. The concert is free and you can find repertoire information below. Enjoy!
Ron Nelson
Rocky Point Holiday (1987)
Luigi Bassi / arr. Laurendeau / ed. Rogers
Concert Fantasia on Motifs from Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto
Staff Sergeant Christopher Grant, clarinet soloist
William Schuman / arr. Niepoetter
Toccata from Symphony No. 3
Jeff Tyzik
Riffs (2009)
Clifton Williams
Symphonic Dance No. 3, “Fiesta”
Stephen Sondheim / arr. Bulla
“Not While I’m Around” from Sweeney Todd and “You (I) Could Drive a Person Crazy” from Company
Staff Sergeant Sara Dell'Omo, mezzo-soprano
Julius Fucik
March, “Florentiner,” Opus 214
Ron Nelson
Rocky Point Holiday (1987)
Luigi Bassi / arr. Laurendeau / ed. Rogers
Concert Fantasia on Motifs from Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto
Staff Sergeant Christopher Grant, clarinet soloist
William Schuman / arr. Niepoetter
Toccata from Symphony No. 3
Jeff Tyzik
Riffs (2009)
Clifton Williams
Symphonic Dance No. 3, “Fiesta”
Stephen Sondheim / arr. Bulla
“Not While I’m Around” from Sweeney Todd and “You (I) Could Drive a Person Crazy” from Company
Staff Sergeant Sara Dell'Omo, mezzo-soprano
Julius Fucik
March, “Florentiner,” Opus 214
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Air Force Band Concert and Summer Winds
Tonight, there is another full evening of band music. You can hear the Air Force Band (featuring Airmen of Note) performing tonight at 8:00 PM at the West Front of the Capitol Building and beginning at 9:00 PM, you can hear the "Summer Winds" program at http://www.pba.org. You can find program information for that broadcast below. Enjoy!
Wind groups from the Renaissance through the current day flourish in all kinds of sizes and configurations—small chamber consorts, all brass ensembles, percussion drumline, one-to-a-part wind ensemble, full concert band—and many, many more. “ALL SHAPES AND SIZES” exhibits several of these, including some representatives from Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods, along with some more recently composed numbers.
Renaissance Suite (Anthony Holborne)
“- The Marie-Golde” / “Night Watch” / “Patiencia” / “The New-Yeres Gift”
- Philadelphia Brass Ensemble
- 6:03
Music for the Royal Fireworks (George Frederick Handel)
- “La Rejouissance”
- The English Concert
- Trevor Pinnock, conductor
- 2:00
Quintet for Piano and Winds, III (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
- Andre Previn, piano
- Vienna Wind Soloists
- 6:24
Petite Symphonie, I (Charles Gounod)
- Winds of the Halle Orchestra
- Sir John Barbirolli, conductor
- 5:37
Concerto for Bassoon, I (Gordon Jacob/Robert Cray)
- North Texas Wind Symphony
- Eugene Corporon, conductor
- Lynn Moncilovich, bassoon
- 5:24
October (Eric Whitacre)
- Youngstown State University
- Stephen Gage, conductor
- 7:29
Wild Nights! (Frank Ticheli)
- University of Kansas Wind Ensemble
- Scott Weiss, conductor
- 7:14
Concertino for Four Percussion and Wind Ensemble (David Gillingham)
- University of Miami
- Gary Green, conductor
- 8:28
Wind groups from the Renaissance through the current day flourish in all kinds of sizes and configurations—small chamber consorts, all brass ensembles, percussion drumline, one-to-a-part wind ensemble, full concert band—and many, many more. “ALL SHAPES AND SIZES” exhibits several of these, including some representatives from Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods, along with some more recently composed numbers.
Renaissance Suite (Anthony Holborne)
“- The Marie-Golde” / “Night Watch” / “Patiencia” / “The New-Yeres Gift”
- Philadelphia Brass Ensemble
- 6:03
Music for the Royal Fireworks (George Frederick Handel)
- “La Rejouissance”
- The English Concert
- Trevor Pinnock, conductor
- 2:00
Quintet for Piano and Winds, III (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
- Andre Previn, piano
- Vienna Wind Soloists
- 6:24
Petite Symphonie, I (Charles Gounod)
- Winds of the Halle Orchestra
- Sir John Barbirolli, conductor
- 5:37
Concerto for Bassoon, I (Gordon Jacob/Robert Cray)
- North Texas Wind Symphony
- Eugene Corporon, conductor
- Lynn Moncilovich, bassoon
- 5:24
October (Eric Whitacre)
- Youngstown State University
- Stephen Gage, conductor
- 7:29
Wild Nights! (Frank Ticheli)
- University of Kansas Wind Ensemble
- Scott Weiss, conductor
- 7:14
Concertino for Four Percussion and Wind Ensemble (David Gillingham)
- University of Miami
- Gary Green, conductor
- 8:28
Jacob: Music for a Festival
In a similar vein to yesterday's post, today's blog post will focus on Gordon Jacob's "Music for a Festival." You can find program notes and a recording below. The notes are from a review of the CD "A Festival of Music." Enjoy!
Gordon Jacob followed closely in the footsteps of Vaughan Williams and Holst in the early part of the twentieth century. Together they enriched the repertoire and raised the status of the military band, and of symphonic wind bands in general, as perceived by the musical establishment. These three composers were among the first to give bands music of quality to replace the run-of-the-mill selections of popular tunes that were the staple fare of many concerts. This enterprising CD is a fitting tribute to Jacob from one of the UK's leading military bands for his contributions to the medium over a period of some sixty years.
On this disc are some of Jacob?s major works for band. First is the Original Suite of 1928, which is still one of the most frequently played of his band pieces. Apparently it was the publishers who insisted upon the word "original" in the title so that audiences would realise that this was not the usual popular fare! The three movements give the band plenty of contrasts of tempo and mood from the elegant first movement, to the more pensive second and the perky and quirky third. The work receives a splendidly controlled performance from the Coldstream Guards Band.
The overture "Ally Pally" written for the centenary of Alexandra Palace in 1975 is a dignified tribute in sound to that establishment and it receives its premiere recording here.
One instrument that over the years has gradually emerged from the background to become a respected solo performer is the euphonium. Several composers have written pieces for it, including full concertos. Jacob's Fantasia appeared in 1969 and has proved to be a useful addition to the band repertoire. It is an expressive piece, with a persistent but gentle lilt, though it becomes livelier in the middle section. The soloist, L.Cpl. John Storey, plays with flair, producing a beautifully smooth tone and an eloquent, fluent and sensitive performance.
The Concerto for Band has two brisk outer movements between which is a beautifully serene slow movement. The rhythmic complexities of the fast movements give the band plenty to think about in terms of precision playing while the central movement requires it to be restrained and expressive. The band here delivers first-rate performances with clear-cut melodic lines, precision and delicacy in the quieter moments. It is thrillingly powerful in fortissimo passages yet shows the greatest self-control when the music is marked pianissimo.
In the past, I have often felt that some performers take Jacob's slow movements just a fraction too quickly, with the result that the often subtle emotional content is lost. To my ears, Major Graham Jones has judged his tempi to perfection on this disc. The slow movement of this Concerto is a prime example and it allows the wistful mood to be savoured and experienced to the full. The same is true of the slow movements in other pieces on this CD, and particularly so in the fourth movement (Air) of Music for a Festival. The tempo here is only marginally slower than on other recordings I have heard but it makes a significant difference.
This particular work was commissioned for the Festival of Britain in 1951 and is the largest and probably the most widely known of Jacob's works for band. It has rightly become a classic. Its eleven movements are shared by a fanfare brass group (four trumpets and three trombones) and the full band. The brass group play the odd-numbered movements (Interludes), except for the Finale when both forces combine. The Interludes seem to hark back to Tudor times in character, in contrast to the movements for full band which clearly belong to the present day. The work contains much memorable music, such as the masterly Round of Seven Parts for the brass group and the March for band which cleverly combines the March and Trio themes in the final section. The work contains plenty of good tunes and the musicians here give it a sparkling performance.
Finally in this collection is the arrangement, for fanfare group and band, of the National Anthem, originally conceived as an orchestral version for the Coronation in 1953. Jacob's stirring arrangement has stood the test of time and far outshines all others. It is frequently used on state and other important occasions.
The recording quality is excellent. Part of the general clarity must be attributed to Jacob's skills in orchestration but the recording conditions and the musicianship of conductor and band in achieving a good balance of sound all play their part. This CD is highly recommended.
Dr Geoff Ogram
Music for a Festival, Part I
Music for a Festival, Part II
Gordon Jacob followed closely in the footsteps of Vaughan Williams and Holst in the early part of the twentieth century. Together they enriched the repertoire and raised the status of the military band, and of symphonic wind bands in general, as perceived by the musical establishment. These three composers were among the first to give bands music of quality to replace the run-of-the-mill selections of popular tunes that were the staple fare of many concerts. This enterprising CD is a fitting tribute to Jacob from one of the UK's leading military bands for his contributions to the medium over a period of some sixty years.
On this disc are some of Jacob?s major works for band. First is the Original Suite of 1928, which is still one of the most frequently played of his band pieces. Apparently it was the publishers who insisted upon the word "original" in the title so that audiences would realise that this was not the usual popular fare! The three movements give the band plenty of contrasts of tempo and mood from the elegant first movement, to the more pensive second and the perky and quirky third. The work receives a splendidly controlled performance from the Coldstream Guards Band.
The overture "Ally Pally" written for the centenary of Alexandra Palace in 1975 is a dignified tribute in sound to that establishment and it receives its premiere recording here.
One instrument that over the years has gradually emerged from the background to become a respected solo performer is the euphonium. Several composers have written pieces for it, including full concertos. Jacob's Fantasia appeared in 1969 and has proved to be a useful addition to the band repertoire. It is an expressive piece, with a persistent but gentle lilt, though it becomes livelier in the middle section. The soloist, L.Cpl. John Storey, plays with flair, producing a beautifully smooth tone and an eloquent, fluent and sensitive performance.
The Concerto for Band has two brisk outer movements between which is a beautifully serene slow movement. The rhythmic complexities of the fast movements give the band plenty to think about in terms of precision playing while the central movement requires it to be restrained and expressive. The band here delivers first-rate performances with clear-cut melodic lines, precision and delicacy in the quieter moments. It is thrillingly powerful in fortissimo passages yet shows the greatest self-control when the music is marked pianissimo.
In the past, I have often felt that some performers take Jacob's slow movements just a fraction too quickly, with the result that the often subtle emotional content is lost. To my ears, Major Graham Jones has judged his tempi to perfection on this disc. The slow movement of this Concerto is a prime example and it allows the wistful mood to be savoured and experienced to the full. The same is true of the slow movements in other pieces on this CD, and particularly so in the fourth movement (Air) of Music for a Festival. The tempo here is only marginally slower than on other recordings I have heard but it makes a significant difference.
