PROGRAM NOTES
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
During the season of 1869-1870, the director of the Imperial Theater in St, Petersburg conceived the idea of staging an elaborate opera ballet based on a subject from Slavic mythology, For this work, to be known as Mlada, he commissioned music from the Russian school of composition. The project was never realized, however, and most of the music which the composers had written found its way into other of their works. Not until 20 years later did Rimsky-Korsakov decide to use the subject for an opera ballet of his own. His Mlada was begun in 1889, and produced at the Marinsky Theater in 1892.
Program Note from Program Notes for Band
Shenandoah is one of the most well-known and beloved Americana folk songs. Originally a river song detailing the lives and journeys of fur traders canoeing down the Missouri River, the symbolism of this culturally significant melody has been expanded to include its geographic namesake an area of the eastern United States that encompasses West Virginia and a good portion of the western part of Virginia -- and various parks, rivers, counties, and academic institutions found within.
Back in May of 2018, after hearing a really lovely duo arrangement of Shenandoah while adjudicating a music competition in Minneapolis, I asked myself, after hearing so many versions of this iconic and historic song, how would I set it differently? I thought about it and thought about it and thought about it, and before I realized it, I had composed and assembled just about all of this arrangement in my head by assigning bass notes to the melody and filling in the harmony in my head afterwards. I would intermittently check myself on the piano to make sure what I was imagining worked, and ended up changing almost nothing at all from what I’d heard in my mind’s ear.
This arrangement recalls the beauty of Shenandoah Valley, not bathed in golden sunlight, but blanketed by low-hanging clouds and experiencing intermittent periods of heavy rainfall (created with a combination of percussion textures, generated both on instruments and from the body). There are a few musical moments where the sun attempts to pierce through the clouds, but ultimately the rains win out. This arrangement of Shenandoah is at times mysterious, somewhat ominous, constantly introspective, and deeply soulful.
Program Note by Omar Thomas
Shenandoah arr. Omar Thomas
Festal Scenes Yasuhide Ito
Festal Scenes was composed from four folk songs from the Aomori Prefecture of Japan: Jongara-jamisen, Hohai-bushi, Tsugaru-aiya-bushi and Nebuta-festival. Scoring calls for instrumentation identical to American Symphonic Band or Wind Ensemble instrumentation, except that two extra Japanese percussion instruments are added to the refular percussion section: the Tebiragane, like a lartge antique cymbal, and the Nebuta-daiko, similar to a bass drum but played with a thin bamboo stick wrapped in vinyl tape. Imaginative scoring for the percussion instruments with the inclusion of Japanese instruments coupled with the use of the four joyful Japanese fook songs depict a trye festive atmosphere in this work.
Ito was inspired to write Festal Scenes after receiving a letter from a wandering philosophical friend in Shanghai, who said “Everything seems like paradise blooming all together. Life is a festival, indeed.”
Festal Scenes was commissioned by the Ominato Band of the Japan Maritime Self DefenceFOrce. It received its premiere performance in Japan on October 28, 1986, under the direction of Shoji Iwashita, and received its American premiere at the American Bandmasters Association convention in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1987, by the University of Illinoise Concert Band, James Keene, Conductor, with the conductor serving as guest conductor. Its second performance in the U.S.A. was at the WASBE convenction in Washington, D.C., July 1988, by the united States Air Force Band, Lt. Col, James Bankhead, Conductor.
Program Note from publisher
Early Light
Carolyn Bremer
An up and coming name in the world of contemporary composers, Carolyn Bremer has created this arresting transcription for band of her orchestral work of the same name. Bright, tonal, and uplifting, the composition is as joyous and as full of wonder as is the title.
Early Light was written for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and reeived its premiere performance in July, 1995. The material is largely derived from “The Star Spangled Banner.” One need not attribute an excess of patriotic fervor in the composer as a source for this optimistic homage to our national anthem; Carolyn Bremer, a passionate baseball fan since childhood, drew upon her feelings of happy anticipation at hearing the anthem played before ball games when writing her piece. The slapstick heard near the end echoes the crack of the bat on a long home run.
Program Note from publisher
Day Dreams
This work was commissioned in honor of the 75th birthday of the wonderful conductor Frank Battisti. It is based entirely on the musical pitches extracted from his name (FFrAAnk BABAttisti), forming the musical motive F A B A.
In order to recognize the arc of his life and career, Day Dreams traces a metaphorical day. The movement titles all come from Thoreau's Walden, a place very close to where Frank spent a good part of his life. The work begins with a dramatic sunrise. The second movement represents morning (or youth), and juxtaposes two extremely contrasting and seemingly irreconcilable types of material, typical of that stage of life. The
Dana Wilson
third movement explores the afternoon (adulthood), a period of sophisticated balancing of life's many forces. The final movement is a sunset, with each individual player saying goodbye...
Program Note from publisher
Conga del Fuego Nuevo Arturo Márquez
Following on the success of Arturo Márquez's Danzón No. 2 adapted for band, Oliver Nickel's transcription of Conga del Fuego Nuevo (Conga of New Fire) gives an added kick to the concert band repertoire. In contrast to the elegant, sinuous Danzón, Conga is an uptempo, celebratory piece, bright and catchy, with the percussion section providing the signature kick at the end of the conga pattern. Márquez slows things down in the middle section to spotlight the first trumpet in a melody that recalls the mariachi tradition. The alto saxes pick it up and relax into a ritard ... only to be interrupted by the return of the opening material. The piece ends in fiery fashion.
Conga del Fuego Nuevo was included on the the program of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and played at a New Year’s Eve concert in Germany for Arte Television. Again, like Danzón No. 2,it is a typical Latin-American composition with considerable temperament and rhythm.
Program Note from publisher
