Symphonic Dance No. 3 “Fiesta”
Clifton Williams (1923-1976)
Symphonic Dance No. 3, “Fiesta,” is one of a group of five works originally commissioned by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra. The first performance of the complete set of dances was by that orchestra, conducted by the composer, January 30, 1965. In refashioning the dances for symphonic band, composer Clifton Williams achieves a new dimension in sound and color and adds fresh excitement to contemporary band literature.
“Fiesta” depicts the pageantry of Latin-American celebrations – street bands, bullfights, and bright costumes – the colorful legacy of a proud people.
The band version was premiered at the American Bandmasters Association convention in Miami, Florida, March 4, 1967, by the University of Miami’s “Band of the hour” under the composer’s direction.
-Program note from the score
Diamond Tide
Viet Cuong (b. 1990)
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 up 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.
Heartfelt thanks to Cheryl Floyd, Richard Floyd, the TMEA Region 18 bands, and John Mackey for making this piece possible.
-Program note by the composer
Sheltering Sky
John Mackey (b. 1973)
The wind band medium has, in the twenty-first century, a host of disparate styles that dominate its texture. At the core of its contemporary development exists a group of composers who dazzle with scintillating and frightening virtuosity. As such, at first listening one might experience John Mackey’s Sheltering Sky as a striking departure. Its serene and simple presentation is a throwback of sorts –- a nostalgic portrait of time suspended.
The work itself has a folksong-like quality –- intended by the composer –- and through this an immediate sense of familiarity emerges. Certainly, the repertoire has a long and proud tradition of weaving folksongs into its identity, from the days of Holst and Vaughan Williams to modern treatments by such figures as Donald Grantham and Frank Ticheli. Whereas these composers incorporated extant melodies into their works, however, Mackey takes a play from Percy Grainger. Grainger’s Colonial Song seemingly sets a beautiful folksong melody in an enchanting way (so enchanting, in fact, that he reworked the tune into two other pieces: Australian Up-Country Tune and The Gum-Suckers March). In reality, however, Grainger’s melody was entirely original –- his own concoction to express how he felt about his native Australia. Likewise, although the melodies of Sheltering Sky have a recognizable quality (hints of the contours and colors of Danny Boy and Shenandoah are perceptible), the tunes themselves are original to the work, imparting a sense of hazy distance as though they were from a half-remembered dream.
The work unfolds in a sweeping arch structure, with cascading phrases that elide effortlessly. The introduction presents softly articulated harmonies stacking through a surrounding placidity. From there emerge statements of each of the two folksong-like melodies –- the call as a sighing descent in solo oboe, and its answer as a hopeful rising line in trumpet. Though the composer’s trademark virtuosity is absent, his harmonic language remains. Mackey avoids traditional triadic sonorities almost exclusively, instead choosing more indistinct chords with diatonic extensions (particularly seventh and ninth chords) that facilitate the hazy sonic world that the piece inhabits. Near cadences, chromatic dissonances fill the narrow spaces in these harmonies, creating an even greater pull toward wistful nostalgia. Each new phrase begins over the resolution of the previous one, creating a sense of motion that never completely stops. The melodies themselves unfold and eventually dissipate until at last the serene introductory material returns –- the opening chords finally coming to rest.
-Program note by Jake Wallace
Angels in the Architecture
Frank Ticheli (b. 1958)
Angels in the Architecture was commissioned by Kingsway International and received its premiere performance at the Sydney Opera House on July 6, 2008, by a massed band of young musicians from Australia and the United States, conducted by Mathew George. The work unfolds as a dramatic conflict between the two extremes of human existence -- one divine, the other evil. The work's title is inspired by the Sydney Opera House itself, with its halo-shaped acoustical ornaments hanging directly above the performance stage.
Angels in the Architecture begins with a single voice singing a 19th-century Shaker song:
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.
This "angel" -- represented by the singer -- frames the work, surrounding it with a protective wall of light and establishing the divine. Other representations of light, played by instruments rather than sung, include a traditional Hebrew song of peace ("Hevenu Shalom Aleichem") and the well-known 16th-century Genevan Psalter, Old Hundredth. These three borrowed songs, despite their varied religious origins, are meant to transcend any one religion, representing the more universal human ideals of peace, hope, and love. An original chorale, appearing twice in the work, represents my own personal expression of these aspirations.
Just as Charles Ives did more than a century ago, Angels in the Architecture poses the unanswered question of existence. It ends as it began: the angel reappears sings the same comforting words. But deep below, a final shadow reappears -- distantly, ominously.
