March-Bou-Shu (2006)
Satoshi Yagisawa (b. 1975)
This work was commissioned by the All Japan Band Association (Chiba Prefecture) to commemorate their 45th anniversary. The composer, Satoshi Yagisawa, was requested to write a march that was easy enough for junior high school students to play, and was based on the folk songs in Chiba Prefecture. Initially it was very difficult to find a folk song that was suitable for a march. After several months of research, the composer finally discovered Boushu Oiwake, a lyrical folk song sung with the Japanese bamboo flute and shamisen (three-stringed Japanese instrument). When he was first commissioned, Yagisawa made up his mind to compose a dramatic lyrical march. Thus, it was truly fortunate that he found this folk song. The composer built up March-Bou-Shu with his own musical usage, using this folk song of Chiba Prefecture. The expressions of performance vary according to the tempos and interpretations of passages. -Program note from the score
On This Bright Morning (2013)
David Maslanka (1943-2017)
There are times of stability in life, and times of significant transition. Transitions can be upsetting, often provoked or accompanied by physical or emotional troubles. They are times of uncertainty and unknowing, but also the times of greatest creative change. On This Bright Morning acknowledges the struggle, and the feelings of pain and loss in times of transition, but embodies the pure joy of realizing the bigger life. On this bright morning, life is new, life is possible. The following is from a Bill Moyers interview with poet Jane Kenyon, who suffered from chronic depression and died of leukemia at age 48: Yes, there are things in life that we must endure that are all but unendurable, and yet I feel that there is a great goodness. Why, when there could have been nothing, is there something? How, when there could have been nothing, does it happen that there is love, kindness, beauty? -Program note by the composer
Wishes & Wantings (2022)
Kelijah Dunton (b. 1999)
In my high school days, I spent a lot of my time consuming and learning about Japanese culture and its fascinating history. I’ve always had the desire to listen to and emulate modern Japanese music from J-Pop to movie scoring giants such as Joe Hisaishi and the like. I have a great appreciation for the culture because it has probably influenced me the most in my musical writing and has opened my eyes to different forms a musical thought can take. Now here we are with my new piece, Wishes & Wantings, a modern Japanese-inspired piece that speaks to my own personal experience being surrounded by Japanese culture growing up and what it also means to so many other people that I know and relate to from all walks of life. -Program note by the composer
The Cave You Fear (2014)
Michael Markowski (b.1986)
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”-Joseph Campbell I've been thinking a lot lately about all the opportunities we're given day to day to try something new or to go somewhere we've never been before -- the opportunity to take a spontaneous road trip, to go see a concert by a band we've never heard of at a venue we've never been to, to try that new restaurant down the street where the menu is in a language we don't quite understand. Some people have an innate sense of adventure, who go with the flow, who live life for the unexplored, and I couldn't be more inspired by them. For a long time, I was the opposite. I used to prefer to stay at home, working on my computer because it was the safe and responsible thing to be doing, listening to the same albums on my iPod, ordering the same meal at the same, familiar restaurants. And while there's nothing necessarily wrong with having a routine or knowing what you like, I eventually realized that my life was starting to have a certain predictability to it. It was a few years ago, while I was still living in the same state that I was born and raised in, that I had the most terrifying epiphany that I think I've ever had. I was becoming increasingly bored and incredibly boring. In film schools around the world, Joseph Campbell's book The Hero With A Thousand Faces is required reading for filmmakers, screenwriters, and storytellers because Campbell has single-handedly identified what we refer to as "The Hero's Journey" -- the series of events and conflicts that arise along a character's path as he or she fights their way to some ultimate goal. After studying Campbell, it's easy to question where we are on our own paths. What is our own story? What are we fighting for? What does it mean to be a "hero" and how can we be more "heroic" ourselves? When we hear our own call to adventure, will we jump up, prepared, or will we ignore it, sit idly and take the easy way out because we would rather life be quiet and comfortable? According to Campbell, each of our adventures are already out there, waiting for us. That's not the problem. For him, "the big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty "yes" to your adventure. So for the next four minutes, let's take a chance, let's venture into the dark unknown, let's fight whatever monsters we find in there. And although we might not always prevail, at least we'll have a story to tell by the end. -Program note by the composer
Suite from Hymn of the Highlands (2002)
Philip Sparke (b. 1951)
