PROGRAM NOTES
Festive Overture, op. 96
Dmitri Shostakovich
The Festive Overture was composed in 1954, in theperiod between Symphony No. 10 and the ViolinConcerto. The American premiere was given by Maurice Abravanel and the Utah Symphony Orchestra on November 16, 1955. In 1956, the New YorkPhilharmonicunder Dimitri Mitropoulos presentedthe overturein CarnegieHall. A Russian band version of the overture was released in 1958 and utilized the standard instrumentation of the Russian military band, i.e., a complete orchestral wind, brass, and percussion section plus a full family of saxhorns, ranging from the Bb soprano down through the Bb contrabass saxhorn. This new edition has been scored for the instrumentation of the American symphonic band.
Festive Overture contains oneofShostakovich’s greatest attributes: theability to writealong sustained melodic line combined with a pulsating rhythmic drive. In addition to the flowing melodic passages, there are also examples of staccato rhythmic sections which set off the flowing line handed between the woodwinds and the brass, and the variant fanfares initiated by the trumpets and horns. It is truly a “festive” overture.
Program Note by Donald Hunsberger
Regeneration
Kevin Charoensri
Studying music composition at the University of Texas Austin, Kevin Charoensri’s background includes chamber music, jazz piano, film scoring, writing and performing EDM, producing, and electronic keyboard programming.
Inaddition to conducting thepremieres of all his original compositions, Charoensrienjoys regularlyconducting the professional pit orchestras hired for his high school’s musicals, along with hired pit orchestras for his local community theatre productions. In June 2018 as part of the 32nd-annual Sydney Youth Musicale, Charoensri conducted the world premiere of his work Return, in a performance at the Sydney Opera House.
Regeneration is an encouragement of hope through the healing process, both physically and mentally.
This piece was inspired when I tore my shoulder inApril of 2023, and I was order not to compose or play piano fora year. Ithereforebegancomposing and playingwith onehand andstoppedmy other hobbieswhich brought me happiness.
Regeneration is an intimate view of my journey healing both physical and mental pain, and the healthy change of perspective I needed. I found myself constantly asking, "When will I be happy again?", when I really had to ask myself, "When will I allow myself to find joy, again?
With the advice of my mentors and friends, I had to find acceptance, and then joy in what I could do, versus what I couldn't do.
I hope Regeneration is a beacon of hope for anyone dealing with injuries, both physically and mentally. As I have personally experienced, pain has good and bad days, but “A joyful, cheerful heart brings healing to both body and soul.”
Program Note by Kevin Charoensri
Divertimento for Wind Orchestra
Jindřich Feld
Four years younger than Karel Husa – also a native of Prague – Jindřich Feld was born into a well-established musical family. Both Feld’s mother and father were violinists – his father, a professor at the conservatory. Unlike Husa, the younger Feld remained in Prague, obtaining all his musical education in that city. Beginning his career as a free-lance composer, Feld eventually obtained a post at the Prague Conservatory as Professor of
Composition from 1972-86. During this time, he also served two guest-lectureships at Indiana University: in 1981 and 1984.
In his Divertimento for Wind Orchestra, Jindřich Feld creates a tightly composed neo-classic work embodying the quintessence of Gebrauchsmusik as employed by Paul Hindemith in the 1920s and 30s. Indeed, in most compositional aspects, this work is reminiscent of Hindemith’s style, while at the same time retaining a point of view – and a sense of whimsical jocularity – which most assuredly belongs to Feld.
The “Little Overture” begins with a rousing introduction before introducing various members and sections of the ensemble in a series of imitative entrances on a theme. Variants of the introduction also frame the middle section of the work, where imitation and development of the theme continue. In the recapitulation, the theme is inverted, but still passed around the ensemble. One final variant of the introduction heralds the coda, bringing this compact overture to a close. The “Intermezzo” gently rolls along in ABAB form. The A-section is fully scored, with the jaunty, but angular melody in the soprano woodwinds. The B-section contrasts not only by virtue of its sparse scoring, but also in the way the melody is broken up and passed around. “Rondo” is in a brisk six-eight meter, also clearly sectionalized. Feld’s preference for rapid distribution of melody in both solo and sectional work again appears in this movement. Although full of energy, this movement comes to a dramatically quiet close – further enhancing the work’s charming humor.
The Black Horse Troop
John Philip Sousa
Sousa’s loveforhorses is reflectedin this marchdedicatedto themountedtroopsofaClevelandNational Guard unit. Their exclusive use of black horses was the inspiration for the title. TroopA, once known as the First City Troop of Cleveland, was originally an independent militia group and has had a long, distinguished history since its formation in 1877. Sousa’s most noteworthy association with the troop came in 1898. The Sousa Band, having arrived in Cleveland just as the troop was preparing to leave for the Spanish-American War, marched in a parade escorting them from the Armory to the train depot. His first association was much earlier, however. As leader of the U.S. Marine Band in 1881, he marched with the organization in the funeral cortege of President JamesA. Garfield.
At a dinner held in Sousa’s honor in November 1924, the march was requested by CaptainWalker Nye ofTroop A. The request was fulfilled promptly, and the march was presented in Cleveland on October 17, 1925, at a Sousa Band concert which also marked the forty-eighth anniversary of TroopA. For the occasion, the mounted troopers were dressed in the blue uniforms of 1877, complete with black fur busbies. Sousa presented a manuscript of the march to Captain Nye. Troop A reciprocated by presenting Sousa with a beautiful bronze statuette entitled “The Last Drop,” which depicted a trooper on horseback.
