Belmont University School of Music presents
Belmont University
Concert Band and Wind Ensemble
McAfee Concert Hall
Friday, February 17, 2023
7:30 p.m.
Program
Concert Band
Greg Snyder, Conductor
Melodious Thunk
In Light, Inaccessible
Watercolors Fading
Whip and Spur (Galop)
Wind Ensemble
George Shannon II, Conductor
David Biedenbender (b. 1984)
Jess Langston Turner (b. 1983)
Amber Sheeran (b. 1999)
Thomas S. Allen (arr. Cramer) (b. 1876)
Harry’s Wondrous World
Rise I. Beginnings
II. Farewell Song
Song (for Band)
Candide Suite
I. The Best of All Possible Worlds
II. Westphalia Chorale and Battle Scene
III. Auto-da-fé
IV. Glitter and Be Gay
V. Make Our Garden Grow
John Williams (arr. Lavender) (b. 1932)
Adam Schoenberg (b.1980)
William Bolcom (b. 1938)
Leonard Bernstein (ad. Grundman) (1918 - 1990)
Concert Band
Flute
Maya Burney Journalism Branson, MO
ReAnna Davenport Music Business | Accounting Lebanon, TN
Michelle Jacks Music Business Knoxville, TN
Mattie Zehrt* Nursing Brentwood, TN
Oboe
Briana Crowder* Audio Engineering Technology Glasgow, KY
Clarinet
Braydon Bavoso Computer Science | New Cannan, CT Audio Engineering Technology
Ana-Laura Galindo* Creative & Entertainment Industries | Mount Olive, NJ
Hospitality & Tourism Management
Sean Pettis Creative and Entertainment Industries Glens Falls, NY
Moe Phares Nursing Franklin, TN
Bass Clarinet
Logan Jalil Political Science | Asian Studies
Alto Saxophone
Colin Anderson Data Science
Peachtree City, GA
Thompson’s Station, TN
Nicholas Domschke* Music Education Bartlett, IL
Mason Gudorf Classical Performance Cincinnati, OH
Malia Matthews Creative and Entertainment Industries Ventura, CA
Sarabeth Nienaber English Nashville, TN
Tenor Saxophone
Megan Gretz* Music Education Weddington, NC
Ryan Thurgaland Classical Music Performance Ocklawaha FL
Allison Zimmermann Elementary Education Mountainside, NJ
Baritone Saxophone
Micah Parkinson* Composition Jackson, MS
Ava Peluso Music Education Montgomery, PA
Trumpet
Derys Coreas-Escobar Audio Engineering Technology La Vergne, TN
Jason Hulse Music Technology Atlanta, GA
Zoey Kloewer Music Business/Accounting Johnston, IA
Christopher Smith* Music Education Danbury, CT
Cadence Thomas Music Therapy Alma, GA
Horn
Holden Cessna Music with an Outside Minor Cleaville, PA
Janelle Lockney* Music Therapy Pickerington, OH
Raelyn Ott Mathematics Florence, SC
Julie Porter Creative and Entertainment Industries Bellevue, WA
Rylie Treat Music Business Laconia, NH
Trombone
Kathleen Funk Elementary Education
Irvine, CA
Johney Green* Commercial Music Knoxville, TN
Euphonium
Justin Sherman* Music Business
Tuba
Abigail English* Music with an Outside Minor
Percussion
Stockton, CA
Tullahoma, TN
Sam Austin Music Performance Dallas, TX
Praxina Guerra Music Therapy San Antonio, TX
Jared Leuthaeuser Audio Engineering Technology Brecksville, OH
Miriam Marks Music Composition Rosemount, MN
Matthew Oliver Music Composition Auburn, AL
Megan Wheeler Music Composition Treasure Island, FL
Piano
Miriam Marks Music Composition Rosemount, MN
* Denotes Principal
Wind Ensemble
Flute
Mimi Anderson Music Education
Nashville, TN
Sadie Nayman Economics Hinckley, OH
Christine Subratie* Music Education Angel Fire, NM
Oboe
Patrick Lewis* Music Education
Simi Valley CA
Gracie Ault Music Therapy Valparaiso, IN
Bassoon
Emily Okamura* Music Therapy Dallas, TX
Harrison Sampson Classical Music Performance Newport, TN
Clarinet
Cross Brandon Multiple Woodwinds Little Rock, AR
Rainni Crutchfield* Music Theory | Classical Music Performance Marion, VA
