D'UN MATIN DE PRINTEMPS
Lili Boulanger
The bronchial pneumonia that struck Lili Boulanger at the age of two resulted in constant ill health and a life that lasted less than twenty-five years. Her parents, and her famous and widely respected sister, the teacher and conductor Nadia, were trained and active musicians. She too displayed phenomenal musical talent, which her devoted family did everything to encourage. When she won the prestigious Prix de Rome at 19—she was the first woman to win it for music—it made international headlines. Her physical condition severely restricted her ability to answer the growing demand for her music. She created a small but consistently intriguing and attractive catalog of music that, to quote Claude Debussy, “undulates with grace.” It includes songs and choral works, piano and chamber pieces, and a handful of orchestral compositions.
She composed the companion works D’un soir triste (On a Melancholy Evening) and D’un matin de printemps (On a Spring Morning) in 1917 and 1918. Shortly after composing the small-ensemble original versions, she transcribed them for orchestra. They were, alas, the final pieces she wrote with her own hand. The manuscripts, with their tiny notes, betray the increasing severity of her illness.
A vast emotional gulf lies between them. D’un soir triste is almost funereal in its mood and its dark palette of colors, and it swells up to several harsh climaxes. It may reflect Boulanger’s awareness that death was imminent. The sharply contrasting and much briefer D’un matin de printemps is sweet, playful, and transparently scored.
Note by Don Anderson
against the rain
Roshanne Etezady
Against the Rain is based on a choral work I wrote as a part of a set of songs based on poems by Edna St. Vincent Willay. The piece was premiered at the Interlochen Arts Camp, Michigan, by the World Youth Wind Symphony with Steve Davis, conductor on July 14, 2014.
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
It well may be that in a difficult hour,
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
Or nagged by want past resolution’s power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It well may be. I do not think I would.
Note by Roshanne Etezady
pulse
Margaret Brouwer
Pulse was commissioned by David Wiley and the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra in honor of the RSO’s 50th Anniversary and was supported by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Rhythmic pulses of differing values exist over a steady grand pulse that is the same for all. The spirit motive emerges; mysterious, rustling, and whispery, flowing through with melody—and in the end becomes infused and strengthened by connections of differing values and pulses.
In 2013, conductor Caroline Beatty at Texas State University commissioned an arrangement of Pulse for wind symphony.
Note by Margaret Brouwer
concerto for tuba and wind ensemble
Gary D. Ziek
My Concerto for Tuba and Wind Ensemble was written for Alan Baer in January 2011 for Mr. Baer’s appearance with the Emporia State University Wind Ensemble.
The work is in three movements, each reflecting different facets of the tuba as a solo instrument. The first movement, “Soaring,” starts with a series of tuba fanfares, alternating with responses from the ensemble. The mood becomes increasingly agitated leading to the first full ensemble impact. The music gradually transforms to a slower, more lyrical statement of the initial tuba melody. This passage abruptly segues into a faster section comprising the majority of the first movement. This section utilizes a sonata form (ABA), with the tuba soaring above the ensemble, with numerous lyrical episodes. The movement comes to a rousing conclusion with final statements of the melody being sounded in the woodwinds.
The second movement, “Romance,” begins with a gentle, flowing siciliano. This leads to a waltz, which requires considerable lyricism and agility from the soloist. The siciliano returns as the movement ends in a moment of quiet repose. This contemplative mood is abruptly shattered by the beginning of the third movement, “Riot!” Dissonant pyramids of sound, based on the Dies irae, set the stage for this movement, which can best be described as a five-part “blues rondo”. Driving rhythms and furious, challenging tuba lines are found throughout this movement. The soloist has a short cadenza, leading to a 12/8 feel and coda, bringing the piece to a rousing conclusion.
Note by Gary Ziek
L.A.TUDES
Jules Pegram
“Almost anything you can say about Los Angeles is true. It’s large; it’s a mess; it lives; it’s vulgar; it’s beautiful. For L.A. represents, more than any other city, the fulfillment of the American Dream...of wealth, speed, freedom, mobility.”