This particular work was commissioned for the Festival of Britain in 1951 and is the largest and probably the most widely known of Jacob's works for band. It has rightly become a classic. Its eleven movements are shared by a fanfare brass group (four trumpets and three trombones) and the full band. The brass group play the odd-numbered movements (Interludes), except for the Finale when both forces combine. The Interludes seem to hark back to Tudor times in character, in contrast to the movements for full band which clearly belong to the present day. The work contains much memorable music, such as the masterly Round of Seven Parts for the brass group and the March for band which cleverly combines the March and Trio themes in the final section. The work contains plenty of good tunes and the musicians here give it a sparkling performance.
Finally in this collection is the arrangement, for fanfare group and band, of the National Anthem, originally conceived as an orchestral version for the Coronation in 1953. Jacob's stirring arrangement has stood the test of time and far outshines all others. It is frequently used on state and other important occasions.
The recording quality is excellent. Part of the general clarity must be attributed to Jacob's skills in orchestration but the recording conditions and the musicianship of conductor and band in achieving a good balance of sound all play their part. This CD is highly recommended.
Dr Geoff Ogram
Music for a Festival, Part I
Music for a Festival, Part II
Monday, August 16, 2010
Navy Band Concert Tonight (8/16)
Tonight you can hear the United States Navy Band in the Summer Concert Series. Concert starts at 8:00 PM and is free. Enjoy!
William Byrd Suite
Today's post will focus on another classic for large wind ensemble: Gordon Jacob's "William Byrd Suite." Jacob wrote many pieces for band (which we will explore more of in the near future), but "William Byrd Suite" is probably his most famous. Extensive program notes below are by Brian Doyle and you can also find a recording below as well. Enjoy!
William Byrd Suite, I. The Earle of Oxford's March
William Byrd Suite, II. Pavana
William Byrd Suite, III. Jhon Come Kiss Me Now
William Byrd Suite, IV. The Mayden's Song
William Byrd Suite, V. Wolsey's Wilde
William Byrd Suite, VI. The Bells
William Byrd (1543-1623) was the leading English composer of his generation, and together with continental composers Giovanni Palestrina and Orlando de Lassus, one of the great masters of the late Renaissance. Raised in the Royal Chapel, Byrd most likely studied with composer and chapel organist Thomas Tallis. Although raised in Protestant surroundings, Byrd remained a devout Roman Catholic and yet maintained favor with the throne throughout his life.
Keyboard music formed one of Byrd's main compositional endeavors, and the fruit of these labors provided the impulse for an entire school of Elizabethan keyboard composition. Most of these works were intended for performance at the virginal, a relative of the harpsichord in many timbral and mechanical aspects. Although Byrd's keyboard works first appear in the 1570s, they only circulate in manuscript until the publication of My Ladye Nevells Booke (1591) and Parthenia (1611). However, the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book languished in obscurity until 1899 before receiving publication. This collection comprises the largest set of Byrd's keyboard works - around seventy - and is also regarded as England's foremost collection of keyboard works. All of the movements Gordon Jacob set in William Byrd Suite have the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book as their source.
Gordon Jacob studied with Charles Villiers Stanford, Adrian Boult and Ralph Vaughan-Williams at the Royal College of Music. After teaching at Birbeck and Morley Colleges in London, Jacob joined the RCM staff in 1924 and remained until his retirement in 1966. His pupils included Malcolm Arnold, Imogen Holst and Joseph Horovitz. At the time of Jacob's death in 1984, he had written over 700 works. His numerous offerings for wind band, including Old Wine and New Bottles, Music for a Festival, Original Suite, Giles Farnaby Suite, The Battell and William Byrd Suite follow the precedent set by Gustav Holst and former teacher Ralph Vaughan Williams. These English composers' works formed the cornerstone of the wind band repertoire in the early part of the 20th century.
Jacob considered William Byrd Suite "freely transcribed," as virginal players had no means of creating dynamic shading or timbral contrast on their instrument. Composers created dynamic intensity by adding voices above and/or below the melody. Similarly, composers created musical intensity by adding lines of increasing complexity, ornamenting the melody. Jacob remained mostly faithful to Byrd's original melody, harmony, form and figuration, but added his own orchestrational color and dynamic shading to intensify the aforementioned expressive qualities of the music.
It is an overstatement to describe each movement simply as growing louder and more complex due to layers of ornamentation, variation and imitation. Although Byrd utilizes these compositional devices in all the works represented, his genius lies in how he utilizes these effects in varying degrees to avoid monotony. In "The Earl of Oxford's March," devices of crescendo, ornamentation and imitation are clearly evident. This movement, marked un poco pomposo, begins its stately procession through the two iterations of its form simply and very quietly, growing steadily stronger and more complex into the climactic final sections. Although originally attributed to Byrd, the slow, stately "Pavana" is now placed within Anthony Holborne's works list. Jacob alters the harmonic scheme of this movement, beginning each phrase in a different tonality, yet emphasizing Bb-major in them all. "Jhon come kisse me now," "The Mayden's Song" and "Wolsey's Wilde" are sets of variations upon an eight and two sixteen bar melodies, respectively. Imitation and ornamentation are the primary developmental tools in the first two, while the third follows a more conservative approach with far less figuration and only one variation. Jacob's orchestration of "Wolsey's Wilde" takes advantage of the instrumental forces, alternating loud and soft dynamics, and effectively utilizing the timbral possibilities of the winds. "The Bells" is structured in large musical paragraphs, a continuous motivic variation emanating from a single two-note ground in the bass. The work culminates with a tubular bell solo amidst a grandiose layering of contrapuntal texture.
Program Note by Brian K. Doyle
William Byrd Suite, I. The Earle of Oxford's March
William Byrd Suite, II. Pavana
William Byrd Suite, III. Jhon Come Kiss Me Now
William Byrd Suite, IV. The Mayden's Song
William Byrd Suite, V. Wolsey's Wilde
William Byrd Suite, VI. The Bells
William Byrd (1543-1623) was the leading English composer of his generation, and together with continental composers Giovanni Palestrina and Orlando de Lassus, one of the great masters of the late Renaissance. Raised in the Royal Chapel, Byrd most likely studied with composer and chapel organist Thomas Tallis. Although raised in Protestant surroundings, Byrd remained a devout Roman Catholic and yet maintained favor with the throne throughout his life.
Keyboard music formed one of Byrd's main compositional endeavors, and the fruit of these labors provided the impulse for an entire school of Elizabethan keyboard composition. Most of these works were intended for performance at the virginal, a relative of the harpsichord in many timbral and mechanical aspects. Although Byrd's keyboard works first appear in the 1570s, they only circulate in manuscript until the publication of My Ladye Nevells Booke (1591) and Parthenia (1611). However, the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book languished in obscurity until 1899 before receiving publication. This collection comprises the largest set of Byrd's keyboard works - around seventy - and is also regarded as England's foremost collection of keyboard works. All of the movements Gordon Jacob set in William Byrd Suite have the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book as their source.
Gordon Jacob studied with Charles Villiers Stanford, Adrian Boult and Ralph Vaughan-Williams at the Royal College of Music. After teaching at Birbeck and Morley Colleges in London, Jacob joined the RCM staff in 1924 and remained until his retirement in 1966. His pupils included Malcolm Arnold, Imogen Holst and Joseph Horovitz. At the time of Jacob's death in 1984, he had written over 700 works. His numerous offerings for wind band, including Old Wine and New Bottles, Music for a Festival, Original Suite, Giles Farnaby Suite, The Battell and William Byrd Suite follow the precedent set by Gustav Holst and former teacher Ralph Vaughan Williams. These English composers' works formed the cornerstone of the wind band repertoire in the early part of the 20th century.
Jacob considered William Byrd Suite "freely transcribed," as virginal players had no means of creating dynamic shading or timbral contrast on their instrument. Composers created dynamic intensity by adding voices above and/or below the melody. Similarly, composers created musical intensity by adding lines of increasing complexity, ornamenting the melody. Jacob remained mostly faithful to Byrd's original melody, harmony, form and figuration, but added his own orchestrational color and dynamic shading to intensify the aforementioned expressive qualities of the music.
It is an overstatement to describe each movement simply as growing louder and more complex due to layers of ornamentation, variation and imitation. Although Byrd utilizes these compositional devices in all the works represented, his genius lies in how he utilizes these effects in varying degrees to avoid monotony. In "The Earl of Oxford's March," devices of crescendo, ornamentation and imitation are clearly evident. This movement, marked un poco pomposo, begins its stately procession through the two iterations of its form simply and very quietly, growing steadily stronger and more complex into the climactic final sections. Although originally attributed to Byrd, the slow, stately "Pavana" is now placed within Anthony Holborne's works list. Jacob alters the harmonic scheme of this movement, beginning each phrase in a different tonality, yet emphasizing Bb-major in them all. "Jhon come kisse me now," "The Mayden's Song" and "Wolsey's Wilde" are sets of variations upon an eight and two sixteen bar melodies, respectively. Imitation and ornamentation are the primary developmental tools in the first two, while the third follows a more conservative approach with far less figuration and only one variation. Jacob's orchestration of "Wolsey's Wilde" takes advantage of the instrumental forces, alternating loud and soft dynamics, and effectively utilizing the timbral possibilities of the winds. "The Bells" is structured in large musical paragraphs, a continuous motivic variation emanating from a single two-note ground in the bass. The work culminates with a tubular bell solo amidst a grandiose layering of contrapuntal texture.
Program Note by Brian K. Doyle
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Persichetti: Masquerade
Below are program note and a recording of Vincent Persichetti's "Masquerade for Band." Enjoy!
Masquerade for Band recording
Vincent Persichetti: Masquerade for Band, op. 102 (1966)
Masquerade, a theme and set of ten variations, is a realization of examples and exercises that can be found in Persichetti’s book Twentieth Century Harmony. Reflecting his ever-present sense of humor, Persichetti did not reveal the relationship between the book and the composition until long after its publication, later referring to the piece as “a masquerade of the harmony book.” It was written for and premiered by the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory (Berea, OH) Symphonic Band in 1966. The formal structure of Masquerade is that of a theme and variations, but not in the traditional sense; while Persichetti does extract a theme (more of a brief motto) from his book, most of the variations can be traced, not back to this theme, but instead directly to materials from the text. Persichetti culls material from almost every chapter; individual variations embody such various harmonic principles as: octatonicism, pentatonicism, polytonality, modality, parallelism, whole-tone harmonies, quartal harmony, pedal-points, and ending with 12-tone aggregates. While Masquerade could have been a dry litany of 20th-century compositional techniques, the music instead moves between the composer’s polar stylistic descriptions of “gracious” and “gritty,” all the while sparkling with Persichetti’s wit, enthusiasm and musical creativity—a fitting end to a concert that is a tribute not only to the American composer-teacher Vincent Persichetti, but also to the myriad musical relationships between mentor and protégé, teacher and student.