Jillian DeBrito Music Therapy Wall, NJ
Owen Fader Commercial Music Performance Orlando, FL
Sara Megown
Audio Engineering Brevard, NC
Seth Tramel Music Education Johnson City, TN
Bass Clarinet
Hannah Schwartz Music Business
Alto Saxophone
Olathe, KS
Ryan Contreras* Classical Music Performance | Pedagogy Early, TX
Jacob Yim Commercial Music Performance
Tenor Saxophone
Rebecca Ekberg Music Therapy
Marietta, GA
Liberty Township, OH
Baritone Saxophone
Bojer Gibson Music Education Spring Hill, TN
Trumpet
Duncan Blackstock Music Education Oxford, FL
Jacob Boyer Commercial Music Performance Washington, IL
Jackson Floyd Commercial Music Performance Gig Harbor, WA
Judson Gay Music with an Outside Minor Nashville, TN
Freddy Maresca* Music Pedagogy
Horn
Jacob Andrews Classical Music Performance
Princeton, NJ
Winston-Salem, NC
Hannah Edwards Classical Music Performance Wallburg, NC
Antonina Forzese Classical Performance
Cassie Shearer Music Therapy
Alpharetta, GA
Dayton, OH
Emma Wells* Creative & Entertainment Industries | Cypress, IL Music with an Outside Minor
Trombone
Brian Kling Music Business Houston, TX
Michael Luttrull* Classical Music Performance Hendersonville, TN
Shelby McDonald BA in Music w/Musical Theatre Emphasis Ball Ground, GA
Euphonium
Patrick Kounlavouth Music Theory
Murfreesboro, TN
Caleb Wilkerson* Audio Engineering Technology Ocean Springs, MS
Tuba
Abigail English Music with an Outside Minor
Tullahoma, TN
Brasher Miller* Music Education Montgomery, AL
String Bass
Carrie Simmons Music Education
Percussion
Matthew Love* Classical Music Performance
Madelynn Miller Music Therapy
Murfreesboro, TN
Nashville, TN
Oswego, IL
Jacob Sallee Music Education Pace, FL
Cameron Terry Classical Music Performance Columbia, TN
Hadley Thomas Music Therapy Canyon Lake, TX
Samuel Weaver Classical Music Performance
Piano
Nicholas Benefield Music Composition
Harp
Aliyah Wenneker Family Christian Academy
* Denotes Principal
Nashville, TN
Lakewood, CA
Old Hickory, TN
Melodious Thunk (2012)
Program Notes
I don’t normally like to begin program notes with dictionary definitions -- it feels pretty stuffy to me -- but it seemed appropriate for this piece, so here goes…
thunk [thuhngk] noun & verb
1. [n.] an abrupt, flat, hollow sound (example: The book landed on the floor with a thunk.); synonym: thud
2. [v.] to produce an abrupt, flat, hollow sound
3. [v.] colloquial past tense and past participle of think.
Melodious Thunk was inspired by the famous jazz pianist Thelonious Monk. Monk’s wife, Nellie Smith, nicknamed him “Melodious Thunk” because of his clunky, awkward, and brilliant(!) piano playing, and his somewhat scatterbrained and disoriented nature. I really liked the idea of playing around with Monk’s name – first, because I personally really enjoy goofing around with “spoonerisms” (silly, ridiculous, mix-and-match letter games, which often happen by accident, and, second, because this nickname actually provided great musical inspiration. Melodious – well, that’s fairly obvious – and thunk (which is a great onomatopoeia) became the starting points for the piece. Big, fat thunks are interspersed with pointy, clunky, bluesy blips, which are then transformed into a long, smooth, laid-back melody accompanied by a funky bass line. I haven’t consciously borrowed any specific tunes or licks from Monk, although I do use a small fragment of Dizzy Gillespie’s tune Salt Peanuts, but I hope you’ll hear some similarities between this piece and Monk’s iconic musical style and quirky attitude.