Reyner Banham, Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies
Études are typically intended as short pieces showcasing techniques that illuminate something about an instrument and its performer. But in my travelogue for band L.A.tudes, I have assembled a collection of municipal études, five studies designed to evoke aspects of life in the endlessly exhilarating, remarkably iridescent City of Angels. Comparable in scope and duration to Percy Grainger’s landmark Lincolnshire Posy—a composer and work very dear to me—L.A.tudes is similarly a celebration of a specific place and its people, and it is my hope that these five musical vignettes sound like Los Angeles feels.
The Figueroa Corridor
Heraldic, brassy material performed at times in a lyrical, religioso style depicts the area extending from just south of downtown Los Angeles to the museums at Exposition Park, a central district encompassing the classically inspired campus of the University of Southern California as well as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, site of the 1984 (and upcoming 2028) Olympic Games. Rich, gothic harmonies and flowing hymn-like passages suggest the area’s many architectural splendors, from an intersection boasting two of the city’s most ornate cathedrals to the Shrine Auditorium, ten times the site of the Oscars telecast.
WeHo Tableau
My home neighborhood of West Hollywood (colloquially “WeHo”) is arguably America’s most famous LGBT enclave, incorporated in 1984 as a safe haven for Los Angeles County’s gay population and perennially one of the country’s leading progressive municipalities. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, West Hollywood became refuge to America’s second-densest Russian-speaking population (years earlier, émigré Igor Stravinsky made his home here). The heart of L.A.’s nightlife and club scene, WeHo is one of our most vibrant communities, though quieter residential side streets jut off the colorful, highly walkable commercial strips. As such, I’ve written music that ambles along with a carefree gait, emblazoned in technicolor neon hues and Stravinskean mixed meters.
Mulholland Nights
A mystical, serpentine theme serves here as homage to ghosts of Hollywood past and of the fabled Mulholland Drive. As you careen around what David Lynch calls our “dream road,” you run the entire spine of the Santa Monica Mountains with alarmingly few guardrails—it’s little wonder that our most visually stunning street is also the most treacherous. Mulholland’s precipitous overlooks perched high above the vast San Fernando Valley to the north and the boundless Los Angeles basin below showcase unmatched views of the Pacific, the desert, several mountain ranges, and our entire cityscape. Though always cloaked in noir shadows, the music here is nostalgic and familiar. By movement’s end, we float to a celestial plain over the Hollywood Hills and its twinkling lights below.
Nuestro Pueblo (The Watts Towers)
Working far from the critical gaze of the academy but immeasurably close to the hearts of Angelenos, Sabato “Simon” Rodia was surely one of the twentieth century’s great “outsider artists.” An Italian immigrant who quietly constructed without nails or traditional binding agents the 100-foot Watts Towers, Rodia would mysteriously abandon the structure after thirty-three years of methodical, dogged work and leave town, never to return again. When unscrupulous L.A. city officials moved to demolish the towers in the 1950s, a stalwart band of local community members devised a public stress-test that ultimately deemed the landmark not only structurally-sound, but so strong that the cranes used to pull resistance against the towers were themselves lifted off the ground. Thanks to decades-long preservation efforts, the towers stand tall to this day, a beacon reflective of the neighborhood’s solidarity and immense cultural contributions as well as of the fortitude of one artist’s unwavering individualism and perseverance.
The movement opens with delicate, percussive pitter-patter on glass bottles, ceramic tiles, clay flower pots, and wind chimes made of seashells, the same sort of the estimated 100,000 found objects Rodia used to adorn the towers he called Nuestro Pueblo (“Our Town”). Lonesome clarinet lines built on humble triads recall Rodia’s monk-like work in the backyard of his home in Watts, an artistically fertile L.A. neighborhood that was also home to fellow visionaries Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, and the family of film composer Danny Elfman. The simple triadic cells begin to overlap in stretto, eventually forming an undulating web that crests into a warm, melancholic apex, a resplendent evocation of Rodia scaling his ever-higher creation above miles of sprawling cityscape before ultimately descending back to hushed ground-level.
