Funding for tonight’s performance was provided, in part, by the John R. Locke Endowment for Excellence in Music. For more information on giving to the UNCG School of Music, please visit https://vpa.uncg.edu/music/giving/
The Chimes of Liberty March
Edwin Franko Goldman
Edwin Franko Goldman was a prominent American conductor and composer. He is best known for his role in helping to found the American Bandmasters Association and for establishing the Goldman Band, a professional concert band based in New York City. Goldman was also celebrated as one of the most prolific march composers of his time, with the vast majority of his published works consisting of marches. One of the most popular of these marches is The Chimes of Liberty, written for the Goldman Band in 1922 and revised for recording in 1937. The Chimes of Liberty, being written only a few years after the end of WWI, was viewed as a model of patriotism and quickly took to popularity among audiences. It features a prominent melody in the chimes during the trio as well as a piccolo solo that bears resemblance to that of The Stars and Stripes Forever by John Phillip Sousa. The trio also has lyrics that can be performed by an assembled audience. They’re the chimes of liberty, Chimes that ring for you and me, Where every loyal heart beats true, They bring joy anew; ‘Tis a song of loyalty, Of a nation brave and free, Let us pray that they will ring for aye, Our country’s chimes of liberty! In 1998, Loras John Schissel created an arrangement of Goldman’s original march to capture interpretive decisions made by Goldman over the years.
Note by Jaden Brown
Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the foundational composers of the Western classical music tradition. Writing music primarily for performance in church, a vast majority of his compositions are for instruments such as harpsichord and organ. Sometime during Bach’s second residency in Weimar under Duke Wilhelm Ernst, he composed his Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582 for either double harpsichord or pedal manual harpsichord and later transcribed it for organ. The original eight-bar passacaglia theme is realized through twenty variations leading to the double fugue, which combines the first four bars of the passacaglia melody with a new countermelody. In 1968, Donald Hunsberger, conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble, transcribed the passacaglia and fugue for wind ensemble. The arrangement features the wide variety of colors and timbres possible in a wind ensemble, primarily in the variations of the passacaglia. While each variation is distinct, they are not dramatically different from the immediately preceding variation which creates opportunities for solo instruments and a variety of instrument pairings. Additionally, while the orchestration is not meant to directly emulate the sound of an organ, Hunsberger did consider the overtone mechanism of the organ when crafting the arrangement.
Note by Jaden Brown
The Seer
Luke Ellard
The Seer, a programmatic bassoon concerto written in 2017, was first premiered by the North Texas Wind Symphony in 2018 with director, Eugene Migliaro Corporon and soloist, Luke Varland. The story centers on a traveling false seer, played by the bassoonist, whose life is turned upside down. The first movement opens with the Seer enchanting a crowd with fantastical stories of images they have allegedly seen. The growing excitement swirls around as more townspeople gather. However, at the peak of the act, mysterious visions begin to emerge in the Seer’s mind—they have powers after all! In a panic, the Seer tries to push the images away, ultimately running from the crowd. Despite attempts to escape, the visions play out. Movement two follows these mysterious visions. Colors and emotions, dread and hope, the Seer is unable to discern what it all means. In movement three, while seeking shelter and answers, the Seer enters an abandoned cathedral. Speaking out loud to no one in particular, the Seer begins to talk through what they believe they saw. To their surprise, a quiet response (featuring excerpts from Thomas Tallis’s When Shall My Sorrowful Sighing Slack) is heard in their head to which the Seer presses further. Throughout this exchange, the Seer grows increasingly frustrated by these distant responses, resulting in a defiant outburst. In the final movement, the Seer chooses to continue their path forward despite it all. They will decide their future for themselves.
