Evening Concert Series 2024 – 2025 Season
Helen H. Hosmer Concert Hall Wednesday, February 19th at 7:30 PM
The Crane Wind Ensemble
Brian K. Doyle, conductor
Masquerade
Suite Française d’apres Claude Gervaise (1935)
Bransle de Bourgogne
Pavane
Petite marche militaire
Complainte
Bransle de Champagne
Sicilienne
Carillon
Concerto forAlto Saxophone and Band, op. 26 (1941)
Energetic
Meditative
Rhythmic
Nathaniel Cobb, alto saxophone
Intermission
Smoke and Mirrors (2012)
Love & Nature (2024)
Flower Power
Star-Crossed
Slow Burn
Masquerade for Band, op. 102 (2002)
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
Paul Creston (1906-1985)
Erica Muhl (b.1961)
Gala Flagello (b.1994)
Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987)
Piccolo
Stephen Buff
Flute
Sabrina Clubine *
Renee Rivers *
Liz Combs
Elsie Munsterteiger
Margo Neth
Oboe
Kayla Outman *
Mariana Morales
Connor Martin
English Horn
Mariana Morales
Bassoon
Maddie Garcia
Melissa Mitchell
Contra Bassoon
Liam Hill
E-flat Clarinet
Brandon McLaughlin
Clarinet
Michael Ducorsky *
Paige Krebs *
Jessica Schaller
Nicholas Derderian
Tommy Rock
Katie Pullaro
Elliot Brock
Emma Marsillo
THE CRANE WIND ENSEMBLE PERSONNEL
Bass Clarinets
Jovany Rivers
Jessica Puleo
Julia Saxby
Alto Saxophone
Nathaniel Cobb *
Kevin Malone
Sara Ward
Tenor Saxophone
Alex Brown
Baritone Saxophone
Ryan Panzarino
Trumpet
Brian McNamara *
Edward Karron *
Trey Grant
Nick Bedell
Daniel Maldonado
Ethan Cobey
JuliaAvdoulos
IsaacAviles
Horn
Dario Longobardi
David Nesbitt
Moriah Clendenin
Will Hallenbeck
Noah Garland
Trombone
Ethan Keesler *
Julien Hershkowitz
Bass Trombone
Victor Mainetti
Euphonium
Josh Coldren *
Casey DeJesus-Webb
Tuba
Zach Barstow *
Liam Yusko
Mason Wiedeman
Percussion
Wyatt Calcote *
Bailey Yerdon
Elizabeth Skalski
John McGrath
Drew Spina
Piano
Jack Jiang
Harp
Harper Foley
Librarians
Kayla Outman
Bailey Yerdon
* Section Principal
PROGRAM NOTES
Suite Française, d’apres Claude Gervaise Francis Poulenc
Francis Poulenc was born in Paris on January 7, 1899 and died in that same city on January 30, 1963. Poulenc belonged to Les Six along with fellow composers Auric, Durey, Honegger, Milhaud and Tailleferre. However, this group was more a social collective than a compositional front with a specific, singular agenda. Les Six were influenced by Eric Satie, and Jean Cocteau, and to a lesser extent Emmanuel Chabrier. The group favored a simpler and direct compositional language inspired by everyday life, epitomized for them in the music of Satie and Chabrier – suitable alternatives to Stravinsky and Debussy in the emerging compositional trend eschewing the Germanic hegemony of sensual, overdramatic romanticism. Ironically, later in life Poulenc claimed Mozart, Schumann, Debussy, Schoenberg, and Stravinsky all as pivotal early influences.
In 1935, Edouard Bourdet commissioned both Auric and Poulenc to compose the incidental music for each act, respectively, of his play La Reine Margot – a work about Margeurite (Margot) de Valois (1553-1615), who married Henri de Navarre in 1572. Henri was named successor to the throne in 1588, and crowned Henri IV, King of France in 1593. Margot’s marriage to Henri was arranged by hermother, Catherine di Medici in an attempt toreconcilethe bloody civil wars of France between Roman Catholics and Huguenot Protestants that plagued the French state from 1562-1598. The intensely strained relationship between Margot and Henri unfolded with significant drama, intrigue and political maneuvering – culminating in “The Lovers’ War” of 1580.
For his music to accompany Act II, Poulenc drew inspiration from Pierre Attaingnant’s Livres de Danceries, published in seven volumesduringthemid1550s.ClaudeGervaise,acontemporaneousFrench courtcomposerandviolinist,collected andeditedseveral of these volumes. Music journalist Jeff Eldridge asserts that Nadia Boulanger, a close friend of Poulenc’s suggested this source. While each movement (except perhaps the fourth) draws upon Gervaise’s melodies, these renaissance dances serve as a point of compositional departure. Poulenc includes a great deal of new material that furthers the affect initiated by the re-harmonized and ofttruncated borrowings.Poulenc’s additionsaredistinguishablebytheirharmonicdensity andoccasionally austere-sounding sonorities. In the 16th century, this music was performed at social dances by ensembles arranged in consorts – homogenous groupings from families of recorders, viols, cornetti and sackbuts; or crumhorns. Poulenc observes this notion of consort grouping throughout his arrangements. The addition of the harpsichord in the orchestration, while adding a pleasant “antique touch” to the overall affect of the work, is possibly more of an homage to French harpsichordist Wanda Landowska than any attempt to preserve a renaissance performance practice. Poulenc met Landowska in 1923 and was immediately overwhelmed by her musical presence: “Wanda Landowska is one of the only women who gives me the impression of genius in its pure state.” Poulenc describes his musical debt to her:
My meeting with Wanda Landowska was indeed, a key event in my career. I feel for her equal amounts of artistic respect and human affection. I am proud of her friendship, and I will never be able to say how much I owe her. It was she how gave me the key to the harpsichord works of Bach. It was she who taught me all that I know about our French harpsichordists.