Masquerade for Band recording
Vincent Persichetti: Masquerade for Band, op. 102 (1966)
Masquerade, a theme and set of ten variations, is a realization of examples and exercises that can be found in Persichetti’s book Twentieth Century Harmony. Reflecting his ever-present sense of humor, Persichetti did not reveal the relationship between the book and the composition until long after its publication, later referring to the piece as “a masquerade of the harmony book.” It was written for and premiered by the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory (Berea, OH) Symphonic Band in 1966. The formal structure of Masquerade is that of a theme and variations, but not in the traditional sense; while Persichetti does extract a theme (more of a brief motto) from his book, most of the variations can be traced, not back to this theme, but instead directly to materials from the text. Persichetti culls material from almost every chapter; individual variations embody such various harmonic principles as: octatonicism, pentatonicism, polytonality, modality, parallelism, whole-tone harmonies, quartal harmony, pedal-points, and ending with 12-tone aggregates. While Masquerade could have been a dry litany of 20th-century compositional techniques, the music instead moves between the composer’s polar stylistic descriptions of “gracious” and “gritty,” all the while sparkling with Persichetti’s wit, enthusiasm and musical creativity—a fitting end to a concert that is a tribute not only to the American composer-teacher Vincent Persichetti, but also to the myriad musical relationships between mentor and protégé, teacher and student.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Persichetti: Divertimento
Continuing with the music of Vincent Persichetti, today's blog post will focus on his "Divertimento." Along with the Symphony (see yesterday's post), these are widely considered Persichetti's two best works for bands. You can read two different sets of program notes below and hear a recording.
Divertimento Part I
Divertimento Part II
Below are program notes by James Huff of the Claremont Winds.
The Divertimento started out as an orchestral work, but as the woodwind, brass and percussion figures evolved, composer Vincent Persichetti eliminated the idea of incorporating strings. The resulting piece has been described as "alternating between a sense of mischief and a poignant vein of nostalgia" and has become one of the most widely performed works in the entire wind band repertoire. One of the major figures in American music of the 20th century, Persichetti was influenced by Stravinsky, Bartok, Hindemith and Copland. Persichetti's first compositions were published when he was 14 years old, and by the age of 20 he was head of the theory and composition department at Philadelphia's Combs College of Music and simultaneously studying conducting at the Curtis Institute and piano and composition at the Philadelphia Conservatory. He produced a large body of orchestral, vocal and choral works in addition to his significant contributions to the literature for concert band.
The program notes below are from http://www.windband.org.
Divertimento for Band
Each of the six movements of the Divertimento covers completely different moods and styles. The work has a beautiful balance from the agitated woodwind figures and aggressive brass polychords in the first and last movements to the delicate and lyrical inner movements. This compendium of styles is rare for a single work. It has been said that Persichetti's use of instruments makes the reeds the movers, the brass the pointers, and the percussion the connectors and high-lighters. The Prologue is driving and electric, while the Song demonstrates Persichetti's lyricism as he weaves two simple and attractive melodies together. The music does Dance in the third movement as it is tossed about by the woodwinds around a trumpet solo passage. The "pesante" opening of the Burlesque suddenly changes to "brightly" with no change in the tempo, but a complete change in the texture. The beauty of the Soliloquy belongs to the solo cornet. The percussion entrance of the March returns the pace to that of the original opening as the brass and woodwind choirs work over the punctuation and timbre of the percussion section.
Divertimento Part I
Divertimento Part II
Below are program notes by James Huff of the Claremont Winds.
The Divertimento started out as an orchestral work, but as the woodwind, brass and percussion figures evolved, composer Vincent Persichetti eliminated the idea of incorporating strings. The resulting piece has been described as "alternating between a sense of mischief and a poignant vein of nostalgia" and has become one of the most widely performed works in the entire wind band repertoire. One of the major figures in American music of the 20th century, Persichetti was influenced by Stravinsky, Bartok, Hindemith and Copland. Persichetti's first compositions were published when he was 14 years old, and by the age of 20 he was head of the theory and composition department at Philadelphia's Combs College of Music and simultaneously studying conducting at the Curtis Institute and piano and composition at the Philadelphia Conservatory. He produced a large body of orchestral, vocal and choral works in addition to his significant contributions to the literature for concert band.
The program notes below are from http://www.windband.org.
Divertimento for Band
Each of the six movements of the Divertimento covers completely different moods and styles. The work has a beautiful balance from the agitated woodwind figures and aggressive brass polychords in the first and last movements to the delicate and lyrical inner movements. This compendium of styles is rare for a single work. It has been said that Persichetti's use of instruments makes the reeds the movers, the brass the pointers, and the percussion the connectors and high-lighters. The Prologue is driving and electric, while the Song demonstrates Persichetti's lyricism as he weaves two simple and attractive melodies together. The music does Dance in the third movement as it is tossed about by the woodwinds around a trumpet solo passage. The "pesante" opening of the Burlesque suddenly changes to "brightly" with no change in the tempo, but a complete change in the texture. The beauty of the Soliloquy belongs to the solo cornet. The percussion entrance of the March returns the pace to that of the original opening as the brass and woodwind choirs work over the punctuation and timbre of the percussion section.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Army Band Concert Tonight (8/13)
Tonight you can hear the United States Army Band on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Building. The concert starts at 8:00 PM and is free. The program will feature the U.S. Army Orchestra and the music of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Enjoy!
Persichetti: Symphony No. 6
Vincent Persichetti's "Symphony No. 6" is certainly a work that has become a cornerstone of the wind band repertoire. For Persichetti, whose contributions to the wind medium cannot be understated, this is probably his most significant work for winds. The next blog posts will focus on the music of Persichetti (since we have yet to post on his music) so stay tuned for more posts on this incredibly influential and significant composer for winds.
These program notes below are from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Symphony for Band
Vincent Persichetti was one of America’s most respected 20th century composers. His contributions enriched the entire music literature; his influence as a conductor, teacher, scholar, and keyboard virtuoso is universally acknowledged. In addition to well-known works for a variety of other media, Persichetti composed 16 major concert works for band.
Vincent Persichetti was the first of three children. His parents were immigrants from Italy and Germany. He began studying piano at the age of five and gradually added organ, double bass, tuba, theory, and composition to his music studies. By the age of 11 he was performing professionally as an accompanist, radio staff pianist, and church organist. He composed the five-movement Serenade No. 1 for Ten Winds at 14, and at 16 he began a 20-year tenure as organist at the Arch Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. He earned degrees at Combs College of Music (BM, 1935), the Curtis Institute (conducting diploma, 1939), and the Philadelphia Conservatory (MM, 1941; DMA, 1945).
Persichetti conducted the orchestra and taught theory and composition at Combs College (1937), headed the composition department at the Philadelphia Conservatory (1941-1961), and also taught at the Juilliard School of Music as composition teacher (1947) and chairman (from 1963). In 1952 he became editorial assistant and, later, director of publications of the Elkan-Vogel Co. His
manual Twentieth-Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practices and his Essays on Twentieth-Century Choral Music are widely known. In 1954 he published a biography of his colleague William Schuman. Persichetti was the recipient of many prestigious fellowships and honors
Nicolas Slonimsky described Persichetti’s music as being “remarkable for its polyphonic skill in fusing the seemingly incompatible idioms of classicism, romanticism, and stark modernism…(with) Italianate diatonicism, in a lyrical manner.” Approximately 120 of Persichetti’s works have been published; over half were commissioned. Compositions include 16 band scores, nine symphonies, four string quartets, two piano sonatas, choral works, an opera, and much chamber music. His music has been recorded by a number of university and professional bands in the U.S. and Japan.
The Symphony for Band was commissioned and premiered by Clark Mitze and the Washington University Band at the MENC Convention in St. Louis on April 16, 1956. According to the composer, it could have been titled Symphony for Winds, following, as it did, his Symphony No. 5 for Strings. Persichetti, however, did not wish to avoid the word “band,” which he felt no longer had the connotation of a poor quality of music. In the autumn 1964 Journal of Band Research, he wrote, “Band music is virtually the only kind of music in America today (outside the ‘pop’ field) which can be introduced, accepted, put to immediate and wide use, and become a staple of the literature in a short time.” According to Jeffrey Renshaw, “The Symphony for Band…was in many ways such a departure from the established concepts of band works that it influenced
the attitudes of generations of composers.”
The four movements (Adagio allegro, Adagio sostenuto, Allegretto, and Vivace) have forms with traditional implications. The opening horn call and a following scale-wise passage in the slow introduction become the two principal themes (in reverse order) in the subsequent Allegro. The standard exposition, development, and recapitulation of sonata form are in the Allegro, although the traditional key relationships are not completely retained. The slow second movement is based
on “Round Me Falls the Night,” from the composer’s Hymns and Responses for the Church Year. The third movement, in trio form, serves as the traditional dance movement and is followed by a finale in free rondo form, which draws thematic material from the preceding movements and concludes with a chord containing all 12 tones of the scale.
Symphony No. 6, Mvt. I
Symphony No. 6, Mvt. II
Symphony No. 6, Mvt. III
Symphony No. 6, Mvt. IV
These program notes below are from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Symphony for Band
Vincent Persichetti was one of America’s most respected 20th century composers. His contributions enriched the entire music literature; his influence as a conductor, teacher, scholar, and keyboard virtuoso is universally acknowledged. In addition to well-known works for a variety of other media, Persichetti composed 16 major concert works for band.
Vincent Persichetti was the first of three children. His parents were immigrants from Italy and Germany. He began studying piano at the age of five and gradually added organ, double bass, tuba, theory, and composition to his music studies. By the age of 11 he was performing professionally as an accompanist, radio staff pianist, and church organist. He composed the five-movement Serenade No. 1 for Ten Winds at 14, and at 16 he began a 20-year tenure as organist at the Arch Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. He earned degrees at Combs College of Music (BM, 1935), the Curtis Institute (conducting diploma, 1939), and the Philadelphia Conservatory (MM, 1941; DMA, 1945).
Persichetti conducted the orchestra and taught theory and composition at Combs College (1937), headed the composition department at the Philadelphia Conservatory (1941-1961), and also taught at the Juilliard School of Music as composition teacher (1947) and chairman (from 1963). In 1952 he became editorial assistant and, later, director of publications of the Elkan-Vogel Co. His
manual Twentieth-Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practices and his Essays on Twentieth-Century Choral Music are widely known. In 1954 he published a biography of his colleague William Schuman. Persichetti was the recipient of many prestigious fellowships and honors
Nicolas Slonimsky described Persichetti’s music as being “remarkable for its polyphonic skill in fusing the seemingly incompatible idioms of classicism, romanticism, and stark modernism…(with) Italianate diatonicism, in a lyrical manner.” Approximately 120 of Persichetti’s works have been published; over half were commissioned. Compositions include 16 band scores, nine symphonies, four string quartets, two piano sonatas, choral works, an opera, and much chamber music. His music has been recorded by a number of university and professional bands in the U.S. and Japan.
The Symphony for Band was commissioned and premiered by Clark Mitze and the Washington University Band at the MENC Convention in St. Louis on April 16, 1956. According to the composer, it could have been titled Symphony for Winds, following, as it did, his Symphony No. 5 for Strings. Persichetti, however, did not wish to avoid the word “band,” which he felt no longer had the connotation of a poor quality of music. In the autumn 1964 Journal of Band Research, he wrote, “Band music is virtually the only kind of music in America today (outside the ‘pop’ field) which can be introduced, accepted, put to immediate and wide use, and become a staple of the literature in a short time.” According to Jeffrey Renshaw, “The Symphony for Band…was in many ways such a departure from the established concepts of band works that it influenced
the attitudes of generations of composers.”