Note by Luke Ellard
Symphonies d’instruments à vents
Igor Stravinsky
Throughout his career, Stravinsky was occupied with memorial works, ranging from the Chant funèbre of 1908 to the late works, Elegy for J.F.K., and the orchestral variations Aldous Huxley in Memoriam. He was also fascinated with ritual music from the ancient, pagan rituals of The Rite of Spring and Les Noces to the later, Christian-inspired Mass, Canticum Sacrum, and Requiem Canticles. Symphonies of Wind Instruments, one of Stravinsky’s most striking and personal compositions, embodies both memorial and ritualistic aspects. It originated with sketches for a work for harmonium inspired by the death of Claude Debussy in March 1918. Subsequent sketches contain notations for string quartet. The two duets for flute and clarinet (alto flute and alto clarinet in the 1920 version), for example, were originally scored for violin and viola. There were originally three duets in the Symphonies, but Stravinsky removed one—which later became the waltz variation in the second movement of the Octet (1923). In April 1920, Stravinsky was invited to contribute a piece for a special edition of La Revue musicale dedicated to Debussy’s memory. Stravinsky contributed a short piano piece in the form of a chorale titled Fragment des Symphonies pour instruments à vents. This chorale became the cornerstone for the Symphonies of Wind Instruments, completed in November 1920. In 1945, Stravinsky made a revised version (published in 1947), omitting the “exotic” instruments (alto flute and basset horn) and reworking the music. The original sketch–score of the Symphonies was written without meter, and Stravinsky commented, “The phrasing of the sketch score differs strikingly from both of the published scores (1920 and 1947), which in turn are so different from each other in this respect that the two versions will continue to be played as two different pieces, or, more likely, just as now, will continue not to be played.” Stravinsky described the music at different times as, “a grand chant, an objective cry,” and “an austere ritual which is unfolded in terms of short litanies between different groups of homogenous instruments.” American musicologist Richard Taruskin describes Symphonies of Wind Instruments as a voiceless panikhida—a Russian Orthodox funeral service akin to a Requiem Mass in the Catholic tradition. While the work is highly sectional, presenting the listener with blocks of contrasting material juxtaposed without modulation or transition, the concept of the piece as a funeral ritual is reinforced by passages reminiscent of religious chants and bells. This analysis stands in direct contrast to the more typical view of Stravinsky’s 1920s music as modernist or purely objective, demonstrating instead its deep roots in Russian sacred musical traditions. Stravinsky begins the work’s single movement by quickly presenting several ideas of importance to the work. The first, a bell-like passage in the high woodwinds punctuated by terse interjections from the brass, is followed by solemn chords from the chorale, a snatch of an energetic tune, and a more chant-like theme assigned to the flutes and clarinets. The use of wind ensemble without strings allows the music to be scored for maximum contrast, and these sections recur rapidly and abruptly through a succession of developmental episodes. The middle portion of the work is given over largely to contrasting the chant and energetic music, but Stravinsky always returns to fragments of the chorale theme before concluding with the complete chorale.
Note by Michael Votta and Patty Saunders
Come Sunday
Omar Thomas
Come Sunday is a two-movement work inspired by the role of the Hammond organ in Black worship services. Omar Thomas draws on gospel, jazz, and R&B traditions to capture both the preparation and the emotional climax of a church service. The title references Duke Ellington’s song Come Sunday, whose blending of jazz and classical influences parallels Thomas’s own approach in this work. Thomas describes the piece as a tribute to the “Hammond organ’s central role in Black worship services,” grounding the work in both sound and cultural experience. The first movement, “Testimony,” reflects the opening moments of a service, where music helps prepare the congregation to receive the message. Layered textures and stylistic influences, ranging from Bach to blues and jazz, interact to create a sense of gradual build and expectation. The second movement, “Shout!”, shifts into a more energetic and celebratory character. Driving rhythms, dense textures, and heightened intensity capture what Thomas calls the “frenzied and joyous climatic moments when The Spirit has taken over the service,” transforming the music into a powerful and communal experience. The work also serves as a direct and affirming celebration of Black music itself. As Thomas writes in his program note, “To all the Black musicians in wind ensemble who were given opportunity after opportunity to celebrate everyone else’s music but our own—I see you and I am you. This one’s for the culture!”
Note by Molly Allman
Ryan Reynolds
Dr. Ryan Reynolds is the Assistant Professor of Bassoon and Chamber Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he teaches bassoon, chamber music, reed-making, and graduate practicum courses in instrumental music pedagogy and contemporary techniques. Before coming to UNCG, he taught at Eastern Michigan University in Michigan, Heidelberg University in Ohio, and Miami University in Ohio.
Jonathan Caldwell
Dr. Jonathan Caldwell is director of bands and associate professor of conducting at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where he conducts the Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band and teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting. Prior to his appointment at UNCG, Dr. Caldwell held positions at Virginia Tech, the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, and Garner Magnet High School (Garner, NC).
Ensembles under Dr. Caldwell’s guidance have performed for the College Band Directors National Association, the North Carolina Music Educators Association, the National Band Association–Wisconsin Chapter, and in Carnegie Hall. His writings have been published in the Journal of Band Research, the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series, and the International Trombone Association Journal. Original Études for the Developing Conductor, written in collaboration with Derek Shapiro, was published in 2023. The book was awarded “Highly Commended” in the inaugural Impact Award category by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (UK). Dr. Caldwell has given presentations for the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the College Band Directors National Association, the Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erforschung und Förderung der Blasmusik (IGEB), and music educator conferences in North Carolina and Virginia. He is a member of the editorial review board for the Journal of Band Research and the Journal of the International Conductors Guild.
Dr. Caldwell’s conducting teachers include Michael Haithcock, Michael Votta, Jerry Schwiebert, James Ross, and Tonu Kalam. He is a member of the College Band Directors National Association, the National Band Association, the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (Alpha Rho), Tau Beta Sigma (Beta Eta), Phi Beta Kappa, and Phi Kappa Phi.