Hymn of the Highlands was commissioned by David King and the Yorkshire Building Society Band for first performance at the 2002 European Brass Band Championships Gala Concert in Brussels. David King’s imaginative programming had already led to the writing of three such ‘concept’ pieces for brass band – Cry of the Celts, Voice of the Vikings, and Windows of the World. The idea was to produce an extended and themed piece, which can act as a half concert to feature a band’s soloists. We decided on a Scottish theme but didn’t use any folk songs. The entire suite in its brass band version comprises seven movements, all named after locations in the Scottish Highlands. Not all of these were considered suitable for transcription for concert band, so the composer has created Suite from Hymn of the Highlands, which comprises 3 movements: Ardross Castle, Alladale (featuring a saxophone trio) and Dundonnell. Ardross Castle (named after a small village near Ardross in Easter Ross, just north of the Cromarty Firth) starts with solos from clarinet and bassoon (or euphonium) before a bagpipe tune is introduced. A faster central section uses the opening material in a different guise but the movement ends slowly. Alladale, (the river Alladale is a tributary of the Carron, which leads out into the Dornoch Firth on the east coast) is a saxophone trio with an accompaniment featuring the percussion. This leads to the finale, Dundonnell, (named after a charming village at the head of Little Loch Broom which leads out to the ocean near Summer Isles) which starts in martial mood but soon breaks out into a wild presto. Eventually the bagpipe tune from the first movement returns before the presto crashes to a close. -Program note from the score
Esprit de Corps (1984)
Robert Jager (1939)
Based on The Marine’s Hymn, this work is a kind of fantasy-march, as well as a tribute to the United States Marine Band, the commissioning group. Full of energy and drama, the composition has its solemn moments and its lighter moments (for example, the quasi-waltz in the middle of the piece). The composer intends that this work should display the fervor and virtuosity of the Marine Band and the musical spirit and integrity of its conductor, Colonel John R. Bourgeois, for whom the initial tempo marking, “Tempo di Bourgeois,” is named. Colonel John Bourgeois is a dramatic, spirited conductor who reflects the excitement of the music being played. When a tempo is supposed to be “bright”, he makes sure it is exactly that. Because the tempo of Esprit de Corps is very bright, the marking had to be “Tempo di Bourgeois!” —Program notes taken from Program Notes for Band
Different Voices (2002)
Rick Kirby (b. 1945)
Each movement of this composition represents several of the different manners in which the human voice produces sound and becomes a vehicle of communication—therefore the title Different Voices. Except for the whispering in the second movement, the piece does not attempt to stimulate the actual sound of the human voice but rather attempts to depict the spirit by which the sound is produced. The first movement, entitled “The Spoken—Dialogues”, portrays a dialogue between several groups represented by different sections of the band. The second movement, “Whispers,” begins very quietly, swells to a climatic level and concludes with the peacefulness of the beginning. “Voices of Song,” the final movement, is simply a joyous celebration of the ability of the world’s oldest musical instrument, the human voice, to sing. —Program notes from the composer
The Old Boatman (1933/2000)
Florence Price (1988-1953)
Florence Price is noted as the first African American woman composer to be recognized as a symphonic composer. Her Symphony No. 1 in E minor was premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1933. In 2009, a substantial number of her unpublished works were discovered in an abandoned house in St. Anne, Illinois, many of which are only now coming to light. The Old Boatman is one such work. This short melodic work was composed for the benefit of her developing piano students. Upon hearing it, Dana Paul Perna found it reminiscent of Edvard Grieg, specifically his Lyric Pieces, and 19 Norwegian Folk Tunes, Op. 66. With that in mind, he proceeded to score her work in a literal transcription for concert band in 2002. —Program notes taken from the Wind Repertory Project
Symphony No. 3 “Slavyanskaya” (1950/1995)
Boris Kozhevnikov (1906-1985)
Symphony No. 3 “Slavyanskaya”
- Allegro Decisively
Symphony No. 3 is a four-movement symphony with heavy Russian sound and includes the quotation of folk tunes in the melodic material that Kozhevnikov learned in his hometown of Novgorod. The name Slavyanskaya does not have a set meaning, as it is a common name, the name of a town square in Moscow and a Russian vodka company. It is unclear where Kozhevnikov acquired the inspiration for the name. From Col. John Bourgeois, arranger: I first came to know of the symphony through my Norwegian friend, Jan Ericksen, of Norwegian Radio, Oslo. At that time, our knowledge of wind music in the USSR was very scant and obtaining information of performance materials was practically nil. However, Jan was and continues to be the master of musical protocol and he circuitously obtained a score and set of parts for me. —Program notes taken from the arranger