The four movements (Adagio allegro, Adagio sostenuto, Allegretto, and Vivace) have forms with traditional implications. The opening horn call and a following scale-wise passage in the slow introduction become the two principal themes (in reverse order) in the subsequent Allegro. The standard exposition, development, and recapitulation of sonata form are in the Allegro, although the traditional key relationships are not completely retained. The slow second movement is based
on “Round Me Falls the Night,” from the composer’s Hymns and Responses for the Church Year. The third movement, in trio form, serves as the traditional dance movement and is followed by a finale in free rondo form, which draws thematic material from the preceding movements and concludes with a chord containing all 12 tones of the scale.
Symphony No. 6, Mvt. I
Symphony No. 6, Mvt. II
Symphony No. 6, Mvt. III
Symphony No. 6, Mvt. IV
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Del Tredici
Inspired by today's Composers Datebook, which you can find below, today's blog post will focus on the music of David Del Tredici and his two works for band: "In Wartime" and "Acrostic Song" (arr. Mark Spede). Today's Composers Datebook, program notes for both pieces, and recordings are below. Enjoy!
Composers Datebook audio (8/12/10)
Del Tredici in Wonderland
On today's date in 1964, a 27-year old Californian named David Del Tredici got a big break, when his setting of "I Hear An Army," a poem by James Joyce, was performed by soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson at the Tanglewood Festival in Massachusetts.
Del Tredici composed other works to poems by Joyce, which were equally well received. More commissions followed -- as did a Guggenheim Fellowship, a summer at the Marlboro Festival as its resident composer, and a teaching job at Harvard University.
As successful as Del Tredici's Joyce settings were, he is best known for a remarkable series of works inspired by another writer, Lewis Carroll, the 19th century British creator of the "Alice in Wonderland" books.
Beginning in 1968, with a choral work titled "Potpourri," Del Tredici created in short order "An Alice Symphony" and over a dozen other Lewis Carroll-inspired pieces. In 1980, one of these, "In Memory of a Summer Day," won the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
"Poetry turns me on," says Del Tredici, "and certain poets force me to write music for them . . . When I read a poem, I know before I'm through that I'll set it . . . It's the energy of the words, rather than the sense of the words. It's the mood that's important."
In Wartime
Notes by Timothy Reynish
DAVID DEL TREDICI & IN WARTIME
Despite this being Del Tredici’s 70th birthday year, according to the Boosey and Hawkes record the work has notched up just a handful of performances since 2003. In Wartime is a work of strong contrasts, the gentle Americana of a chorale prelude on Abide with Me gives way to a sinister march which proceeds with implacable tread until it erupts in the fateful confrontation of East and West, the National Song of Persia Salamati, Shah hurled against the opening chord sequence of Tristan und Isolde. The Battlemarch is recapitulated and ends in a final wail of pain, an extraordinary coup de theatre
Born 16th March 1937 , David Del Tredici is now firmly established in the pantheon of American composers. “Del Tredici,” said Aaron Copland, “is that rare find among composers – a creator with a truly original gift. I venture to say that his music is certain to make a lasting impression on the American musical scene. I know of no other composer of his generation … who composes music of greater freshness and daring, or with more personality.”
David Holland of the New York Times wrote recently
Even if you didn’t like David Del Tredici’s music, you would be obliged to admire its intrepidity and self-confidence. This 70-year-old American composer has risen above a vicious Hundred Years’ War of opposing musical styles, nearly by himself and with remarkable serenity. Sidestepping the armed camps of Serialism, neo-Romanticism, neo-Classicism, Minimalism, New Age and world musics, Mr. Del Tredici reminds us that it is not how you write but what you write that makes music interesting.
As usual with the wind world, the musical press have yet to attend a performance of In Wartime, even though it was played at the New York CBDNA Conference. However, in a review for Music Web International, Jonathan Woolf wrote
David Del Tredici’s In Wartime was written in 2003 during the time of the Iraq War and is cast in two movements – Hymn and Battlemarch. It opens in hymnal hope with high piccolo and low trombones exploring the registral potential of a wind band, the percussion opening into a welter of sound. Del Tredici introduces Abide With Me in fragmentary form, stated only to be immediately broken up before it’s stated, memorably, in full. The second movement drives ever onward, sometimes with mechanistic venom, quoting the Persian national song Salamati, Shah! and the beginning of Tristan und Isolde in oppositional contrast. The dense implacability of the writing gives way to mysterious ascending arabesques, vaporous instrumental fillips by each instrumental section in solo voices. The work ends with a wounded siren, a wail of pain as the composer aptly puts it in his own programme notes. Some of the sonorities he conjures put me in mind of Milhaud in La Création du Monde – especially his writing for the saxophone - and part of it evoked Janačék’s Sinfonietta in its abrupt but striking brass writing.
Compared with Milhaud and Janacek, admired by Copland, Pullitzer prize-winner, – seventy years old with a new work for band that is being generally ignored by the wind band fraternity. Can it be that the great man has penned a turkey, or are we just not ready for him yet?
In Wartime Part I
In Wartime Part II
"Acrostic Song" from "Final Alice"
Notes from the San Jose Wind Symphony
Acrostic Song, from Final Alice
David Del Tredici (b. 1937), arranged for band by Mark Spede. A native of Cloverdale, California, David Del Tredici is widely regarded as the leader of the Neo-Romantic movement in contemporary American music. After making his piano debut with the San Francisco Symphony at age 17, he went on to receive a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.F.A. in 1964 from Princeton University. Del Tredici enjoys a successful career as a composer and teacher. He has received several prestigious awards, including the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for In Memory of a Summer Day. Del Tredici has had works commissioned and premiered by nearly every major American and European orchestra. Currently, he maintains an active composition schedule while serving on the music faculty at the City College of New York.
Early in his career, many of Del Tredici’s compositions consisted of elaborate vocal settings of texts by James Joyce and Lewis Carroll. Del Tredici completed Final Alice in 1975, inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. It is a large-scale work intended for amplified soprano voice, folk group (comprised of two soprano saxophones, banjo, and accordion) and full orchestra. This work is a series of arias, separated by various dramatic episodes, which, in the words of the composer, “teeters between the worlds of opera and concert music.” The fi nal aria, “Acrostic Song,” is a setting of the concluding poem from Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. The poem itself is an acrostic, with the initial letters of each line spelling out the name of the “real” Alice, Alice Pleasance Liddell.
Acrostic Song recording
Composers Datebook audio (8/12/10)
Del Tredici in Wonderland
On today's date in 1964, a 27-year old Californian named David Del Tredici got a big break, when his setting of "I Hear An Army," a poem by James Joyce, was performed by soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson at the Tanglewood Festival in Massachusetts.
Del Tredici composed other works to poems by Joyce, which were equally well received. More commissions followed -- as did a Guggenheim Fellowship, a summer at the Marlboro Festival as its resident composer, and a teaching job at Harvard University.
As successful as Del Tredici's Joyce settings were, he is best known for a remarkable series of works inspired by another writer, Lewis Carroll, the 19th century British creator of the "Alice in Wonderland" books.
Beginning in 1968, with a choral work titled "Potpourri," Del Tredici created in short order "An Alice Symphony" and over a dozen other Lewis Carroll-inspired pieces. In 1980, one of these, "In Memory of a Summer Day," won the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
"Poetry turns me on," says Del Tredici, "and certain poets force me to write music for them . . . When I read a poem, I know before I'm through that I'll set it . . . It's the energy of the words, rather than the sense of the words. It's the mood that's important."
In Wartime
Notes by Timothy Reynish
DAVID DEL TREDICI & IN WARTIME
Despite this being Del Tredici’s 70th birthday year, according to the Boosey and Hawkes record the work has notched up just a handful of performances since 2003. In Wartime is a work of strong contrasts, the gentle Americana of a chorale prelude on Abide with Me gives way to a sinister march which proceeds with implacable tread until it erupts in the fateful confrontation of East and West, the National Song of Persia Salamati, Shah hurled against the opening chord sequence of Tristan und Isolde. The Battlemarch is recapitulated and ends in a final wail of pain, an extraordinary coup de theatre
Born 16th March 1937 , David Del Tredici is now firmly established in the pantheon of American composers. “Del Tredici,” said Aaron Copland, “is that rare find among composers – a creator with a truly original gift. I venture to say that his music is certain to make a lasting impression on the American musical scene. I know of no other composer of his generation … who composes music of greater freshness and daring, or with more personality.”
David Holland of the New York Times wrote recently
Even if you didn’t like David Del Tredici’s music, you would be obliged to admire its intrepidity and self-confidence. This 70-year-old American composer has risen above a vicious Hundred Years’ War of opposing musical styles, nearly by himself and with remarkable serenity. Sidestepping the armed camps of Serialism, neo-Romanticism, neo-Classicism, Minimalism, New Age and world musics, Mr. Del Tredici reminds us that it is not how you write but what you write that makes music interesting.
As usual with the wind world, the musical press have yet to attend a performance of In Wartime, even though it was played at the New York CBDNA Conference. However, in a review for Music Web International, Jonathan Woolf wrote
David Del Tredici’s In Wartime was written in 2003 during the time of the Iraq War and is cast in two movements – Hymn and Battlemarch. It opens in hymnal hope with high piccolo and low trombones exploring the registral potential of a wind band, the percussion opening into a welter of sound. Del Tredici introduces Abide With Me in fragmentary form, stated only to be immediately broken up before it’s stated, memorably, in full. The second movement drives ever onward, sometimes with mechanistic venom, quoting the Persian national song Salamati, Shah! and the beginning of Tristan und Isolde in oppositional contrast. The dense implacability of the writing gives way to mysterious ascending arabesques, vaporous instrumental fillips by each instrumental section in solo voices. The work ends with a wounded siren, a wail of pain as the composer aptly puts it in his own programme notes. Some of the sonorities he conjures put me in mind of Milhaud in La Création du Monde – especially his writing for the saxophone - and part of it evoked Janačék’s Sinfonietta in its abrupt but striking brass writing.
Compared with Milhaud and Janacek, admired by Copland, Pullitzer prize-winner, – seventy years old with a new work for band that is being generally ignored by the wind band fraternity. Can it be that the great man has penned a turkey, or are we just not ready for him yet?
In Wartime Part I
In Wartime Part II
"Acrostic Song" from "Final Alice"
Notes from the San Jose Wind Symphony
Acrostic Song, from Final Alice
David Del Tredici (b. 1937), arranged for band by Mark Spede. A native of Cloverdale, California, David Del Tredici is widely regarded as the leader of the Neo-Romantic movement in contemporary American music. After making his piano debut with the San Francisco Symphony at age 17, he went on to receive a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.F.A. in 1964 from Princeton University. Del Tredici enjoys a successful career as a composer and teacher. He has received several prestigious awards, including the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for In Memory of a Summer Day. Del Tredici has had works commissioned and premiered by nearly every major American and European orchestra. Currently, he maintains an active composition schedule while serving on the music faculty at the City College of New York.
