From Earth to the Heavens Program Notes

Star Spangled Banner: Francis Scott Key, arr. Thomas Palmatier

Is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort M’Henry," a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in the Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.

The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men's social club in London. To Anacreon in Heaven, with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. Set to Key's poem and renamed The Star-Spangled Banner, it would soon become a well-known American patriotic song. With a range of one octave and one fifth (a semitone more than an octave and a half), it is known for being difficult to sing. Although the poem has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today.

Mother Earth by David Maslanka

David Maslanka wrote Mother Earth (2006) for South Dearborn High School in Aurora, Indiana under the direction of Brian Silvey. This fanfare was inspired by Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh who shared in his writing that the only way forward is to be extremely alive and aware in our present moment, to become awake to the needs of our beloved planet, and to respond to it as a living entity. Maslanka states, it is a living call to the wide-awake life, and it continues to be performed by young people around the world. He also references St. Francis of Assisi.

Praised by You, my Lord, for our sister, MOTHER EARTH,

Who nourishes us and teaches us,

Bringing forth all kinds of fruits and colored flowers and herbs.

- St. Francis of Assisi

October by Eric Whitacre

October (2000) was commissioned by the Nebraska Wind Consortium and dedicated to Brian Anderson. The composer, Eric Whitacre says October is his favorite month. Something about the crisp autumn air and the subtle change in light always makes me a little sentimental, and as I started to sketch, I felt that same quiet beauty in the writing. The simple, pastoral melodies and subsequent harmonies are inspired by the great English romantics (Vaughan Williams and Elgar). As I felt that this style was also perfectly suited to capture the natural and pastoral soul of the season.

Redstone Revel by Kirk Vogel

Redstone Revel (2021) was written as a dedication for a new auditorium for Lyons Middle/Senior High School under the direction of Karen Gregg. The composition gets its name from Redstone being used from the local quarry to build benches and tables for a gathering area outside the auditorium and to decorate an interior wall of the auditorium. This is a wonderful piece with rhythmic energy throughout.

Conversations with the Heavens by Kirk Vogel

The composer was commissioned by the Windsor High School Band under the direction of Jennifer L. Grice for a piece in remembrance of Brycen Zerby (2009-2018). Brycen was 8 years old when he went to be with the Lord serving his church and passing out information at a Labor Day parade in Windsor. Brycen loved the Broncos, NASCAR racing, football, baseball, soccer, swimming, riding bikes, jumping on the trampoline, hunting, fishing, and he loved to sing and dance. As the conductor states, Conversations with the Heavens (2020) is a reflective work delving into the emotions surrounding loss. In our thoughts we speak to those that we have lost and through our memories they speak to us and guide us along our life path.

Ride by Samuel R. Hazo

Ride (2002) was written and titled for a car ride in which the composer (Samuel R. Hazo) was following his mentor (Jack Stamp) to his house. Jack invited four composers to a dinner at his house, and Sam did not know the route. “Follow me!” was Jack’s response, this thus began the 15-minute drive at top speed through the winding Pennsylvania countryside. Ride was “written and titled for that exact moment in my life when Jack Stamp’s generosity and lead foot were as equal in their inspiration as the beautiful Indiana, PA countryside blurring past my car window”. Ride is a high-velocity, exhilarating composition beginning and ending in the same key to signify returning home after a "ride" of harmonic and metric changes.

Shenandoah arranged by Omar Thomas

Shenandoah (2019) details the lives and journeys of fur traders canoeing down the Missouri River. The symbolism of this culturally significant melody has been expanded to include its geographic namesake - an area of the eastern US that encompasses West Virginia and a good portion of the western part of Virginia - and various parks, rivers, counties, and academic institutions found within. There are many arrangements of Shenandoah. The composer wanted to provide a setting that was different from all others he had heard. This arrangement recalls the beauty of the Shenandoah Valley, not bathed in golden sunlight but blanketed by low-hanging clouds and experiencing intermittent periods of heavy rainfall (created with a combination of percussion textures, generated both on instruments and from the body). There are a few musical moments where the sun attempts to pierce through the clouds, but ultimately the rains win out. This arrangement of Shenandoah is at times mysterious, somewhat ominous, constantly introspective and deeply soulful.