Off-ramp
Our L.A. journey concludes in perhaps the only way imaginable: on the open road. For while the disparate paths that bring each of us to Los Angeles reflect a diversity and internationalism rivaled by few other cities, the one thing that quickly becomes universal for each and every Angeleno is our infamous freeway system. Far more than mere portals for white Bronco chases, the freeways remain a daily source of utility, frustration, excess, and a surprising sort of zen energy induced by routine traffic jams (for years much of my musical rumination has taken place in the countless numbing hours spent on freeways and “surface streets” alike). But this is a bolt of a closing movement, beginning anticipatively at a stoplight flanking an on-ramp to “The 10.” It’s not long until we’re cruising bumper-to-bumper under explosive late afternoon sunlight, breezy tunes on the radio and smog-tinged sights set on the Pacific Coast Highway and Malibu down the way. Could any experience more epitomize the Southern California Dream?
Note by Jules Pegram
JONATHAN CALDWELL
Dr. Jonathan Caldwell is director of bands and assistant 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, Caldwell held positions at Virginia Tech, the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, and Garner Magnet High School (Garner, NC).
Ensembles under Caldwell’s guidance have performed for the College Band Directors National Association Southern Division, 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 and the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series. His book, Original Études for the Developing Conductor, was published in 2023 and awarded “Highly Commended” in the inaugural Impact Award category by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (UK). 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.
Caldwell received a Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting from the University of Michigan and a Master of Music in instrumental conducting from the University of Maryland, College Park. He holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and a Bachelor of Music in performance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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.
stephanie ycaza
Dr. Stephanie Ycaza is Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at the UNC Greensboro School of Music. Prior to her appointment at UNCG, Dr. Ycaza served as Instructor of Tuba and Euphonium at the University of Northern Iowa. She has also served on the music faculties of Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia State University, Longwood University, and the University of Richmond.
Dr. Ycaza is a founding member of Calypsus Brass, a brass quintet dedicated to performing new works and providing recordings for composers. Calypsus is committed to promoting the works of composers from historically marginalized groups and serves as an Ensemble-in-Residence for Rising Tide Music Press. Dr. Ycaza is active as an orchestral musician and currently serves as Principal Tuba of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony. Her recent solo performances have focused on music for low brass with electronic accompaniment, music by women composers, and her own transcriptions and arrangements for tuba and euphonium. She has performed as a soloist, offered masterclasses, and presented on the topic of mindfulness in music around the United States and in South America.
Dr. Ycaza holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Shenandoah University, a Master of Music degree and Artist Diploma from Yale University, and a Bachelor of Music degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has studied with Ross Walter, Toby Hanks, Mike Roylance, Andrew Hitz, and Michael Bunn. Dr. Ycaza is a Miraphone Tuba Artist.
LaToya Webb
A native of Richmond, Virginia, Dr. LaToya A. Webb serves as Assistant Professor of Music, Coordinator of Woodwinds, Brass, and Percussion and Director of the Laurier Wind Orchestra in the Faculty of Music at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. In this role, she conducts the Wind Orchestra, teaches courses in conducting, clarinet methods, and coaches chamber music ensembles.
Before joining the Laurier Faculty of Music, she served as Assistant Professor of Practice in Conducting and Assistant Director of Bands at the University of Texas at Austin, teaching academic courses in instrumental conducting, wind band literature, directing the Orange Longhorn Concert Band, and assisting with the marching Longhorn Band. In addition, she served as the Director of the Longhorn Pep Band. Dr. Webb also served as Instructor of Wind Conducting at Auburn and Grambling State University.