Early in his career, many of Del Tredici’s compositions consisted of elaborate vocal settings of texts by James Joyce and Lewis Carroll. Del Tredici completed Final Alice in 1975, inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. It is a large-scale work intended for amplified soprano voice, folk group (comprised of two soprano saxophones, banjo, and accordion) and full orchestra. This work is a series of arias, separated by various dramatic episodes, which, in the words of the composer, “teeters between the worlds of opera and concert music.” The fi nal aria, “Acrostic Song,” is a setting of the concluding poem from Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. The poem itself is an acrostic, with the initial letters of each line spelling out the name of the “real” Alice, Alice Pleasance Liddell.
Acrostic Song recording
Marine Band Concert Tonight (8/12)
Tonight you can hear the United States Marine Band at the Sylvan Theater on the grounds of the Washington Monument. The concert begins at 8:00 PM and is free. The program will be the same as yesterday's performance. Enjoy!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Marine Band Concert Tonight (8/11)
Tonight you can hear the United States Marine Band performing on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Building. The concert begins at 8:00 PM and is free. The concert program is below and attendees will hear current Maryland student and UMWO member Samantha Angelo perform as a soloist on the Makris. Enjoy!
John Philip Sousa
March, “The Black Horse Troop”
Jacques Offenbach/trans. Odom
Overture to La Belle Hélène
Andreas Makris
Intrigues
Staff Sergeant Samantha Angelo, clarinet soloist
Don Gillis/trans. Ford
Symphony No. 5 ½
Perpetual Emotion
Spiritual?
Scherzofrenia
Conclusion
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky/trans. Godfrey II
Marche slave, Opus 31
John Philip Sousa
March, “The Black Horse Troop”
Jacques Offenbach/trans. Odom
Overture to La Belle Hélène
Andreas Makris
Intrigues
Staff Sergeant Samantha Angelo, clarinet soloist
Don Gillis/trans. Ford
Symphony No. 5 ½
Perpetual Emotion
Spiritual?
Scherzofrenia
Conclusion
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky/trans. Godfrey II
Marche slave, Opus 31
Strauss: Wiener Philharmoniker Fanfare
Although we typically only think of Strauss's contributions to the wind band medium in terms of four pieces (Suite Op. 4, Serenade Op. 7, Sonatina No. 1, Symphony or Sonatina No. 2), he also wrote a good deal of brass band music. Among these contributions is his "Wiener Philharmoniker Fanfare."
You can find program notes for the piece below as well as a recording. Enjoy!
Wiener Philharmoniker Fanfare recording
Program Notes
These notes were edited, amended, and otherwise improved by Eric Kujawsky, Peter Stahl, and Doug Wyatt.
Barbara Heninger
Richard Strauss
Fanfare for the Vienna Philharmonic
Born into a musical family, Richard Strauss proved early that he was a composer to watch out for. Conductor Hans von Bülow called the composer's Serenade for Thirteen Winds (1881), written when Strauss was just 17, evidence that the young man was "by far the most striking personality since Brahms."
Strauss is perhaps best known for popularizing and refining the form of the tone poem, with works such as Don Juan (1888--89), Till Eulenspiegel (1894--95), and Also sprach Zarathustra (1895--96), as well for operas such as Salome (1903--05) or Der Rosenkavalier (1909--10). However, Strauss also had a long and fruitful career as a conductor, leading the Berlin Royal Opera, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna State Opera, and the Vienna Philharmonic. Strauss even took the Vienna Philharmonic on a tour of South America in 1920, and collaborated on several works for the group, including the fanfare heard in today's concert.
The Fanfare für die Wiener Philharmoniker was written in 1924 for the organization's first benefit ball, which raised money for the musician's pension fund. Held on March 4 of that year, the ball took place during the holiday called Fasching in German-speaking countries and known as Carnival or Mardi Gras in other countries. The piece was played while honored guests, such as the Matron of the Ball, arrived at the event. The work has been played every year since at the Philharmonic's annual balls.
Being the son of the principal horn player for the Munich Court Orchestra may have had something to do with the composer's ability to write for brass, but whatever his influences, this brief fanfare certainly demonstrates his affinity for striking brass textures. The piece is scored for a large brass ensemble and two sets of timpani. It opens simply, with a single note on the trumpets repeated in the characteristic fanfare rhythm. This expands to a triad, and then the other sections enter one at a time: trombones, horns, timpani, each adding rhythmic and textural complexity. The main theme arrives, marked by the entrance of the tuba. A brief development leads to an even briefer second subject, played more softly and without the triplet motor propelling it. After just a few measures the main theme returns, soon reaching a climax featuring a riff in the horns climbing three octaves. Short but stirring, one can easily understand why any Matron of the Ball would ensure that this piece has remained in the Philharmonic's active repertory for 80 years.
You can find program notes for the piece below as well as a recording. Enjoy!
Wiener Philharmoniker Fanfare recording
Program Notes
These notes were edited, amended, and otherwise improved by Eric Kujawsky, Peter Stahl, and Doug Wyatt.
Barbara Heninger
Richard Strauss
Fanfare for the Vienna Philharmonic
Born into a musical family, Richard Strauss proved early that he was a composer to watch out for. Conductor Hans von Bülow called the composer's Serenade for Thirteen Winds (1881), written when Strauss was just 17, evidence that the young man was "by far the most striking personality since Brahms."
Strauss is perhaps best known for popularizing and refining the form of the tone poem, with works such as Don Juan (1888--89), Till Eulenspiegel (1894--95), and Also sprach Zarathustra (1895--96), as well for operas such as Salome (1903--05) or Der Rosenkavalier (1909--10). However, Strauss also had a long and fruitful career as a conductor, leading the Berlin Royal Opera, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna State Opera, and the Vienna Philharmonic. Strauss even took the Vienna Philharmonic on a tour of South America in 1920, and collaborated on several works for the group, including the fanfare heard in today's concert.
The Fanfare für die Wiener Philharmoniker was written in 1924 for the organization's first benefit ball, which raised money for the musician's pension fund. Held on March 4 of that year, the ball took place during the holiday called Fasching in German-speaking countries and known as Carnival or Mardi Gras in other countries. The piece was played while honored guests, such as the Matron of the Ball, arrived at the event. The work has been played every year since at the Philharmonic's annual balls.
Being the son of the principal horn player for the Munich Court Orchestra may have had something to do with the composer's ability to write for brass, but whatever his influences, this brief fanfare certainly demonstrates his affinity for striking brass textures. The piece is scored for a large brass ensemble and two sets of timpani. It opens simply, with a single note on the trumpets repeated in the characteristic fanfare rhythm. This expands to a triad, and then the other sections enter one at a time: trombones, horns, timpani, each adding rhythmic and textural complexity. The main theme arrives, marked by the entrance of the tuba. A brief development leads to an even briefer second subject, played more softly and without the triplet motor propelling it. After just a few measures the main theme returns, soon reaching a climax featuring a riff in the horns climbing three octaves. Short but stirring, one can easily understand why any Matron of the Ball would ensure that this piece has remained in the Philharmonic's active repertory for 80 years.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Air Force Band Concert Tonight (8/10)
Tonight you can hear the United States Air Force Band at the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Building. The concert starts at 8:00 PM and is free. Enjoy!
Ives: Country Band March
Charles Ives is a composer that has not been discussed on this blog as of yet. Although Ives is not a composer that we generally consider a "band" composer, many of his works for winds are quite excellent. His "Country Band March" contains many compositional techniques that are considered quintessentially "Ives", especially his wit and irony. Program notes and a recording are below. Enjoy!
Country Band March was composed around 1903, four years after Ives' graduation from Yale and five years prior to his lucrative insurance partnership with Julian Myrick. Ives had just resigned as organist at Central Presbyterian Church, New York, thus ending thirteen and one-half years as organist of various churches. He was, according to Henry Cowell, "exasperated...by the routine harmony for hymns". During this period Ives finished his Second Symphony (1902), composed three organ pieces that were later incorporated into his Third Symphony (1904), compose the Overture and March: "1776" and vrious songs and chamber pieces. Apparently, the Country Band March received no performances and only a pencil score-sketch is in evidence today. Later, Ives seemed very interested in this music, since he incorporated nearly all of it, in one form or another, into the "Hawthorne" movement of Sonata No. 2 (Concord), The Celestial Railroad, the Fourth Symphony (second movement) and especially "Putnam's Camp" from Three Places in New England.
From the "out of tune" introduction to the pandemonium which reigns at the close, the Country Band March is a marvelous parody of the realities of performance by a country band. While the main march theme is probably Ives' own, the march features an impressive list of quotations that includes "Arkansas Traveler", "Battle Cry of Freedom", "British Grenadiers", "The Girl I Left Behind Me", "London Bridge", "Marching Through Georgia", "Massa's in de Cold, Cold Ground", "My Old Kentucky Home", "Violets", "Yankee Doodle", "May Day Waltz" and "Semper Fidelis". There is rarely anything straight-forward about the use of this material; the tunes are subjected to Ives' famous techniques of "poly-everything". Of particular interest is Ives' use of "ragtime" elements to enliven this already spirited march.
Program Note from Printed Score
Country Band March recording
Country Band March was composed around 1903, four years after Ives' graduation from Yale and five years prior to his lucrative insurance partnership with Julian Myrick. Ives had just resigned as organist at Central Presbyterian Church, New York, thus ending thirteen and one-half years as organist of various churches. He was, according to Henry Cowell, "exasperated...by the routine harmony for hymns". During this period Ives finished his Second Symphony (1902), composed three organ pieces that were later incorporated into his Third Symphony (1904), compose the Overture and March: "1776" and vrious songs and chamber pieces. Apparently, the Country Band March received no performances and only a pencil score-sketch is in evidence today. Later, Ives seemed very interested in this music, since he incorporated nearly all of it, in one form or another, into the "Hawthorne" movement of Sonata No. 2 (Concord), The Celestial Railroad, the Fourth Symphony (second movement) and especially "Putnam's Camp" from Three Places in New England.
From the "out of tune" introduction to the pandemonium which reigns at the close, the Country Band March is a marvelous parody of the realities of performance by a country band. While the main march theme is probably Ives' own, the march features an impressive list of quotations that includes "Arkansas Traveler", "Battle Cry of Freedom", "British Grenadiers", "The Girl I Left Behind Me", "London Bridge", "Marching Through Georgia", "Massa's in de Cold, Cold Ground", "My Old Kentucky Home", "Violets", "Yankee Doodle", "May Day Waltz" and "Semper Fidelis". There is rarely anything straight-forward about the use of this material; the tunes are subjected to Ives' famous techniques of "poly-everything". Of particular interest is Ives' use of "ragtime" elements to enliven this already spirited march.
Program Note from Printed Score
Country Band March recording
Monday, August 9, 2010
Navy Band Concert Tonight (8/9)
Tonight you can hear the United States Navy Band at 8:00 PM at the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Building. The concert is free. Enjoy!
Grainger on Composers Datebook
Percy Grainger was featured on today's Composers Datebook. See below!
Composers Datebook audio (8/9/2010)
Grainger and Shostakovich go public
On today's date in 1928, Percy Grainger -- Australian-born American composer, pianist and folk song collector -- was married to Ella Viola Ström, a Swedish poet and painter. It was a very public ceremony that took place in the Hollywood Bowl amphitheater, outside Los Angeles. Illuminated by a lighted cross on a nearby mountain, and with a Swedish Lutheran minister presiding. Some 20,000 people were in the audience as Grainger capped the ceremony by conducting his new orchestral composition, a work dedicated to his wife, titled: "To a Nordic Princess."