Poulenc’s Concert champêtre (1928), a concerto for harpsichord, was dedicated to and premiered by Landowska. Suite Française was the last of three works in which Poulenc utilized this instrument.
Poulenc first published this incidental music as Suite Française in an arrangement for piano in 1935. The instrumental suite using Poulenc’s original scoring – pairs of oboes, bassoons and trumpets along with three trombones, harpsichord and percussionist (snare, bass drum and cymbals) – received publication more than a decade later, in 1948.
Suite Française draws upon three basic renaissance dance forms: the bransle (in three versions), the pavane and the galliard. The “Bransle de Bourgogne” is a two-part mixed-bransle which utilizes uneven phrase lengths. However, Poulenc truncates the initial five-measure phrase to four measures and alters the second, eight-measure phrase by composing new music for its conclusion. The terse “Petit marche militaire” only utilizes the first gesture of Gervaise’s bransle-simple (characterized by six-measure phrases) as the first section of a larger form. The remainder of the movement is original material. The final movement, “Carillon” is another Bransle simple. Poulenc again alters the phrase structure by truncating the first section into a five-measure phrase, while leaving the second section its original length. “Carillon” also contains a great deal of new music by Poulenc. The third bransle variant is found in the “Bransle de Champagne.” This movement is a bransle-double, based upon four measure phrasing.
The pavane is a slow, ceremonial dance. Poulenc leaves the first section of his version unaltered, and removes chromatic tones from the second section, giving it an antique sound. The middle section of the movement is original music but is most strongly reminiscent of the “chorale” that concludes Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments.
The “Complainte,” is either so altered that finding its source is impossible, or it is wholly new. Regardless of its heritage, the melancholy oboe and harpsichord solos give this movement an air of mournful introspection. “Complainte” continues without interruption into the “Bransle de Champagne.”
The final form Poulenc employs is the galliard, found in his “Sicilienne.” This dance is grouped in six-beat units, and dancers in the renaissance would have jumped up on each fifth beat. Poulenc only uses two sections of the original three inserting original material in the middle and at the end.
Concerto forAlto Saxophone and Band
Paul Creston
Paul Creston’s three-movement Concerto for Alto Saxophone is considered one of his major works, as it demands polished technique and exacting control of both the soloist and ensemble. Originally written for orchestra, the concerto was first performed by the New York Philharmonic in 1944, featuring Vincent Abato as soloist. In 1963, Creston rescored the work for symphonic band. The first movement, Energetic, is in sonata form and opens with an ensemble tutti section of the first theme, followed by solo saxophone flourishes. The soloist first presents the lyrical second theme alone, followed by the oboes and clarinets. The richly lyrical second movement, Meditative, begins with the principal theme presented by the flute, then the bassoon. The melody is plaintively beautiful and is composed within a 5/4 meter, although the melody’s rhythmic and phrasal structure does not follow the traditional bar line. Near the middle of the movement, the soloist performs a lengthy cadenza based upon the juxtaposition of melodic fragments and accompanimental material presented earlier in the movement. The movement concludes much as it began, this time with the theme first presented by the oboe, continued by the solo saxophone, and ultimately yielding to a serene F-sharp-major chord.
The third movement, Rhythmic, is in rondo form, including an energetic and vigorous A theme, a flowing, melodic B theme, and an impassioned and martial C theme. The piece concludes with a frenetic solo cadenza, followed by an exuberant and punctuated finale.
Nathaniel Cobb, alto saxophone
Smoke and Mirrors
Nathaniel Cobb, a native of Bakersfield, Vermont, currently studies Saxophone Performance and Music Education at the Crane School of Music and will graduate with a B.M. in these two degrees this spring. As an active performer, Nathaniel has played in several wind bands, including the Northern SymphonicWinds, the Enosburg Falls CommunityTown Band, and the Crane Wind Ensemble, where he has held the principal saxophone chair for three semesters. Nathaniel’s saxophone teachers include Joanne Scott, Barb Smith, and Dr. Casey Grev. Nathaniel completed his student teaching placements last semester in both the Potsdam Central School District and the Norwood-Norfolk Central School District and is eager to begin the next part of his career inspiring students in the same way his mentors have done for him.
