Sunday, December 7, 2003, 2:30 PM
Robert C. Smithwick Theater
Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
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| Title | Composer |
| The Vanished Army | Kenneth J. Alford |
| Celebration | Philip Sparke |
| Prelude and Fugue in D Minor | J. S. Bach |
| English Dances | Malcolm Arnold |
| Dedication Overture | Vittorio Giannini |
| March Op. 99 | Sergei Prokofieff |
| "Mars" from The Planets | Gustav Holst |
| Suite of Old American Dances | Robert Russell Bennett |
| Christmas Day | Gustav Holst |
Parenthetically titled “They Never Die”, this march was written in 1918 and dedicated to the first 100,000 men who gave their lives fighting against tyranny during World War I. One of the most expressive marches, it is both somber and stirring, serving as a reminder of the terrible price of the war. Alford often used fragments of familiar tunes in his marches; a portion of It’s a Long Way to Tipperary may be heard at the end of the second strain.
Kenneth J. Alford was a pseudonym for Frederick Joseph Ricketts (1881 - 1945); Alford was his mother's family name. Born the son of a coal merchant in London, he studied both piano and organ as a child and by the age of fourteen was playing cornet in the Royal Irish Regiment Band. He completed the bandmaster's course at the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall in 1908. Most of his marches were composed during the next two decades while he was bandmaster of the Second Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Alford is best remembered for his restrained and dignified “poetic” marches. He was as famous in England for his marches as Sousa was in the United States.
Celebration was commissioned by the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra and was premiered by them on June 11, 1992. The composer commented:
The work celebrates two things, firstly the incredible virtuosity of the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra and secondly, and more generally, optimism of the human spirit; and perhaps, more specifically, what is to me the most important aspect of any band music -- the glorious results that can be achieved when musicians play together towards a common goal, a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Opening with a majestic brass fanfare, Celebration makes its proclamation of optimism. The woodwinds add rapid punctuations to the theme. A calm theme conveys peace and security, helping to demonstrate the range of technique and dynamics of the ensemble. A trumpet flourish changes the mood and leads to the Presto theme, which is derived from the opening fanfare and running passages in the woodwinds. Themes are traded back and forth between the sections. Energy abounds throughout. The brass reintroduce the chordal fanfare against the main woodwind theme. Gaining momentum, the work concludes with a series of strident chords.
Born in London in 1951, Philip Sparke went on to study composition, trumpet, and piano at the Royal College of Music, where he earned an Associate degree. His participation in wind band at the College, together with a brass band that he formed, piqued his interest in wind music and resulted in his composition of several works for both ensembles. Interest in his first published works led to his receiving several commissions, including The Land of the Long White Cloud written for the Centennial Brass Band Championships in New Zealand. He has written for brass band championships in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Holland, Australia, and New Zealand. In 1997, his Dance Movements, commissioned by the U.S. Air Force Band, won the prestigious Sudler Prize.
This composition is part of a collection for organ entitled The Eight Little Preludes and Fugues. This transcription by R. L. Moehlmann retains the sonority and interplays of the Baroque original. Originally a short, extemporaneous piece of music that developed out of a musician’s natural tendency to play a few notes before commencing, the prelude developed into a formal part of the music. The Prelude introduces the musical key of the composition. Eighth-note runs of the woodwinds liven an otherwise somber key of D minor. The Fugue introduces its theme at a brisker tempo and the added voices develop an imitative counterpoint.
With a background which boasted approximately 200 musical ancestors, it is not surprising that Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750) developed a keen interest in music at an early age. He mastered the violin and clavier and devoted himself to the study and mastery of the organ. As court organist in the town of Arnstadt at the age of eighteen, Bach became interested in composition, devoting every leisure moment to improving his skills. A devout Lutheran, Bach, like his fellow baroque composers, felt that everything a man does and believes is religious. They believed that their music and art helped protect people against the advance of doubt bred by Renaissance ideas of scientific, rational inquiry. During his lifetime, Bach was more famous as an organist and court musician than as a composer. The people of his time considered his baroque compositions too elaborate. His works were largely unknown until rediscovered some eighty years after his death. We are fortunate to enjoy them now as his legacy.
Malcolm Arnold’s publisher, Bernard de Nevers, suggested that a suite of dances be composed to provide an English counterpart to Antonin Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances or Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances. Arnold developed eight original melodies that seemed firmly rooted in traditional English dance and song. The melodies were divided into two sets of four. Written in 1950, English Dances was dedicated to de Nevers. The first movement, Andantino, opens quietly to 4-part chords played by the French horns and a melody introduced by the oboe. The melody is reminiscent of the gentle movement of a country breeze or the slowly flowing streams, sometimes becoming agitated when encountering obstacles. Both the obvious and haunting bell tones heard in this movement and the others have been suggested as the source for the English nature of the dances. The church bells in the towns and cities of England are often tuned to the notes of the diatonic scale (i.e., the notes of the white keys of a piano). This scale is used extensively by Arnold, who believed in its “eternal value.” The second movement, Vivace, begins with bell tones that seem to signal the start of festivities in a village town. Mesto, the third movement, translates as sad or melancholy. The final movement, Allegro risoluto, is characterized by a driving and determined rhythm in the brass with ornamentation from the woodwinds.