Grainger's wedding music may have involved 20,000, but in sheer numbers it was surpassed by a quite different kind of public performance that took place on this day in 1942, in the blockaded city of Leningrad. As surrounding Nazi troops were bombarded into silence, Leningrad city authorities put together a ragtag orchestra, many of its members called back from the front, in order to inspire the suffering populace by playing for them the recently completed “"Leningrad Symphony," the Seventh, by Dimitri Shostakovich.
The score had to be flown in under cover of darkness and copied out by hand, by a team of copyists working day and night. On the night of the concert, the hall was packed, and the performance, along with the thundering applause that followed it, was broadcast throughout Leningrad on loudspeakers, and even to the dispirited German troops outside the city.
Composers Datebook audio (8/9/2010)
Grainger and Shostakovich go public
On today's date in 1928, Percy Grainger -- Australian-born American composer, pianist and folk song collector -- was married to Ella Viola Ström, a Swedish poet and painter. It was a very public ceremony that took place in the Hollywood Bowl amphitheater, outside Los Angeles. Illuminated by a lighted cross on a nearby mountain, and with a Swedish Lutheran minister presiding. Some 20,000 people were in the audience as Grainger capped the ceremony by conducting his new orchestral composition, a work dedicated to his wife, titled: "To a Nordic Princess."
Grainger's wedding music may have involved 20,000, but in sheer numbers it was surpassed by a quite different kind of public performance that took place on this day in 1942, in the blockaded city of Leningrad. As surrounding Nazi troops were bombarded into silence, Leningrad city authorities put together a ragtag orchestra, many of its members called back from the front, in order to inspire the suffering populace by playing for them the recently completed “"Leningrad Symphony," the Seventh, by Dimitri Shostakovich.
The score had to be flown in under cover of darkness and copied out by hand, by a team of copyists working day and night. On the night of the concert, the hall was packed, and the performance, along with the thundering applause that followed it, was broadcast throughout Leningrad on loudspeakers, and even to the dispirited German troops outside the city.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Husa: Al Fresco
Although we have discussed Karel Husa and his music a great deal on this blog, he still has many more works that merit our analysis. Today's post is on "Al Fresco." You can find program notes by the composer on the piece below.
Al Fresco has no programmatic content. However, the title indicates my admiration for the art of painting, especially mural painting on wet plaster. And I have always been greatly moved by the forceful, even grandiose and rough, mysterious pictures dealing with primitive life, war, and pageantry.
The composition has been commissioned for the Ithaca College Concert Band as the first of the Walter Beeler Memorial Commission Series. The first performance was given by the Ithaca College Concert Band (Edward Gobrecht, director) at the MENC Convention in Philadelphia on April 19, 1975, with the composer as guest conductor.
Program Note by Karel Husa.
"Al Fresco" recording-Part I
"Al Fresco" recording-Part II
Al Fresco has no programmatic content. However, the title indicates my admiration for the art of painting, especially mural painting on wet plaster. And I have always been greatly moved by the forceful, even grandiose and rough, mysterious pictures dealing with primitive life, war, and pageantry.
The composition has been commissioned for the Ithaca College Concert Band as the first of the Walter Beeler Memorial Commission Series. The first performance was given by the Ithaca College Concert Band (Edward Gobrecht, director) at the MENC Convention in Philadelphia on April 19, 1975, with the composer as guest conductor.
Program Note by Karel Husa.
"Al Fresco" recording-Part I
"Al Fresco" recording-Part II
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Geschwindmarsch: Beethoven and Hindemith
Beethoven's "Geschwindmarsch" and Hindemith's paraphrase of the same piece were featured last year as part of an UMWO program. Hindemith's paraphrase was part of a larger piece known as his "Symphonia Serena" and both are well-known pieces that have become part of the standard wind repertoire. Program notes and audio links for both pieces are below. Enjoy!
Beethoven: "Geschwindmarsch" recording
Hindemith: Paraphrase of "Geschwindmarsch" recording
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770 – 1827)
March No. 1 in F (“Geschwindmarsch”) (1809)
Ludwig van Beethoven wrote the Geschwindmarsch in its original form in 1809
for the Archduke Anton. Later that year Beethoven altered the title to March of
the Bohemian Militia. The composer rescored the march in 1810, and two years
later added a trio and entitled the work Tattoo No. 1. The work eventually became
popular under the title of York March.
PAUL HINDEMITH (1895 – 1963)
Parapharse of Beethoven’s “Geschwindmarsch” from Symphonia Serena (1946)
Paul Hindemith composed his Symphonia Serena in 1946. The four-movement
symphonic work was written for Antal Dorati and the Dallas Symphony. The second
movement of the piece is entitled Geschwindmarsch, and is written solely
for orchestra wind section (an idea that was re-invented by Vaughan-Williams in
the scherzo of his 8th Symphony.) For his Geschwindmarsch, Hindemith paraphrases
Beethoven’s Geschwindmarsch of 1809, and the themes of Beethoven’s
“Tattoo” can be heard throughout the piece. Geschwindmarsch exploits the sonorities
of wind instruments and their various groupings in an ingenious fashion
— an identifiable trait in much of Hindemith’s music.
Beethoven: "Geschwindmarsch" recording
Hindemith: Paraphrase of "Geschwindmarsch" recording
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770 – 1827)
March No. 1 in F (“Geschwindmarsch”) (1809)
Ludwig van Beethoven wrote the Geschwindmarsch in its original form in 1809
for the Archduke Anton. Later that year Beethoven altered the title to March of
the Bohemian Militia. The composer rescored the march in 1810, and two years
later added a trio and entitled the work Tattoo No. 1. The work eventually became
popular under the title of York March.
PAUL HINDEMITH (1895 – 1963)
Parapharse of Beethoven’s “Geschwindmarsch” from Symphonia Serena (1946)
Paul Hindemith composed his Symphonia Serena in 1946. The four-movement
symphonic work was written for Antal Dorati and the Dallas Symphony. The second
movement of the piece is entitled Geschwindmarsch, and is written solely
for orchestra wind section (an idea that was re-invented by Vaughan-Williams in
the scherzo of his 8th Symphony.) For his Geschwindmarsch, Hindemith paraphrases
Beethoven’s Geschwindmarsch of 1809, and the themes of Beethoven’s
“Tattoo” can be heard throughout the piece. Geschwindmarsch exploits the sonorities
of wind instruments and their various groupings in an ingenious fashion
— an identifiable trait in much of Hindemith’s music.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Army Band Concert Tonight (8/6)
Tonight you can hear the United States Army Band performing in their "Sunsets with a Soundtrack" series. The concert begins at 8:00 on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol building and is free. The concert will feature the music of John Williams, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and a medley of Disney animated movie songs. Enjoy!
Messiaen on Composers Datebook
Another day means another great Composers Datebook for wind composers. Although the piece featured on today's Composers Datebook, "From the Canyons to the Stars" by Olivier Messiaen is certainly worthy of discussion on this blog. His music has been featured three times on this website and fans of his music will find a great deal to love about this piece. Enjoy!
Composers Datebook audio (8/6/2010)
Of Mountains and Messiaen
The gourmet composer Giacomo Rossini had a beef dish, Tournedos Rossini, named after him, and over the centuries countless towns have honored their native composers by naming streets after them -- but few can top the honor bestowed on the late Olivier Messiaen by the citizens of Parowan, Utah: They named a mountain after him.
On today's date in 1978, the citizens of Parowan resolved to name a local mountain Mt. Messiaen in honor of the French composer, who had spent a month in Utah five years earlier while working on his symphonic suite titled "From the Canyons to the Stars."
Messiaen had been commissioned to write a work for the American Bicentennial in 1976. Apparently back in France he owned of a series of books titled "Wonders of the World," which included striking color pictures of the canyons of Utah, which so fired Messiaen's imagination that he made a special pilgrimage to Bryce Canyon in Utah see them with his own eyes. The result was an orchestra score titled "From the Canyons to the Stars," which includes a movement titled "Bryce Canyon and the Red-orange rocks."
"Colors are very important to me," Messiaen once said. "I have a gift -- it's not my fault, it's just how I am -- whenever I hear music or even if I read music, I see colors. The colors do just what the sounds do: they are always changing, but they are marvelous."
Composers Datebook audio (8/6/2010)
Of Mountains and Messiaen
The gourmet composer Giacomo Rossini had a beef dish, Tournedos Rossini, named after him, and over the centuries countless towns have honored their native composers by naming streets after them -- but few can top the honor bestowed on the late Olivier Messiaen by the citizens of Parowan, Utah: They named a mountain after him.
On today's date in 1978, the citizens of Parowan resolved to name a local mountain Mt. Messiaen in honor of the French composer, who had spent a month in Utah five years earlier while working on his symphonic suite titled "From the Canyons to the Stars."
Messiaen had been commissioned to write a work for the American Bicentennial in 1976. Apparently back in France he owned of a series of books titled "Wonders of the World," which included striking color pictures of the canyons of Utah, which so fired Messiaen's imagination that he made a special pilgrimage to Bryce Canyon in Utah see them with his own eyes. The result was an orchestra score titled "From the Canyons to the Stars," which includes a movement titled "Bryce Canyon and the Red-orange rocks."
"Colors are very important to me," Messiaen once said. "I have a gift -- it's not my fault, it's just how I am -- whenever I hear music or even if I read music, I see colors. The colors do just what the sounds do: they are always changing, but they are marvelous."
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Marine Band Concert Tonight (8/5)
Tonight you can hear the United States Marine Band in a repeat performance of last night's performance. The concert begins at 8:00 PM and is at the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument. Enjoy!
William Schuman on Composers Datebook
In honor of a great composer of wind music, here is today's Composers Datebook in honor of William Schuman's 100th birthday. Enjoy!
Composers Datebook audio (8/5/2010)
William Schuman at 100
By the time of his death in 1998, pop singer Frank Sinatra was such a domineering figure in his field that he was known as "The Chairman of the Board." By the time of his death in 1992, the same nickname might have applied to the American composer William Schuman, who was, at various times, director of publications for G. Schirmer, president of the Juilliard School, president of Lincoln Center, and on the board many other important American musical institutions.
Willliam Schuman even looked the part of a distinguished, well-dressed C.E.O. Oddly enough, he came rather late to classical music.
Schuman was born one hundred years ago, on today's date in 1910. As a teenager in New York City, he was more interested in baseball than music, even though his dance band was the rage of Washington High School. It was with some reluctance that 19-year old Billy Schuman was dragged to a New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Arturo Toscanini. The program included a symphony by someone named ROBERT Schumann, and Billy was pretty impressed.
A few years later, in 1933, when he heard the First Symphony of the contemporary American composer Roy Harris, Schuman was hooked, and soon was writing concert music himself. By 1941, when his Third Symphony premiered, Schuman was recognized as a major talent, and in 1943, he was awarded the First Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Composers Datebook audio (8/5/2010)
William Schuman at 100
By the time of his death in 1998, pop singer Frank Sinatra was such a domineering figure in his field that he was known as "The Chairman of the Board." By the time of his death in 1992, the same nickname might have applied to the American composer William Schuman, who was, at various times, director of publications for G. Schirmer, president of the Juilliard School, president of Lincoln Center, and on the board many other important American musical institutions.