Armed Forces Salute arranged by Colonel (Ret.) Thomas H. Palmatier

The Thornton Community Band salutes the veterans and their families who have defended America. We perform the official songs of the Space Force, Coast Guard, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and the U.S. Army.

Amazing Grace arranged by Tyler Arcari

Amazing Grace (2017) has become synonymous with both celebrations of life and of death. It has been sung at births and at funerals, both in joy and sorrow. This setting is meant to celebrate the life of a fellow musician and composer, a husband, and a father, Sean Miller. Sean was an accomplished French Horn player, so it seemed only fitting to begin and end the melody with a Horn solo. The composer states, Sean was a successful band director and emerging composer who passed away in 2015, leaving behind a wife and two children. Sean was a reminder of goodness and inspiration, and it is my hope that this setting will bring a little more of that goodness into this world.

Diamond Tide by Viet Cuong

Viet Cuong wrote Diamond Tide (2015) as a commission and dedication to the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) Region 18 Middle School Bands. This work is in two movements and uses unusual instruments such as crotales using water and crystal glasses filled with water to create certain notes. Cuong’s program notes are based off of the following theory:

A 2010 article published in Nature Physics details an experiment in which scientists were able to successfully melt a diamond and, for the first time, measure the temperature and pressure necessary to do so. When diamonds are heated to very high temperatures, they don’t melt; they simply turn into graphite, which then melts (and the thought of liquid graphite isn’t nearly as appealing or beautiful as liquid diamond.) Therefore, the addition of extremely high pressure – 40 million times the pressure we feel on Earth at sea level – is crucial to melt a diamond. The extreme temperature and pressure used in this experiment are found on Neptune and Uranus, and scientists therefore believe that seas of liquid diamond are possible on these two planets. Oceans of diamond may also account for these planets’ peculiar magnetic and geographic poles, which do not line p like they do here on Earth. Lastly, as the scientists were melting the diamonds, they saw floating shards of solid diamond forming in the pools – just like icebergs in our oceans. Imagine: distant planets with oceans of liquid diamond filled with bergs of sparkling solid diamonds drifting in the tide…

These theories are obviously all conjecture, but this alluring imagery provided heaps of inspiration for Diamond Tide, which utilizes the “melting” sounds of metallic water percussion and trombone glissandi throughout.

- Viet Cuong

Angles in the Architecture by Frank Ticheli

Angels in the Architecture (2008) was commissioned by Kingsway International and received its premiere performance at the Sydney Opera House performed by a massed band of young musicians from Australia and the United States. The title was inspired by the Sydney Opera House with its halo-shaped acoustical ornaments hanging directly above the performance stage. As stated by Frank Ticheli, this piece is a dramatic conflict between the two extremes of human existence – one divine, the other evil.

The first song sung by the soprano soloist, representing an "angel", is a 19th Century Shaker song with the lyrics:

I am an angel of Light

I have soared from above

I am cloth'd with Mother's love.

I have come, I have come,

To protect my chosen band

And lead them to the promised land.

The singer frames the work surrounding it with a protective wall of light and establishing the divine. Other representation of light played by instruments are the traditional Hebrew song of peace, "Hevenu Shalom Aleichem", the 16th Century Genevan Psalter, "Old Hundredth", and an original chorale "Chorale of Light" from the composer, Frank Ticheli, that appears twice. Opposition, turbulent, fast-paced music appears as a symbol of darkness, death, and spiritual doubt. The darkness prevails for long stretches of time, but the light always returns, inextinguishable, more powerful than before. The alternation of the opposing forces creates an effect of a five-part rondo form (light-darkness-light-darkness-light). You will hear sound effects created by whirlies and crystal glasses.