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. 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. He served many years as principal trumpet player in the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Vittorio Giannini was one of the founders of the North Carolina School of the Arts and served as its first president. He composed the Dedication Overture for the commencement ceremony of the first graduating class in 1966, comprising 55 high school seniors. The Overture begins with ascending runs in the woodwinds. The brass add drama with sonorous, romantic themes. The mood shifts as the saxophones provide a soft cantabile passage. The opening tempo and themes are recalled and the energy increases. This energy gets restrained in final triumphal chords.
Vittorio Giannini was born in Philadelphia in 1903 into a home with strong musical background. He learned to play the violin from his mother. At the age of 9, he received a scholarship to the Royal Conservatory in Milan, Italy. In 1917, he returned to New York to complete his graduate studies in composition at the Juilliard School of Music. From 1939 to 1965, he served concurrently at the Juilliard School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Curtis Institute. He became one of the country’s most active composition teachers. His students have included Alfred Reed, Anthony Iannaccone, John Corigliano, and Nancy Bloomer Deussen. He served as the first president of the North Carolina School of the Arts, which he helped found, until his untimely death in 1966. Giannini wrote five major works for band, including the Symphony No. 3. He also wrote eleven operas, several large choral works, songs, madrigals, chamber music, works for piano, and numerous orchestral works.
Unlike his other band marches, Prokofieff wrote this one for concert presentation. This concert march was written in 1943, when he was a dominant force in Soviet music, having rehabilitated himself from being branded “an enemy of the people” as a result of Stalin's characterization of Prokofiev's music as being “degenerate”. Opening with a strong allegro pulse that carries the composition, the main theme is introduced by the solo trumpet. Woodwind runs add to the excitement, before a mellow French horn and euphonium phrase is introduced. The clarinets and brass reenter and their themes intertwine to the rousing finale.
Born in 1891 in Sontzovka, Russia, Sergei Prokofieff exhibited exceptional musical talent as a child. Tutored at the piano by his mother, he wrote a number of piano pieces, including six marches, when he was five. At nine, he wrote the piano score to the opera Giant. He entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory, at the age of 13, where he was taught by Rimsky-Korsakov, Liadov, and Tcherepnin. His travels, after graduation, took him to the United States, but he found the political and cultural climate of Paris in 1920 to be more sympathetic to his compositions. He retained his Russian citizenship and returned there in 1936, where he lived until his death in Moscow on March 5, 1953. His death was overshadowed by that of Joseph Stalin, who died the same day. The catalog of Prokofiev's works includes symphonies, band works, concertos, piano sonatas, and chamber music compositions. His better known works include the opera The Love of Three Oranges, the ballet Romeo and Juliet, the symphonic Lieutenant Kije Suite and Peter and the Wolf, and the film music to Alexander Nevsky.
The Planets, composed for orchestra between 1914 and 1916, is a suite of seven tone poems, each describing a planet from Mars to Neptune; Earth was excluded and Pluto hadn't been discovered yet. At a time when Holst was finding large-scale composition difficult, due to demands on his time, his friend Clifford Bax talked to him about astrology. The clearly defined character of each planet suggested the contrasting moods of a work that was unlike anything he had yet written. Mars, the Bringer of War is the first movement of the suite. It was written months before the outbreak of the First World War. Holst’s use of relentless 5/4 and 5/2 rhythms builds tension from the quite beginnings to the full triple forte of the battles. The war machine is driven by this rhythm, destroying everything in its path.
Gustav Holst (1874 - 1934), one of England's most prominent composers, was also a professional trombonist and a teacher of composition and organ. His music includes operas, ballets, symphonies, chamber music, and songs. During the first World War, he was placed in command of all English Army Bands, organizing music among the troops under the Y.M.C.A. Army and Education program. He continued his teaching as musical director at the St. Paul's Girls' School in the Hammersmith borough of London. His First Suite in E-Flat, Second Suite in F, and Hammersmith are hallmarks in the repertoire for wind ensemble; his orchestral suite, The Planets, earns high popularity.
Leading off the suite, the Cake Walk is a strutting dance based on a march rhythm, often performed at minstrel shows; it originated as a competition among Black dancers to win a cake. The Schottische is a Scotch round dance in 2/4 time, similar to the polka, only slower. The third movement, Western One-Step, recalls a variant of an early ballroom dance that was a precursor to the foxtrot. The triple meter of the Wallflower Waltz, will be familiar to most. The bright and highly syncopated rhythm of the Rag completes the dance suite.
It is almost impossible to over-estimate the importance of Robert Russell Bennett (1894 - 1980) to the music scene, particularly the American musical theater. The “Broadway sound,” so admired and imitated world-wide, is not merely the sound of American tunes; it is the sound of America's best melodies as arranged for pit orchestras by Bennett and others whom he has influenced. To list the more than 200 shows he has orchestrated is to provide a fairly complete catalogue of the biggest Broadway hits of three decades or more. Bennett grew up on a farm and started his harmony and counterpoint studies at the age of 15. Seven years later, he was leading army bands, arranging, and composing in New York. In 1926, he began a period of European study, which included four years work with Nadia Boulanger, this century's most influential music teacher. An avid baseball fan, he often amazed his friends with his recall of baseball statistics.
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