Many of the former Sousa Band members expressed their fondness for this composition and commented on the descriptive character it assumed when performed by Sousa himself.Part of the effect was due to the 6/8 rhythm, which suggests the canter of horses.Also contributing to the effect was Sousa’s use of simulated hoofbeats.
Program Note by Paul E. Bierley
Carlos Simon’s album, My Ancestor’s Gift, was released on the Navona Records label in April 2018. Described as an “overall driving force” (Review Graveyard) and featured on Apple Music’s “Albums to Watch”, My Ancestor’s Gift incorporates spoken word and historic recordings to craft a multifaceted program of musical works that are inspired as much by the past as they are the present.
As a part of the Sundance Institute, Simon was named as a Sundance Composer Fellow in 2018, which was held at the historic Skywalker Ranch. His string quartet, Elegy, honoring the lives of Trayvon Martin, Michael BrownandEricGarnerwasrecentlyperformedattheKennedyCenterfortheMasonBatesJFKJukeboxSeries. With support from the US Embassy in Tokyo and US/Japan Foundation, Simon traveled with the Asia/America
Sweet Chariot
Carlos Simon
New Music Institute (AANMI) on a two-week tour of Japan in 2018 performing concerts in some of the most sacred temples and concert spaces in Japan including Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan.
Simon earned his doctorate degree at the University of Michigan, where he studied with Michael Daugherty and Evan Chambers. He has also received degrees from Georgia State University and Morehouse College. Additionally, he studied in Baden, Austria at the Hollywood Music Workshop with Conrad Pope and at New York University’s Film Scoring Summer Workshop.
His latest work for winds, Sweet Chariot (2019) resulted from a consortium put together by Robert Ambrose (Georgia State University) and Brian K. Doyle, after the CWE performed his AMEN! in the fall of 2018.
As the composer states:
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is perhaps one of the most well-known African American spirituals. As beautiful and rapturing as its melody is, it should be. However, its beauty and popularity its often overlooked by the song’s true meaning about death. I have taken fragments of the melody and combined it with the Gregorian chant from the Latin mass for the dead, In Paradisum. Its text is as follows: "May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your arrival and lead you to the holy city Jerusalem. May choirs of angels receive you and with Lazarus, once (a) poor (man), may you have eternal rest.”
Program Note by Carlos Simon
William Byrd Suite
Gordon Jacob
WilliamByrd(1543–1623)wasthepreeminentEnglishcomposerofhistimeand,alongsidecontinentalmasters like Giovanni Palestrina and Orlando de Lassus, one of the great figures of the late Renaissance. Raised within the Royal Chapel, Byrd likely studied under Thomas Tallis, the esteemed composer and chapel organist. Although he grew up in Protestant surroundings, Byrd remained a devout Roman Catholic throughout his life, yet skillfully maintained favor with the English crown.
Byrd’s keyboard music stands among his most significant contributions, shaping the entire school of Elizabethan keyboard composition. These works were primarily composed for the virginal, an instrument closely related to the harpsichord in both sound and mechanism. While Byrd’s keyboard pieces began to circulate in manuscript form as early as the 1570s, it wasn’t until the publication of My Ladye Nevells Booke (1591) and Parthenia (1611) that they reached a wider audience. His largest collection of keyboard works around seventy pieces remained unpublished until 1899, when the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book finally emerged from obscurity. Today, it is considered England’s most important collection of keyboard music. All the movements in Gordon Jacob's William Byrd Suite are drawn from this essential source.
Gordon Jacob, a student of Charles Villiers Stanford,Adrian Boult, and Ralph Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music (RCM), joined the RCM faculty in 1924, where he taught until his retirement in 1966.Among his notable students were Malcolm Arnold, Imogen Holst, and Joseph Horovitz. At the time of his death in 1984, Jacob had composed over 700 works. His contributions to wind band music such as Old Wine and New Bottles, Music for a Festival, Original Suite, Giles Farnaby Suite, The Battell, and William Byrd Suite follow in the tradition of Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose works formed the backbone of early 20thcentury wind band repertoire.
Jacob described William Byrd Suite as “freely transcribed,” noting that virginal players of Byrd’s era lacked the ability to create dynamic contrast or timbral variation. Byrd compensated for these limitations by adding additional voices above or below the melody to create intensity. Likewise, he used increasingly complex ornamentation to enrich the music. Jacob retained Byrd’s original melody, harmony, and form but enhanced the music with his own orchestration, adding color and dynamic range to elevate the expressiveness of Byrd’s work.
It would be an oversimplification to describe Byrd’s movements as merely growing louder and more intricate through ornamentation and imitation. His genius lies in how he balances these techniques to maintain variety
and avoid monotony. In The Earl of Oxford’s March, Byrd’s use of crescendo, ornamentation, and imitation is evident. The movement, marked un poco pomposo, begins quietly and simply, building steadily in volume and complexity toward a grand climax.
Thoughlong attributedto Byrd,theslow andstately Pavana is nowrecognized as aworkofAnthony Holborne. In this movement, Jacob introduces a novel harmonic scheme, beginning each phrase in a different key, while maintaining Bb-major as a central focus.
Jhon come kisse me now, The Mayden’s Song, and Wolsey’s Wilde aresets of variations on eight-bar andsixteenbar melodies, respectively. In the first two, Byrd develops the material through imitation and ornamentation, while Wolsey’s Wilde employs amoreconservativeapproach with lessfigurationandonly onevariation. Jacob’s orchestration of Wolsey’s Wilde showcases the dynamic and timbral capabilities of the wind ensemble, alternating between loud and soft passages to great effect.
Finally, The Bells is built around a simple two-note ground bass, with a continuous variation that unfolds in large musical paragraphs. The movement culminates in a majestic layering of contrapuntal texture, crowned by a dramatic tubular bell solo.