Willliam Schuman even looked the part of a distinguished, well-dressed C.E.O. Oddly enough, he came rather late to classical music.
Schuman was born one hundred years ago, on today's date in 1910. As a teenager in New York City, he was more interested in baseball than music, even though his dance band was the rage of Washington High School. It was with some reluctance that 19-year old Billy Schuman was dragged to a New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Arturo Toscanini. The program included a symphony by someone named ROBERT Schumann, and Billy was pretty impressed.
A few years later, in 1933, when he heard the First Symphony of the contemporary American composer Roy Harris, Schuman was hooked, and soon was writing concert music himself. By 1941, when his Third Symphony premiered, Schuman was recognized as a major talent, and in 1943, he was awarded the First Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Stravinsky: Circus Polka
Stravinsky's "Circus Polka" is not one of his most well-known pieces for winds, but it is certainly a fun and interesting piece to listen to. You won't find a lot of the intellectual stimulation that is in the rest of his music, but the piece certainly gives a window into his compositional mindset. Program notes are below. Enjoy!
Program Notes
These pages contain program notes written for Redwood Symphony. These notes were edited, amended, and otherwise improved by Eric Kujawsky, Peter Stahl, and Doug Wyatt.
Barbara Heninger
Igor Stravinsky
Circus Polka
It was early 1942, and George Balanchine had a commission from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus for a ballet. Balanchine quickly contacted his friend and fellow Russian expatriate, Igor Stravinsky, and told him he needed a polka. "For whom?" Stravinsky asked. "Elephants," came the answer. "How old?" "Young." "If they are very young, I will do it," Stravinsky declared.
Perhaps Stravinsky wanted young elephants because he thought the older ones wouldn’t take kindly to the often unpredictable rhythms and surprising harmonies in his music. After all, he’d made his name 30 years earlier as the shockingly modern composer of ballets such as The Firebird (1910) and The Rite of Spring (1913) for the Ballet Russes, where the Rite’s premiere had nearly caused a riot, and he’d hardly slowed down since then. From jazz to serialism, Stravinsky was always in the forefront of musical experimen tation. And now, elephants. Why not?
Stravinsky quickly completed a piano version of the polka in February. Robert Russell Bennett was too busy to orches trate, so at Bennett’s suggestion Stravinsky hired film composer David Raksin (Laura, Forever Amber, The Bad and the Beauti ful) to score it for wind band. The Circus Polka premiered at Madison Square Garden in the spring of 1942, performed by the Ringling Circus Band and starring, according to the pro gram, "Fifty Elephants and Fifty Beautiful Girls in an Original Choreographic Tour de Force, Featuring Modoc, premiere ballerina." Modoc, of course, was an elephant, and the New York Times reported that "Modoc the Elephant danced with amazing grace, and in time to the tune, closing in perfect cadence with the crashing finale." Although contemporary accounts claim the other elephants were not quite as adept at following Stravinsky’s rhythmic quirks, the act was a success and ran for 425 performances.
Stravinsky later adapted the work for full orchestra and premiered that version with the Boston Symphony in 1944. At least one of the corps de ballet -- or her keeper -- remembered her earlier experience with the polka, as Stravinsky writes:
"After conducting my orchestral original on radio from Boston in 1944, I received a congratulatory telegram from Bessie, a young pachyderm who had carried a ballerina and who had heard that broadcast in the winter headquarters of the Circus in Sarasota. I never saw the circus ballet, but I met Bessie in Los Angeles once and shook her foot."
Befitting its subject, the Circus Polka is brisk and bright. Though it maintains a 2/4 meter throughout, the music often moves in bursts and jerks within that meter, like a dancer going in and out of step. Stravinsky makes use of typical circus music sounds, such as thumping bass drum with cymbal or fleet piccolo lines, and frequently features the low brass, evoking images of ponderous elephants prancing. The work includes an enthusiastic quotation from Franz Schubert’s Marche militaire, which Stravinsky insisted was not used at all ironically. A series of off-beat "stamps" bring the piece to a rousing close.
Wikipedia article on "Circus Polka"
Circus Polka recording
Program Notes
These pages contain program notes written for Redwood Symphony. These notes were edited, amended, and otherwise improved by Eric Kujawsky, Peter Stahl, and Doug Wyatt.
Barbara Heninger
Igor Stravinsky
Circus Polka
It was early 1942, and George Balanchine had a commission from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus for a ballet. Balanchine quickly contacted his friend and fellow Russian expatriate, Igor Stravinsky, and told him he needed a polka. "For whom?" Stravinsky asked. "Elephants," came the answer. "How old?" "Young." "If they are very young, I will do it," Stravinsky declared.
Perhaps Stravinsky wanted young elephants because he thought the older ones wouldn’t take kindly to the often unpredictable rhythms and surprising harmonies in his music. After all, he’d made his name 30 years earlier as the shockingly modern composer of ballets such as The Firebird (1910) and The Rite of Spring (1913) for the Ballet Russes, where the Rite’s premiere had nearly caused a riot, and he’d hardly slowed down since then. From jazz to serialism, Stravinsky was always in the forefront of musical experimen tation. And now, elephants. Why not?
Stravinsky quickly completed a piano version of the polka in February. Robert Russell Bennett was too busy to orches trate, so at Bennett’s suggestion Stravinsky hired film composer David Raksin (Laura, Forever Amber, The Bad and the Beauti ful) to score it for wind band. The Circus Polka premiered at Madison Square Garden in the spring of 1942, performed by the Ringling Circus Band and starring, according to the pro gram, "Fifty Elephants and Fifty Beautiful Girls in an Original Choreographic Tour de Force, Featuring Modoc, premiere ballerina." Modoc, of course, was an elephant, and the New York Times reported that "Modoc the Elephant danced with amazing grace, and in time to the tune, closing in perfect cadence with the crashing finale." Although contemporary accounts claim the other elephants were not quite as adept at following Stravinsky’s rhythmic quirks, the act was a success and ran for 425 performances.
Stravinsky later adapted the work for full orchestra and premiered that version with the Boston Symphony in 1944. At least one of the corps de ballet -- or her keeper -- remembered her earlier experience with the polka, as Stravinsky writes:
"After conducting my orchestral original on radio from Boston in 1944, I received a congratulatory telegram from Bessie, a young pachyderm who had carried a ballerina and who had heard that broadcast in the winter headquarters of the Circus in Sarasota. I never saw the circus ballet, but I met Bessie in Los Angeles once and shook her foot."
Befitting its subject, the Circus Polka is brisk and bright. Though it maintains a 2/4 meter throughout, the music often moves in bursts and jerks within that meter, like a dancer going in and out of step. Stravinsky makes use of typical circus music sounds, such as thumping bass drum with cymbal or fleet piccolo lines, and frequently features the low brass, evoking images of ponderous elephants prancing. The work includes an enthusiastic quotation from Franz Schubert’s Marche militaire, which Stravinsky insisted was not used at all ironically. A series of off-beat "stamps" bring the piece to a rousing close.
Wikipedia article on "Circus Polka"
Circus Polka recording
Marine Band Concert Tonight (8/4)
Tonight you can hear the United States Marine Band at the West Front of the US Capitol Building. The concert starts at 8:00 PM and is free. Concert information is below. Enjoy!
Marine Band 8/4/2010
U.S. Capitol, West Terrace 8:00 PM
Assistant Director, Captain Michelle A. Rakers, conducting
Free, no tickets required.
Robert E. Jager
“Esprit de Corps”
Franz von Suppé /trans. Singleton
Overture to Pique Dame
Vincent Bach
“Hungarian Melodies”
Master Gunnery Sergeant Andrew Schuller, cornet soloist
Leonard Bernstein /adapted Grundman
Candide Suite
“The Best of All Possible Worlds”
Westphalia Chorale and Battle Music
“Auto Da Fé” (“What a Day”)
"Glitter and Be Gay"
“Make Our Garden Grow”
Stephen Sondheim /arr. Bulla*
“Invocation & Instructions to the Audience” and “Putting it Together”
Staff Sergeant Sara Dell'Omo, mezzo-soprano
Ronald Lo Presti
Elegy for a Young American
Marine Band 8/4/2010
U.S. Capitol, West Terrace 8:00 PM
Assistant Director, Captain Michelle A. Rakers, conducting
Free, no tickets required.
Robert E. Jager
“Esprit de Corps”
Franz von Suppé /trans. Singleton
Overture to Pique Dame
Vincent Bach
“Hungarian Melodies”
Master Gunnery Sergeant Andrew Schuller, cornet soloist
Leonard Bernstein /adapted Grundman
Candide Suite
“The Best of All Possible Worlds”
Westphalia Chorale and Battle Music
“Auto Da Fé” (“What a Day”)
"Glitter and Be Gay"
“Make Our Garden Grow”
Stephen Sondheim /arr. Bulla*
“Invocation & Instructions to the Audience” and “Putting it Together”
Staff Sergeant Sara Dell'Omo, mezzo-soprano
Ronald Lo Presti
Elegy for a Young American
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Duke of Marlborough Fanfare
Written for a brass ensemble, Percy Grainger's "Duke of Marlborough Fanfare" is a shorter work for winds that, in many ways, is an underperformed and under appreciated piece for the medium. Program notes are below and you can find a link to a recording below as well. Enjoy!
Amazon link to "Duke of Marlborough Fanfare" (Buy or download album)
Naxos link to "Duke of Marlborough Fanfare" (UMD students only)
itish Folk-Music Settings Nr. 36
"Percy Grainger's 'Duke of Marlborough' Fanfare takes its inspiration from an 18th-century broadside ballad, probably written relatively close to the event it portrays--namely the Battle of Ramillies (1706) between the English and French.
"The version Grainger uses was collected by Miss Lucy E. Broadwood, about 1895, from Henry Burstow of Horsham, Sussex, whom he describes as 'one of the very finest of all English folk singers'.
"In the ballad the duke lies 'on a bed of sickness,... resigned to die.' He thinks back on his deeds of valor and in his imagination exhorts 'you gen'rals all and champions bold' to 'stand true', as he had done in the past:
We clim'ed those lofty hills away,
With broken guns, shields likewise;
And all those famous towns we took,
To all the world's surprise...
The sun was down, the earth did shake,
And I so loud did cry,
'Fight on, my lads, for England's sake,
We'll gain the field or die...'
"The majestic, long-measured tune of this ballad is said to be quite unlike the general style of an English folk song, being altogether more artfully conceived. One would suppose that it took its origin in the 'polite' tradition of the formally composed music heard in English pleasure gardens and playhouses of the early Georgian era.
"Grainger's dissonant harmonies are much in keeping with the stridency of its military theme."--Stewart Manville.