Erica Muhl
Smoke and Mirrors was commissioned by the University of Southern California on theoccasion of my50th birthday. As this occasion was, shall I say, bittersweet (let’s face it, no one wants to turn 50), I couldn’t resist the temptation to magically turn the clock back- at least musically. While the work is entirely an expression of my style as it has developed through 2009, it contains several paraphrases of my compositions for orchestra spanning my twenty-four years at USC, from my student days in 1985 to today. These fragments have been incorporated fully into the arc of the new work, and some are quite hidden in the context. They are, however, used chronologically (i.e., in the order of original composition), and as such create a kind of compass for my compositional direction. Smoke and Mirrors opens with a simple, forceful unison in low strings and percussion. After only a few seconds, brass and winds enter with exchanging colors that move slowly at first, but then suddenly rise to a fff rapid-fire burst in brass and percussion. Just as suddenly, the opening meditative mood returns, now alive with subtextual ideas. The brass builds again to explosive, rapid chords, this time supported by the entire orchestra. What follows this volatility is a completely unexpected scherzo; while the opening seemed to hint at something more serious, the scherzo unfolds instead lightly, dance-like, with veils of shifting color and a constant, though sometimes hazy, pulse. The scherzo is interrupted three times by jarring tuttis in contrasting duple meters, and it eventually gives way to the overpowering new beat. Faster and more determined, the final section builds slowly but directly to its climax, an extended reflection of the opening explosive brass chords, and the ensuing, dissipating smoke.
Program Note by Erica Muhl
Love & Nature
Gala Flagello
Love & Nature was commissioned by a consortium of wind bands led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and explores how love prevails through cosmic lore, social movements, and mercurial mythos.
Each of the work's three movements connects a different instrumental sound world to the concepts of earth, air, and fire, depicting a blossoming of kindness and hope for the future of our planet. The first movement, Flower Power, is inspired by the titular social movement of the 1960s1970s and sonically critiques the juxtaposition of fragility and strength, beauty and utility, and nonviolence and force. Flower Power reflects the ethos of Marc Riboud's iconic photograph The Ultimate Confrontation: The Flower and the Bayonet and incorporates a musical Easter egg a countermelody for counterculture. The second movement, Star-Crossed, summons the hope, whimsy, and longing of its ill-fated protagonists through celestial textures and luminous scoring. The third and final movement, Slow Burn, explores both versions of the titular literary trope romantic and anger-fueled through the arboraceous lens ofcontrolledfire,anoriginallyindigenouspracticethatmitigatesthedrought-driveneffectsofclimatechange. Slow Burn foregrounds bright and wooden sounds to pay homage to our forests and the necessity of ecological restoration.
Special thanks to Kim Fleming, Christi Blahnik, Rachel Zephir, Ashley Killam, Ancel "Fitz" Neeley, Michael Avitabile, Sagar Anupindi, Allison Chu, and Hannah Hickman for their guidance during the writing of this work. And Pete Williams: to the moon and back. Endless gratitude to the bands whose support has made Love & Nature a reality.
Program Note by Gala Flagello
Masquerade
Born in Philadelphia in 1915, Vincent Persichetti began studying piano and organ at age five, and soon he was performing professionally as a pianist and church organist. At 16, he was appointed organist and choir director for the Arch Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, a post he held for nearly 20 years.
Following study at the Combs College of Music, Persichetti was appointed head of the theory and composition departments at Combs College at age 20. Persichetti received graduate degrees in conducting and piano from the Curtis Institute and the Philadelphia Conservatory. In 1941 he was appointed head of the theory and composition departments at the Philadelphia Conservatory, and in 1947 he joined the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music, assuming chairmanship of the Composition Department in 1963.
Persichetti received numerous awards, including three Guggenheim Fellowships, two grants from the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities, one from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the first Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, and a Medal of Honor from the Italian Government.
In 1961, Persichetti wrote one of the definitive books on modern compositional techniques, Twentieth Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practice, in which he outlines, describes, illustrates compositional techniques utilized by composers throughout the century. Persichetti composed original musical examples for the text, several of which were the creative inspiration for Masquerade, composed in 1965. Masquerade was commissioned by the Baldwin-Wallace College-Conservatory of Music and received its premiere on January 23, 1966. Persichetti states:
After writing examples for the Twentieth Century Harmony, I forgot about them – or so I thought – they began to ferment and began haunting me. I realized that certain examples had a thematic kernel in common. These examples from the harmony book evolved into a set of variations for fifty wind and percussion instruments. The work is a masquerade of my book.
The title refers not only to the composer’s conception of the work as a piece “masquerading” as a harmony text. The title undoubtedly also suggests the dance-like qualities contained throughout the work – “a masked ball” of musical events.
The work is constructed as a set of ten variations and coda based on a motivic fragment first presented by a solo trumpet. The motivic content of the work serves to bind the variations together, supported by a series of cadenzas for solo instruments. Persichetti takes great care in transitioning from one variation to the next, often blending material from a particular section with ideas that appear in an upcoming variation. The variations feature great diversity of affect. Some are slow and sustained, some fast and rhythmic, some agitated, some contemplative. Each variation employs a different aspect of Persichetti’s harmonic theory – including polymodality, bitonality, pentatonicism, and free chromaticism. The result is a highly crafted, extremely varied work that conceals its academic origins within a work that is rich in expressive content.
Vincent Persichetti