Sunday, December 9, 2:30 PM
Smithwick Theatre, Foothill College
12345 El Monte Road
Los Altos Hills, CA
A celebration of the human spirit |
|
| Title | Composer |
| Dynamica | Jan Van der Roost |
| Overture to La Forza del Destino | Guiseppe Verdi |
| David Holsinger | |
| Four Scottish Dances | Malcolm Arnold |
| March from Symphonic Metamorphosis | Paul Hindemith |
| Variants On a Mediaeval Tune | Norman Dello Joio |
| Russian Christmas Music | Alfred Reed |
| Encore: America The Beautiful | Samuel A. Ward arr. Carmen Dragon |
Dynamica was commissioned by the Band of the NEC Tamagawa Plant in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan, to commemorate its 40th anniversary in 1997. Jan Van der Roost chose the title to reflect the dynamic movement of NEC as a company and the energetic activity of the band. The introduction to this fiery and energetic overture is a proclamation of celebration for the occasion. Gradually, melodic and playful themes are developed, often supported by polyrhythmic figures. Van der Roost tried to incorporate in the music the energy of the organization and its members along with the congenial fellowship that he witnessed.
Jan Van der Roost was born in Duffel, Belgium, in 1956. His father was the conductor of amateur ensembles and his mother sang in the local choir. His first efforts of music expression were arrangements for small ensembles. At the Lemmens Institute, he received a triple laureate diploma for trombone, music history, and music education (1979). His advanced studies continued with diplomas received at the Royal Conservatories of Ghent (music theory, 1982) and Antwerp (composition, 1989). He currently teaches at his alma mater, the Lemmens Institute, and has directed the Midden Brabant brass band since 1984. In 1991, he became conductor of the Lemmens Conservatory Symphonic Band. A versatile composer and arranger, Van der Roost is represented by works for wind band, brass quintet, orchestra, choir, chamber ensemble, piano, and guitar. His compositions have been performed on radio and television and recorded in over 35 countries.
The Force of Destiny was written in 1861 as a commission for the Imperial Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia. The premiere had to be cancelled when the principal singer became ill and couldn’t be replaced. The opera was finally premiered in November of the following year. Hampered by a plot that placed a curse on the principal characters and left nearly everyone dead, the opera was nonetheless a success. In 1869, Verdi revised the opera to be less depressing in story line and ending. He also included this overture in place of the prelude of the original version. Destiny, personified by the three ominous brass chords at the opening, is pushed forward by a rushing motive heard in the woodwinds. The lyrical melody of a prayer sung by the doomed soprano is incorporated also. Destiny’s force is heard as a strong undercurrent throughout the overture.
Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901) was born in Roncole, Italy, into a family of small landowners and taverners. At 7, he was helping the local church organist. At 12, he was studying with the organist in nearby Busseto, where he became the assistant in 1832. A grocer in Busseto saw Verdi’s potential and offered to pay for his education at the Milan Conservatory. The Conservatory rejected him, so he studied privately in Milan for two years, before returning to Busseto to pursue his musical career and to marry the grocer’s daughter. An early opera enjoyed success at La Scala. Between 1838 and 1840, he lost his wife and two children. In despair, he vowed never to compose again. Friends persuaded him to begin writing and his Nabucco in 1842 marked his real beginning of a spectacular career. Hailed as a national hero, Verdi’s talent has made a significant mark in the operatic literature with his operas Rigoletto, La Traviata, Aida, and Othello.
David Holsinger’s first child, his daughter Haven, was the inspiration for this 1983 composition. Its driving rhythms represent the energy of an eight year old, who was constantly dancing and twirling around the house, dreaming of being a ballerina. The composition undergoes several variations in style, but it is always filled with energy. Some passages evoke the image of a single dancer, with solo pirouettes and leaps; these light efforts grow to draw in the full dance company with an unrelenting, underlying rhythm. Havendance is the first of three dancesongs honoring the composer’s children; Nilesdance and Graysondance reflect the diverse personalities of his two sons.