-Program notes by the composer
In Light, Inaccessible (2015)
“In Light Inaccessible” is based on the hymn “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise.” The piece is composed in “sunrise form,” beginning with a faint glow, with sonorities that blend into each other, gradually becoming more and more distinct before the sun finally breaks through the clouds into full joyful daylight.
God dwells in inaccessible light light that we can’t directly look at. It's an uncreated light that emanates from God’s very being. This light was already there before God created the light that we see “In light inaccessible hid from our eyes.” This also is a basic biblical idea. God isn’t a product of human imagination, a human wish raised to the nth power, or a projection of human hopes and fears. God is outside and beyond our ideas of God, so we can’t see God from a human point of view at all.
-Program notes by the composer
Watercolors Fading (2021)
One of my favorite forms of visual art is watercolor. Often, painters use a fading technique that can create an infinite amount of shade in the visible color spectrum. Watercolors Fading is a very visual representation of the concept, “Infinite Diversity,” the name of the concert that this piece was originally written for.
While everyone’s perception of color is slightly different, to me, the piece starts out as a red and proceeds in (mostly) rainbow order. While red often has connotations with
powerful words like; anger, fierce, passion, the first thing I always think of when it comes to the color of red is strawberries. It might be a bit of an odd connotation to a color, but this shade of red that I’ve envisioned is the right color of strawberries and spring, sweet and playful and sunburnt smiles. When the low brass adds in the quartal-quintal leaps, I begin to fade into orange. The fanfare that follows is the color of orange in the sunrise, bright and beautiful. A new light, new day, and the feeling of revival is what I intend this fanfare to represent. Then, an accelerando and change in key and mode lightens our orange, and creates the color yellow. I’ve always thought of yellow as a little bit mischievous, but still playful and harmless, as represented by the mixolydian mode and the saxophone soli. The low brass feature is where I begin to add in green. Since we’re still in the mixolydian mode, I see this as a lime-green that grows darker and darker until we hear the flute solo where it comes a dark forest-green. As the opposite of red is green, the theme is played in retrograde and is now in a minor key. Later, the sound becomes lighter again and the theme is played normally as a euphonium solo, and by the glockenspiel in retrograde. This combination creates the color teal. When the retrograde theme leaves, the green fades out and the blue darkens its hue. The folk song, “Oh Said the Blackbird,” or “Pourquoi” as it is also called, makes an appearance in this section. This folk reference, along with the thick orchestration makes a very dark, night-sky blue. The build up to the fermata darkens the hue even further until we have a rich, black, and silent measure of white, and then an explosion of our shortest wavelength, violet. As the piece slows again, we fade through magenta to get us back to red, and end the piece as we started.
-Program notes by the composer
Whip and Spur (1902)
Thomas Allen composed a variety of works in the entertainment industry for dances, acrobatic acts, and short dramatic sketches. His work, Whip and Spur, is a galop, a musical style that is typically quick in tempo, light, and whimsical. Originally, the galop was a French country dance from the nineteenth century.
-Program note by George Shannon II, School of Music Faculty
Harry’s Wondrous World (2002)
The success of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has been a heartwarming phenomenon to all those who love books. The worldwide reception that these works have received added greatly to the sense of privilege that I felt when I was given the honor of composing the music for the film version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
The story’s imaginative array of wizards flying on broomsticks and mail-delivering owls, all occupying a wondrous world of magic, offered a unique canvas for music, and the prospect of sharing it with some part of the great army of readers who love these books is a great joy to see.
-Program notes by the composer
Rise (2018)
Rise is a two-movement work commissioned by the California Wind Band Consortium. I wanted to create a new piece that could be presented in three distinct ways: Both movements played back-to-back; standalone movements (Beginnings can be a concert opener or encore, and Farewell Song can be placed anywhere in a
program); or having the movements bookend an entire program (i.e., the concert begins with Beginnings and closes with Farewell Song.)
