Michalsky, "Fanfare After 17th Century Dances"

Fanfare after Seventeenth Century Dances Donal Michalsky

Born: 1928, Pasadena, CA

Died: 1975

Composed: 1965

Duration: 8 minutes

Donal Michalsky was a native Californian. Born and raised in Pasadena, he received his DMA from the University of Southern California, studying theory with Halsey Stevens and composition with Ingolf Dahl. After completion of his studies, he chose to remain in the Golden State, teaching composition at California State University- Fullerton, until his tragic death. During his lifetime he received many honors, including seven consecutive ASCAP awards and a Fulbright scholarship to Germany, where he worked with Wolfgang Fortner.

The 1965 Ojai Music Festival (under the directorship of Dahl) commissioned a

new work from Michalsky, the end product being the Fanfare after Seventeenth Century

Dances. In this three-movement work, Michalsky parodies the actual pieces written by the

Baroque composers: Peurl, Schein, and Posch, through a variety of methods. He reorders

The sections of the dances and re-voices melodic lines between instruments, often while

adding an unexpected contrapuntal twist. Michalsky does not shy from experimenting with devices common to the twentieth century. His use of metric play and overlapping harmonies imbues these seventeenth-century dance ideals with a robust quality.

-Program note: Boston University Wind Ensemble

Michalsky, Fanfare After 17th Century Dances

Robert Spittal, conductor

#programnotes #umwo #michalsky