Dr. Webb earned her PhD in Instrumental Music Education from Auburn University where she served as a graduate teaching assistant for the band programs and Department of Music. As a graduate student, she was the principal student conductor of the Auburn Symphonic Winds, taught courses in instrumental conducting, woodwind methods, and music appreciation. She earned two master’s degrees, the first from Norfolk State University in Music Education, and the second from George Mason University in Instrumental Conducting. Dr. Webb earned a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies with concentrations in Music and Education from Norfolk State University.
An internationally sought-after educator and conductor, she is an active researcher, presenter, author, adjudicator, and guest conductor and often appears at state, national, and international conferences, and events. Dr. Webb is honored as a 2017 College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) Mike Moss Diversity Conducting Fellow, a 2018 CBDNA/National Band Association Masterclass Conducting Fellow, a 2019 U.S. Army Band Conducting Fellow, and a 2019 Midwest Clinic Reynolds Conducting Institute Fellow.
As a passionate advocate for improving educational opportunities through diversity, equity, inclusion, and access, Dr. Webb serves on the Composer Project Advisory Board and as the Special Projects Manager for United Sound, Inc. She is also the Tau Beta Sigma National Vice President for Professional Relations, building relationships within the college band teaching profession. Dr. Webb is co-founder of I See You: Affirming Representation in Music, an organization aimed to affirm Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) in all fields of music.
Dr. Webb is an actively involved in several professional organizations and initiatives that support music education and performance.
Courtney Snyder
Dr. Courtney Snyder is Associate Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Conducting at the University of Michigan where she conducts the Concert Band, teaches conducting, and conducts the Michigan Youth Symphonic Band. Previously, Snyder served as the Assistant Director of Bands and Director of Athletic Bands at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. While in Omaha, she was Music Director for the Nebraska Wind Symphony. Bands under her direction have been selected to perform at state and regional conferences. An active guest conductor and clinician, Snyder is a contributing author to the recently published book The Horizon Leans Forward… and is published in several journals including Music Educators Journal, The Instrumentalist, several volumes of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, The Woman Conductor, School Band & Orchestra Magazine, and Association of Concert Bands Journal. She’s received awards from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, Tau Beta Sigma, National Band Association, Women Band Directors International and The American Prize. Prior to directing college ensembles, Snyder taught high school and middle school band and orchestra for six years in the Michigan public schools. She is a Conn-Selmer clinician and Immediate Past President of Women Band Directors International.
Kevin Sedatole
Kevin Sedatole serves as Director of Bands, Professor of Music, and Chair of the conducting area at the Michigan State University College of Music. At MSU, Professor Sedatole serves as administrator of the entire band program totaling over 700 students that includes the Wind Symphony, Symphony Band, Concert Band, Chamber Winds, Campus Bands, Spartan Marching Band and Spartan Brass. He also guides the graduate wind-conducting program in addition to conducting the MSU Wind Symphony.
Prior to joining MSU, he was director of bands and associate professor of conducting at Baylor University. Previous to his appointment at Baylor he served as associate director of bands at the University of Texas and director of the Longhorn Band, and as associate director of bands at the University of Michigan and Stephen F. Austin State University.
Sedatole has conducted performances for the College Band Directors National Association, American Bandmasters Association, Texas Music Educators Association, Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association, and the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, as well as performances in Carnegie Hall. He has conducted across the United States and Europe. Most recently the MSU Wind Symphony, under the direction of Professor Sedatole, has given featured performances at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic held in Chicago, Ill. and at the national conventions of the College Band Directors’ National Association held in Austin, Texas and Kansas City, Missouri. Performances conducted by Professor Sedatole have won accolades from prominent composers including Robert Beaser, John Corigliano, Michael Colgrass, Donald Grantham, David Maslanka, Ricardo Lorenz, Michael Daugherty, John Mackey, Jonathan Newman, Carter Pann, Joel Puckett, Dan Welcher as well as many others. Professor Sedatole also serves on the summer faculty of the Interlochen Music Camp, Board of Directors for the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic and as the president of the CBDNA North Central division. His international engagements include residencies at the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music, Tokyo, Japan and the Mid Europe Festival, Schladming, Austria.