-Program note by the composer
Cosmopolitan America
Helen May Butler (1867-1957), ed. Lamb
Composed by renowned bandleader, Helen Mae Butler, Cosmopolitan America was written for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair and was selected as the official march for Theodore Roosevelt’s presidential campaign. Butler was a virtuoso in her own right and her ensembles had a well-earned reputation for musical excellence and regularly showcased the works of American composers. Butler directed the premier band of professional female musicians, and she was frequently referred as the “female Sousa” and Sousa was among her personal friends. Once at a Sousa Band concert in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sousa called her out of the audience to guest conduct his band. In 1995 she was inducted into the Women Band Directors Hall of Fame. Her uniforms, photographs, programs and music are in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
-Program notes from the Wind Repertory Project
Scenes from “The Louvre”
Norman Dello Joio (1913-2008)
Scenes from “The Louvre” comes from a 1964 television documentary produced by NBC News called A Golden Prison: The Louvre, for which Dello Joio provided the soundtrack. The documentary tells the history of the Louvre and its world-class collection of art, which is in many ways inseparable from the history of France.
Dello Joio chose to use the music of Renaissance-era composers in his soundtrack in order to match the historical depth of the film. He collected the highlights of this Emmy-winning score into a five-movement suite for band in 1965. The first movement, Portals, is the title music from the documentary, and it consists entirely of Dello Joio’s original material, complete with strident rhythms and bold 20th -century harmony. The second movement, Children’s Gallery, never actually appears in the film. It is a light-hearted theme and variation of Tielman Susato’s Ronde et Saltarelle. The stately third movement is based on themes by Louis XIV’s court composer, Jean-Baptiste Lully, and is aptly titled The Kings of France. Movement four, The Nativity Paintings, uses the medieval theme in Dulci Jubilo. The Finale uses the Cestiliche Sonata of Vincenzo Albrici as its source material, to which Dello Joio adds his own harmonic flavor, particularly in the final passages of the piece.
-Program notes from the Wind Repertory Project
Folk Festival from “The Gadfly”
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), arr. Hunsberger
Earning money as a piano player for silent films, Shostakovich had a love for movies and frequently composed soundtracks in addition to his major symphonies, concertos, and chamber works. The Gadfly (1955) was a highly successful film inside the Soviet Union, a sugary and entertaining drama based on a popular historical novel by the English writer Ethel Voynich. Published in 1897, it is set in 1840s Italy under the dominance of Austria, a time of tumult, revolt, and uprisings. The story centers on the life of Arthur Burton. A tragic relationship between Arthur and his love, Gemma, simultaneously runs through the story. It is a story of faith, disillusionment, revolution, romance, and heroism.
The music for The Gadfly was completed and released in 1955, a year after Festive Overture. Often described as “Festive Light”, this movement from the orchestral suite features Shostakovich’s notorious hybrid of lyrical, flowing melodies overlapped with technical flourishes in the winds. This transcription for wind ensemble by Donald Hunsberger was adapted in 1971.
-Program notes from the Wind Repertory Project
Nimrod
Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934), arr. Reed
The Enigma Variations were written for orchestra in 1899 and bore the dedication “To My Friends Pictured Within.” The theme and fourteen variations catapulted Elgar to international acclaim. The story is told of how Elgar, returning home after a long day of giving violin lessons, sat down to unwind at the piano and tinkered by improvising. His wife commented on one of the melodies that emerged, and out of that exchange was born the concept of fashioning the original melody as it might be played by some of their friends in their own style. In all fourteen people and a dog are featured in the Variations.
The beautifully lyrical Nimrod (Variation IX) is dedicated to the publisher A.J. Jaeger. Nimrod is the great hunter of the bible; Jaeger is the German word for hunter.
-Program notes from the Wind Repertory Project
Armenian Dances
Alfred Reed (1920-2005)
Armenian Dances Parts I and II, constitute a four-movement suite for concert band or wind ensemble based on authentic Armenian folk songs from the collected works of Gomidas Vatabed (1869-1935), the founder of Armenian classical music.
Part I, containing the first movement of the suite, is an extended symphonic rhapsody built upon five different songs, freely treated and developed in terms of the modern, integrated concert band or wind ensemble. While the composer has kept his treatment of the melodies within the general limits imposed on the music by its very nature, he has not hesitated to expand the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic possibilities in keeping with the demands of a symphonic-instrumental approach to its performance. It is hoped that the overall effect of the music will be found to remain true in spirit to the work of this composer who has preserved and gave to the world a treasure trove of beautiful folk music that to this day has not yet become as widely known in the Western world as it so richly deserves.
Part I of Armenian Dances was completed in the summer of 1972 and first performed by Dr. Harry Begian (to whom the work is dedicated), and the University of Illinois Symphonic Band, on January 10, 1973, at the C.B.D.N.A. Convention in Urbana, Illinois.
-Program notes from the score