"The Duke of Marlborough Fanfare was written for the brass choir of the wind band or symphony orchestra. Grainger writes that 'my fanfare (written March 5-6, 1939 at Coral Gables, Florida) is based on the English folksong 'The Duke of Marlborough'. In my setting, the tune is heard twice. The first time (behind the platform) it typifies memories of long-past wars--vague, far-off, poetic. The second time (on the platform) typifies war in the present--fast-moving, close at hand, de bonair, drastic."--James Westbrook.
"'The Duke of Marlborough' Fanfare is based on an English folksong gathered by Miss Lucy E. Broadwood. The first part is played by a horn off-stage and the full brass group on-stage enters for the second half."--John Hopkins (O rchestral 1).
"Simple but sophisticated, 'The Duke of Marlborough' Fanfare is scored for full brass with optional parts for bassoons and saxophones. The opening horn solo is performed [in a University of Illinois Symphonic Band recording] by eight players in unison. The second section of the work treats the original material played by the horns fugally with the entire brass section."--Frank Hudson.
Amazon link to "Duke of Marlborough Fanfare" (Buy or download album)
Naxos link to "Duke of Marlborough Fanfare" (UMD students only)
itish Folk-Music Settings Nr. 36
"Percy Grainger's 'Duke of Marlborough' Fanfare takes its inspiration from an 18th-century broadside ballad, probably written relatively close to the event it portrays--namely the Battle of Ramillies (1706) between the English and French.
"The version Grainger uses was collected by Miss Lucy E. Broadwood, about 1895, from Henry Burstow of Horsham, Sussex, whom he describes as 'one of the very finest of all English folk singers'.
"In the ballad the duke lies 'on a bed of sickness,... resigned to die.' He thinks back on his deeds of valor and in his imagination exhorts 'you gen'rals all and champions bold' to 'stand true', as he had done in the past:
We clim'ed those lofty hills away,
With broken guns, shields likewise;
And all those famous towns we took,
To all the world's surprise...
The sun was down, the earth did shake,
And I so loud did cry,
'Fight on, my lads, for England's sake,
We'll gain the field or die...'
"The majestic, long-measured tune of this ballad is said to be quite unlike the general style of an English folk song, being altogether more artfully conceived. One would suppose that it took its origin in the 'polite' tradition of the formally composed music heard in English pleasure gardens and playhouses of the early Georgian era.
"Grainger's dissonant harmonies are much in keeping with the stridency of its military theme."--Stewart Manville.
"The Duke of Marlborough Fanfare was written for the brass choir of the wind band or symphony orchestra. Grainger writes that 'my fanfare (written March 5-6, 1939 at Coral Gables, Florida) is based on the English folksong 'The Duke of Marlborough'. In my setting, the tune is heard twice. The first time (behind the platform) it typifies memories of long-past wars--vague, far-off, poetic. The second time (on the platform) typifies war in the present--fast-moving, close at hand, de bonair, drastic."--James Westbrook.
"'The Duke of Marlborough' Fanfare is based on an English folksong gathered by Miss Lucy E. Broadwood. The first part is played by a horn off-stage and the full brass group on-stage enters for the second half."--John Hopkins (O rchestral 1).
"Simple but sophisticated, 'The Duke of Marlborough' Fanfare is scored for full brass with optional parts for bassoons and saxophones. The opening horn solo is performed [in a University of Illinois Symphonic Band recording] by eight players in unison. The second section of the work treats the original material played by the horns fugally with the entire brass section."--Frank Hudson.
Air Force Band Concert Tonight (8/2)
See the information below on tonight's Air Force Band concert. Enjoy!
Tuesday, Aug 3
Summer Concert Series
8:00 p.m., The United States Capitol, West Steps, Washington, DC 20515
Nearest Metro: Union Station/Capitol South
Join the Air Force Strings for a varied program of light string orchestra favorites and a performance by the world-renowned Strolling Strings!
Featured works include the Haydn Cello Concerto with soloist MSgt Vivian Podgainy, and Dag Wiren’s Serenade for Strings.
Tuesday, Aug 3
Summer Concert Series
8:00 p.m., The United States Capitol, West Steps, Washington, DC 20515
Nearest Metro: Union Station/Capitol South
Join the Air Force Strings for a varied program of light string orchestra favorites and a performance by the world-renowned Strolling Strings!
Featured works include the Haydn Cello Concerto with soloist MSgt Vivian Podgainy, and Dag Wiren’s Serenade for Strings.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Navy Band Concert Tonight (8/2)
Tonight you can hear the Navy Band Alumni Concert at the United States Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C. The concert is free and begins at 8:00 PM. Enjoy!
Benson: The Leaves Are Falling
Today's post will feature more band music from Warren Benson as we explore "The Leaves Are Falling." Benson began composition of the piece on November 22, 1963 the date of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the work uses the hymn tune "Ein' feste Burg" (A Mighty Fortress). The piece is extremely important in the history of band music and was considered exceptionally important and groundbreaking at the time of its composition.
Below you can find program notes on the piece as well as a recording. Enjoy!
The Leaves Are Falling: Recording
Completed in January, 1964, The Leaves Are Falling introduced to the large wind ensemble-band literature a kind of music in which in its single movement length and introspective character was unknown to that time. The work was commissioned by Kappa Gamma Psi, a small national music fraternity of which Frank L. Battisti, Ithaca, NY, was an officer. It was through him that the commission came about. It was to have its premiere performance on the American Music Festival of May, 1964, by the Eastman Wind Ensemble under Clyde A. Roller, conductor, in the Eastman Theatre of the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York.
The work was inspired by the poem Herbst (Autumn) from Buch der Bilder by Rainer Maria Rilke.
The leaves are falling, falling as if from afar,
as though far gardens withered in the skies;
They are falling with denying gestures.
And in the nights the heavy earth is falling
from all the stars down into loneliness.
We all are falling. This hand falls.
And look at the others: it is in them all.
And yet there is one, who holds this falling
with infinite gentleness in his hands.
Program Note from the Printed Score
Below you can find program notes on the piece as well as a recording. Enjoy!
The Leaves Are Falling: Recording
Completed in January, 1964, The Leaves Are Falling introduced to the large wind ensemble-band literature a kind of music in which in its single movement length and introspective character was unknown to that time. The work was commissioned by Kappa Gamma Psi, a small national music fraternity of which Frank L. Battisti, Ithaca, NY, was an officer. It was through him that the commission came about. It was to have its premiere performance on the American Music Festival of May, 1964, by the Eastman Wind Ensemble under Clyde A. Roller, conductor, in the Eastman Theatre of the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York.
The work was inspired by the poem Herbst (Autumn) from Buch der Bilder by Rainer Maria Rilke.
The leaves are falling, falling as if from afar,
as though far gardens withered in the skies;
They are falling with denying gestures.
And in the nights the heavy earth is falling
from all the stars down into loneliness.
We all are falling. This hand falls.
And look at the others: it is in them all.
And yet there is one, who holds this falling
with infinite gentleness in his hands.
Program Note from the Printed Score
Sunday, August 1, 2010
The Solitary Dancer
Although Warren Benson's music has fallen out of favor among many wind ensembles in the past twenty years, his contributions to the medium cannot be understated and his pieces for winds are among some of the best written for the ensemble. Today's post will explore his work "The Solitary Dancer." You can find notes and a recording below. Enjoy!
The Solitary Dancer – Basically a self-taught composer, Benson’s music is described as “varied and selective in technique with prominent lyricism and colorful instrumentation.” Warren Frank Benson’s career began at an early age; his major instruments were horn and percussion. He was a professional performer at 14 and a timpanist in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at 22. He studied music theory at the University of Michigan (BM, 1949; MM, 1950). Benson’s teaching career began as an instructor at the University of Michigan in 1943 and continued as a Fulbright Teacher at Anatolia College in Greece (1950-1952), director of the band and orchestra program at Mars Hill College (1952-1953) and composer-in-residence and professor of music at Ithaca College (1953-1967). From 1967 to 1994 he was professor of composition at the Eastman School of Music. Benson is a leader among the contemporary composers of serious and artistic wind works. His “inclusive” music encompasses tonality, free atonality, serialism, ethnic elements and other strains. He has written scores for orchestras, singers, chamber players and children’s groups. He is particularly noted for his song cycles and his pioneering work on behalf of percussionists and wind ensembles. Warren Benson wrote approximately 30 major works for wind band. Benson passed away on October 11, 2005.
The Solitary Dancer was commissioned by the Clarence High School Band (New York), directed by Norbert Buskey, and dedicated to Bill Hug. It is considered a masterpiece in economy of resources, sensitivity for wind and percussion colors and subtle development and recession of instrumental and musical frenzy. The work refers to the “quiet, poised energy that one may observe in a dancer in repose, alone with her inner music.” Just prior to writing this work, Benson had composed a ballet and had worked for several months with the young dancers. When asked what advice he had for ambitious composers, Benson answered, “I tell them to take a look at the repertoire and see what’s not there that is present in life. That thought is one of the reasons why I wrote The Solitary Dancer. There just wasn’t any work that was fast and exciting and quiet. Like when a group of people get together and whisper, there is a lot of intensity and excitement, but it never gets loud. It never goes anywhere in that sense. It may bubble and cook but it never really blows the lid off. There are a lot of situations in life like that—just quiet moments.” (from Program Notes for Band)
The Solitary Dancer recording
The Solitary Dancer – Basically a self-taught composer, Benson’s music is described as “varied and selective in technique with prominent lyricism and colorful instrumentation.” Warren Frank Benson’s career began at an early age; his major instruments were horn and percussion. He was a professional performer at 14 and a timpanist in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at 22. He studied music theory at the University of Michigan (BM, 1949; MM, 1950). Benson’s teaching career began as an instructor at the University of Michigan in 1943 and continued as a Fulbright Teacher at Anatolia College in Greece (1950-1952), director of the band and orchestra program at Mars Hill College (1952-1953) and composer-in-residence and professor of music at Ithaca College (1953-1967). From 1967 to 1994 he was professor of composition at the Eastman School of Music. Benson is a leader among the contemporary composers of serious and artistic wind works. His “inclusive” music encompasses tonality, free atonality, serialism, ethnic elements and other strains. He has written scores for orchestras, singers, chamber players and children’s groups. He is particularly noted for his song cycles and his pioneering work on behalf of percussionists and wind ensembles. Warren Benson wrote approximately 30 major works for wind band. Benson passed away on October 11, 2005.
The Solitary Dancer was commissioned by the Clarence High School Band (New York), directed by Norbert Buskey, and dedicated to Bill Hug. It is considered a masterpiece in economy of resources, sensitivity for wind and percussion colors and subtle development and recession of instrumental and musical frenzy. The work refers to the “quiet, poised energy that one may observe in a dancer in repose, alone with her inner music.” Just prior to writing this work, Benson had composed a ballet and had worked for several months with the young dancers. When asked what advice he had for ambitious composers, Benson answered, “I tell them to take a look at the repertoire and see what’s not there that is present in life. That thought is one of the reasons why I wrote The Solitary Dancer. There just wasn’t any work that was fast and exciting and quiet. Like when a group of people get together and whisper, there is a lot of intensity and excitement, but it never gets loud. It never goes anywhere in that sense. It may bubble and cook but it never really blows the lid off. There are a lot of situations in life like that—just quiet moments.” (from Program Notes for Band)
The Solitary Dancer recording
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