David Rex Holsinger was born in Hardin, Missouri, the day after Christmas 1945. He took up the trumpet in the third grade and was a member of the school bands through high school. Pursuing a low brass/music education major, Holsinger earned degrees from Central Methodist College (BME, 1967) and Central Missouri State University (MA, 1974). For more than 16 years, he served as chief musician and composer-in-residence at the Shady Grove Church in Grand Prairie, Texas. His compositions earned him the prestigious American Bandmasters Association Ostwald Award in 1982 and 1986. In 1995, the Gustavus Adolphus College conferred the Doctor of Humane Letters Degree upon Holsinger for his lifetime achievement in composition. Holsinger likes to work with a title in mind. His repertoire spans the secular and sacred, with the latter prominently represented by his Hymnsong series. His music is often characterized by unrelenting rhythms, mixed meters, and polylineal textures. Throughout his more than 50 band works, there is a sense of sincerity and gratitude that carries high emotional impact. A respected guest lecturer and conductor, Holsinger lives in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee with his wife, Winona.
Malcolm Arnold has composed a number of “national dances”. The Four Scottish Dances, composed in 1957, are original works that employ traits and timbres derived from Scottish folkmusic. The opening movement (Pesante) is in the style of a strathspey, a slow Scottish dance from the strath valley of Spey, with a hint of bagpipes and their drones. A lively reel starts off the second movement (Vivace). The bassoon’s melody brings visions of the town drunk, who is whisked away with the return of the reel. In the third movement (Allegretto), Arnold provides “an impression of the sea and mountain scenery on a calm summer’s day in the Hebrides.” The last movement (Con brio) is a lively fling filled with a sense of abandonment.
Malcolm Arnold (b. 1921) has created for himself a significant and somewhat unique position in contemporary British music. At a time when much new music is foreboding or despairing, his optimistic outlook and high spirits are the more welcome. He was born in Northampton, a town with considerable musical tradition. He studied at the Royal College of Music, where he would later return as an instructor. He served many years as principal trumpet player in the London Philharmonic Orchestra. His list of works includes nine symphonies, twenty concertos, much chamber music, five ballets, and music for several films; he received an Oscar for his music for the 1958 film, Bridge on the River Kwai. His suites of English, Scottish, and Cornish dances are hallmarks of his repertoire.
Hindemith collaborated with choreographer Leonid Massine on a ballet utilizing music of Carl Maria von Weber. The project was eventually scrapped due to artistic differences between the parties. Hindemith felt he was just being used as an arranger, while Massine found the music too complex to dance to. The musical ideas were salvaged, three years later, when Hindemith completed his Symphonic Metamorphosis (1943). The work was originally written for orchestra, but the composer believed that it should be available for band, also. Hindemith asked his Yale colleague, Keith Wilson, to do the transcription, which was completed in 1961. The March is the fourth and final movement of the composition and is based on a piano duet by Weber. The two-bar opening statement by the brass is heard in several forms throughout the movement. The woodwinds underscore the sonorous melodies of the brass with a driving rhythm and articulation that carries the movement to its finale.
Paul Hindemith was a rare musician known not only for his talent as a composer, but for his work as a professional violinist and violist, a pianist, conductor, and teacher. He could play virtually every instrument in the orchestra; if he was unfamiliar with one, he would take a week or so to master it. Hindemith was born in Hanau, Germany, in 1895. His father was a house painter, who played the zither and encouraged his children to explore their musical talents. Paul started taking violin lessons at the age of nine and was later enrolled at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfort from 1908 to 1917. When his father was killed in the war in 1915, Paul had to support his mother by playing in cafes. He was concertmaster for the Frankfurt Opera (1915 - 1923) except for a two-year period when he was called into service and became part of the regimental band. His interest in composing Gebrauchsmusik - music for practical use rather than music for art's sake - put him in disfavor with the rising Nazi party. In 1938, he left for Switzerland and later the United States, becoming head of the School of Music at Yale University in 1942 and a US citizen in 1946. Returning to Switzerland in 1953, he resided there until his death in 1963.
After a bold introduction led by a cornet fanfare, Dello Joio introduces the theme that forms the basis of these Variants, composed in 1963. The melody of In dulci jubilo is often associated with the Christmas carol Good Christian Men, Rejoice, but it has been dated back to the early 16th century and Martin Luther, who probably borrowed it from older non-liturgical music. The first variation (Allegro deciso) rushes by with such speed that it is hard to recognize that it is based on notes two through five of the melody. The trumpets announce the peasant style of the next variation (Lento, pesante), with the theme being found in the woodwinds and low brass. The rapidly articulated notes of the clarinets hide the theme in the third variation (Allegro spumante). This contrasts with the rich, dark quality of the bassoons and bass clarinets in the next variation (Andante). An increase in dynamic level gives the brass a turn with the theme until it slowly fades away. The final variation (Allegro glorioso) is a spirited proclamation of the theme and conclusion of the work.