Beginnings is designed to function as a long gradual crescendo. It begins with a rhythmic ostinato that becomes the driving force for the entire movement. As it progresses, the orchestration and overall intensity grows, ultimately creating an uplifting and optimistic ending.
Farewell Song is based on the final movement of my violin concerto, Orchard in Fog. This movement is meant to have a timeless feel, simultaneously serving as an atmospheric and pastoral-landscape type of sonic experience, while also being imagined as a goodbye song to a loved one.
-Program notes by the composer
Song (for Band) (2001)
Bolcom wrote Song (for Band) in 2001 for the retirement of longtime University of Michigan band director H. Robert Reynolds. The dedication of the piece reads: “In honor of the retirement of H. Robert Reynolds from the directorship of the University of Michigan band, this song is a present for Bob. – W.B.”
-Program notes by Adam Pease
Candide Suite (1956)
This Suite for concert band is made up of five numbers from the musical Candide, which premiered on Broadway in 1956. The satiric novella Candide by Voltaire was the basis for a political and music satire with a libretto by Lillian Hellman and music by Leonard Bernstein. Candide as a musical has since had many reincarnations, but the section of this Suite utilizes musical numbers that have remained virtually unchanged from the original Broadway production.
1. The Best of All Possible Worlds
Doctor Pangloss, Voltaire’s satirical portrait of the philosopher Gottried von Leibnitz, tutors his Westphalian pupils. (Candide and Cynegonde among them) in the finer points of optimism, refined by a classical education. The music alternately enjoins the pupil’s responses with Pangloss’s pedantic free-associative explanations that the ills of the world are somehow all of the best. The refrain is, of course, that this is the best of all possible worlds.
2. Westphalia Chorale and Battle Scene
The devout Westphalians sing a chorale praising the integrity of their homeland, after which they are massacred by the invading Bulgarian army. The Battle Scene adroitly juxtaposes major and minor modes of materials familiar from the Overture.
3.
Auto-da-fé
Candide and Doctor Pangloss find themselves in Lisbon, where, being free thinkers (and optimists), they are prosecuted as heretics by the Spanish Inquisition. The handling of heretics was meant to prevent earthquakes, and the joyous music depicts the happy crowd celebrating their deliverance. However, the earthquake happens anyway, and Candide and Doctor Pangloss escape.
4. Glitter and Be Gay
Cunegonde, Candide’s true love, has become the reigning madam in Paris, France. In a parody of “Jewel Songs,” (such as that in Gounod’s Faust), she sings how she endeavors to maintain a brilliant, carefree exterior, while she may (or may not) be tortured inwardly by self-doubt.
5. Make Our Garden Grow
At the conclusion of the musical, and of Voltaire’s novella, Candide realizes that the only purpose of living is to cultivate the earth, and to create a garden. He enjoins the others to assist him in bringing things to life, and even Cunegonde proposes to bake a loaf of daily bread. Optimism is transformed into prac tical necessity, and the entire cast of characters join in a hymn full of hope.
-Program notes by Clare Grundman
Upcoming Concerts and Events
Musical Theatre
The World Goes 'Round
Friday, February 17, 7:30 pm
Saturday, February 18, 7:30 pm
Sunday, February 19, 2:00 pm
Massey Concert Hall
Tickets are required for this event. Please visit the Belmont Box Office to reserve your tickets. Belmont Students receive one free ticket through the Box Office.
Guitar Ensemble
Tuesday, February 21, 7:30 pm
McAfee Concert Hall
Alumni Band - Celebrating 50 Years of Jazz
Friday, February 24, 7:30 pm
Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
Jazz Fest
Jazz Band I and Jazzmin with Special Guest Chris Potter
Saturday, February 24, 7:30 pm
Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
Tickets are required for this event. Please visit the Belmont Box Office to reserve your tickets. Belmont Students tickets can be reserved for $9
Jazz Piano Concert Series
Ted Rosenthal
Tuesday, February 28, 7:30 pm
McAfee Concert Hall
Jazz String Septet & Jazz String Quartet
Wednesday, March 1, 10:00 am
Massey Concert Hall
Rock Ensemble
Wednesday, March 1, 7:30 pm
Massey Concert Hall
