Celebration Fanfare (2023)
Pinkzebra
A grand fanfare perfect for a concert opener, graduation ceremony, or any other celebratory event. Soaring melodies will thrill audiences on the first listen, and band members throughout the ensemble will shine as the themes and countermelodies trace their way through the instrument sections. - Program Note from publisher
Net Luck Soaring (2011)
Joni Greene
Net Luck Soaring was written to celebrate the life of Noppanut Lucksanawichien (known as “Net Luck” to those who knew him), a clarinet and percussion player, whose love of life sent him soaring through the sky like a carefree bird, dipping and diving with exhilaration, bringing happiness to all those around him. It was commissioned by Laura Cross and the band parents of Leander High School (Tx.), and was a gift to the band honoring the man and his family. It strives to capture the journey of life, both calm and perilous, among the friends and family who love us most. - Program Note from Diablo Valley College Wind Ensemble concert program, 7 October 2022
Selections from "Home Alone" (1990/1992)
John Williams
John Williams's delightful score is a memorable part of this blockbuster movie. Audiences and performers alike are sure to fall in love with this magical setting. This medley includes: Holiday Flight, Glorious Thieves, Somewhere In My Memory, The House and Star of Bethlehem. - Program Notes by publisher
Ride (2002)
Samuel Hazo
Ride was written as a gesture of appreciation for all of the kind things Jack Stamp has done for me, ranging from his unwavering friendship to his heartfelt advice on composition and subjects beyond. During the years 2001 and 2002, some wonderful things began to happen with my compositions that were unparalleled to any professional good fortune I had previously experienced. The common thread in all of these things was Jack Stamp. I began to receive calls from all over the country, inquiring about my music, and when I traced back the steps of how someone so far away could know of my (then) unpublished works, all paths led to either reading sessions Jack had conducted, or recommendations he had made to band directors about new pieces for wind band. The noblest thing about him was that he never let me reciprocate in any way, not even allowing me to buy him dessert after a concert. All he would ever say is, "Just keep sending us the music," which I could only take as the privilege it was, as well as an opportunity to give something back that was truly unique. In late April of 2002, Jack had invited me to take part in a composer's forum he had organized for his students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. I was to present alongside Joseph Wilcox Jenkins, Mark Camphouse, Bruce Yurko and Aldo Forte. This forum was affectionately referred to in my house as "four famous guys and you." It was such a creatively charged event, that everyone who took part was still talking about it months after it happened. Following the first day of the forum, Jack invited all of the composers to his house, where his wife Lori had prepared an incredible gourmet dinner. Since I didn't know how to get to Jack's house (a/d/a Gavorkna House) from the university, he told me to follow him. So he and his passenger, Mark Camphouse, began the fifteen-minute drive with me behind them. The combination of such an invigorating day as well as my trying to follow Jack at the top speed a country road can be driven, is what wrote this piece in my head in the time it took to get from the IUP campus to the Stamp residence. Ride was written and titled for that exact moment in my life when Jack Stamp's generosity and lead foot were equal in their inspiration as the beautiful Indiana, Pennsylvania, countryside blurring past my car window. - Program Note by composer
Folk Festival (1955/71)
Dmitri Shostakovich
In 1955, composer Levon Atovmyan arranged music from Shostakovich’s film score The Gadfly into a concert suite. The film, based on Ethel Voynich’s 1897 novel, is a romantic adventure set in 19th-century Italy, following the exploits of a revolutionary hero during the Italian independence movement. Shostakovich’s score draws on the Italian Romantic style of composers such as Verdi and Bellini while remaining unmistakably Shostakovich in its rhythmic vitality and harmonic bite. The suite’s third movement, “Folk Feast,” is a rousing and exuberant dance that captures the color and spirit of an Italian celebration.