Norman Dello Joio descends from a long line of Italian church organists. Born in New York City in 1913, he received his musical training from his father, an organist and a coach for the Metropolitan Opera. Dello Joio recalls growing up surrounded by musicians and music in his home. He began working as a church organist and choirmaster at the age of 12. In 1939, he received a scholarship to study at the Juilliard School of Music. Believing that composition suited his interests better than being an organist, Dello Joio studied under Paul Hindemith at Tanglewood and the Yale School of Music. He began his teaching career at Sarah Lawrence College, became a professor of composition at Mannes College (1956-72), and professor of music and dean of the Fine and Applied Arts School of Boston University (1972-9). Hindemith praised the lyrical nature of Dello Joio’s music. A prolific composer, Dello Joio has written for chorus, orchestra, and band, along with many works for solo instruments. His accolades include the Pulitzer Prize in 1957 for Meditations on Ecclesiastes and an Emmy Award for The Louvre in 1965. He is currently living on Long Island, New York, and may never retire from composing.
Alfred Reed was a 23 year old staff arranger for the 529th Army Air Corps Band when he was called upon to create what has become a masterpiece of the wind literature. It was in 1944, when optimism was running high with the successful invasion of France and Belgium by the Allied forces. A holiday band concert was planned by the city of Denver to further promote Russian-American unity with premiers of new works from both countries. Roy Harris was placed in charge and planned the second movement of his Sixth Symphony (the “Abraham Lincoln Symphony”) to be the American work. The Russian work was to have been Prokofiev’s March, Op. 99, but Harris discovered that it had already been performed in the United States (by Reed’s own organization). With just 16 days until the concert, Harris assigned Reed, already working for Harris as an aid, to compose a new Russian work for the concert. Scouring the Corp’s music library, Reed found an authentic 16th-century Russian Christmas Song “Carol of the Little Russian Children” to use for an introductory theme. Drawing on his investigations of Eastern Orthodox liturgical music for other thematic ideas, he completed the score of Russian Christmas Music in 11 days; copyists took another two days to prepare parts for rehearsal. The music was first performed on December 12, 1944, on a nationwide NBC broadcast. A concert performance was given in Denver two days later. In later years, Reed made minor changes to the instrumentation to suit a large ensemble, but tonight’s version is essentially the same as the original.
The liturgical music of the Eastern Orthodox Church is entirely vocal, admitting no instrumental music into the services. Alfred Reed has captured the sonorities, rhythmic inflections, clarity, and flowing phrases of the human voice in his composition. Although the work is in the form of a single movement, four distinct sections can be recognized. The opening “Carol” sets a restrained and gentle mood. The chant from the trombones and trumpets climaxes into the “Antiphonal Chant” carried by the woodwinds. The rhythm picks up for the “Village Song,” which is presented in two bar phrases that rise and fall with the liturgy. The church bells herald the final “Cathedral Chorus” that builds in a steady crescendo, pausing for a soft and sonorous chorale, before continuing with the introduction of additional instruments until all of the colors and intensity of the celebration fill the hall.
Alfred Reed was born on Manhattan Island in New York City on January 25, 1921. His formal music training began at the age of 10, when he studied the trumpet. As a teenager, he played with small hotel combos in the Catskill Mountains. His interests shifted from performing to arranging and composition. In 1938, he started working in the Radio Workshop in New York as a staff composer/arranger and assistant conductor. With the onset of World War II, he enlisted and was assigned to the 529th Army Air Corps Band. During his three and a half years of service, he produced nearly 100 compositions and arrangements for band. After his discharge, Reed enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music and studied composition with Vittorio Giannini. In 1953, he enrolled at Baylor University, serving as conductor of the Symphony Orchestra while he earned the Bachelor of Music degree (1955). A year later, he received his Master of Music degree. His interest in the development of educational music led him to serve as executive editor of Hansen Publishing from 1955 to 1966. He left that position to become a professor of music at the University of Miami, where he served until his retirement in 1993. He continues to compose and has made numerous appearances as guest conductor in many nations, most notably in Japan.
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