Music for Prague 1968
Karel Husa
Czech-American composer Karel Husa was born in Prague, where he received his early musical training before studying in Paris with Arthur Honegger and Nadia Boulanger. After immigrating to the United States in 1954, he became an American citizen in 1959 and served on the faculties of Cornell University and Ithaca College until his retirement. Husa’s distinguished career earned him many honors, including the 1969 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his String Quartet No. 3. In May 1968, Husa was commissioned to compose a new work for the Ithaca College Concert Band. That summer, while composing at his cottage on Lake Cayuga, he followed the growing political unrest surrounding Alexander Dubček’s reformist government and the events of the “Prague Spring.” On the evening of August 21, 1968, Husa heard the shocking news that Soviet forces had invaded Czechoslovakia. He later recalled, “As I watched day and night, I was thinking about that beautiful city where I grew up, and all that it means to me. I was concerned for my sister and family who still lived in Prague. I decided then to write a piece for Prague and what the city has stood for throughout history.” Husa asked the following to be printed in all concert programs before the performance: Three main ideas bind the composition together. The first and most important is an old Hussite war song from the 15th century, Ye Warriors of God and His Law, a symbol of resistance and hope for hundreds of years, whenever fate lay heavy on the Czech nation. It has been utilized also by many Czech composers, including Smetana in My Country. The beginning of this religious song is announced very softly in the first movement by the timpani and concludes in a strong unison (Chorale). The song is never used in its entirety. The second idea is the sound of bells throughout, Prague, named also the City of “Hundreds of Towers,” has used its magnificently sounding church bells as calls of distress as well as of victory. The last idea is a motif of three chords first appearing very softly under the piccolo solo at the beginning of the piece, in flutes, clarinets and horns. Later it reappears at extremely strong dynamic levels, for example, in the middle of the Aria. Different techniques of composing as well as orchestrating have been used in Music for Prague 1968 and some new sounds explored, such as the percussion section in the Interlude, the ending of the work, etc. Much symbolism also appears: in addition to the distress calls in the first movement (Fanfares), the unbroken hope of the Hussite song, sound of bells, or the tragedy (Aria), there is also the bird call at the beginning (piccolo solo), a symbol of the liberty which the City of Prague has seen only for moments during its thousand years of existence.
Drum Music
John Mackey
John Mackey has written for orchestra, theater, and dance companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Parsons Dance Company, and New York City Ballet. In recent years, his focus has shifted toward wind ensemble music, with thousands of performances worldwide. His commissions include the BBC Singers, Dallas Wind Symphony, and ensembles across the U.S. and Japan, as well as concertos for Joseph Alessi, Christopher Martin, and Julian Bliss. He is the youngest composer ever inducted into the American Bandmasters Association (2014) and a recipient of the 2018 Wladimir & Rhoda Lakond Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Mackey lives in New York City with his spouse, philosopher A. E. Jaques, who titles all his works, and their cats, Noodle and Bloop. Drum Music is Mackey’s second percussion concerto, composed after deciding his first could not be effectively transcribed for winds and percussion. The opening movement, Infiltrate, reworks a section from his 2001 dance piece Annuals, originally scored for string quartet and evoking an Indian-inspired modal sound that features the soloist on mallet instruments. The final movement, Incinerate, contrasts sharply, serving as an explosive, rhythmically complex tour de force influenced by progressive rock, filled with driving syncopations and irregular meters.
La chancla (2024)
Dennis Llinás
Dennis Llinás is a Cuban-Colombian conductor and composer. He currently is the Director of Bands at The University of Oregon where he conducts the wind ensemble, teaches graduate and undergraduate conducting, and oversees the band area. A native of Hialeah, FL, Dennis studied at Florida International University & The University of Texas. He is an active clinician nationally and internationally, conducting in Colombia, Austria, and throughout the US, including the Dallas Winds and the West Point Band. He has presented sessions at The Midwest Clinic, WASBE, TMEA (Texas), FMEA, and CBDNA. His compositions and arrangements have been widely performed with recordings by Mark Hetzler and the University of Texas at El Paso Wind Ensemble. He has had performances by the Dallas Winds, The United States Air Force Band, The United States Navy Band, USAF Band of the Golden West, Cedar Park Winds, Brooklyn Wind Symphony, and The University of Texas Wind Ensemble, to name a few. His works have been performed at prestigious venues such as The Midwest Clinic, Music for All National Concert Band Festival, Texas Music Educators Conference, and the American Bandmasters Association Conference. The composer shares the following about his piece:
“La Chancla” is Spanish for a sandal. While Cubans usually say "chancleta," Puerto Ricans refer to it as "chancla." It is a common meme or joke among Hispanics that a mother with a chancla in her hand could get an entire room of unruly kids in line or even chase away a bear (look it up on YouTube - it happened!). It is the Excalibur of Hispanic mothers and grandmothers everywhere, and so I thought it would be a fun project to write a piece with this title and play between the mythical and merengue. The mythical element to La Chancla is represented by a combination of whole tone and octatonic collections. The merengue stands in stark contrast to the mythical, representing the culture through the more conservative functional harmony but intense rhythmic vitality. The piece is not programmatic - just a fun collection of these styles and the interplay between them.
Three Appalachian Songs (2019)
III. Sourwood Mountain
arr. Dwight Bigler
“Sourwood Mountain” (Roud 754) is a traditional American folk song with deep roots in Appalachian music, though versions also appear in New England. The song expresses a lighthearted lament over lost love, blending humor and heartache through a mix of rhyming verses and playful nonsense refrains such as “Hey-ho diddle-um day.” Like many folk tunes, it exists in countless lyrical variations, reflecting the oral traditions and regional character of early American music.