Yale Concert Band, Dec. 1, 2023, 7:30 pm, Woolsey Hall

Yale Concert Band Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director

“A Child’s Garden of Dreams” Friday, December 1, 2023, at 7:30 pm, Woolsey Hall, Yale University RORY BRICCA

Duplicity (2023) [premiere]

ALEX SHAPIRO

Trains of Thought (2015)

ALFRED REED

Russian Christmas Music (1944)

~ intermission ~ DAVID MASLANKA

A Child’s Garden of Dreams (1981)* I.

There is a desert on the moon where the dreamer sinks so deeply into the ground that she reaches hell.

II.

A drunken woman falls into the water and comes out renewed and sober.

III.

A horde of small animals frightens the dreamer.

The animals increase to a tremendous size, and one of them devours the little girl.

IV.

A drop of water is seen as it appears when looked at through a microscope. The girl sees that the drop is full of tree branches. This portrays the origin of the world.

V.

An ascent into heaven where pagan dances are being celebrated; and a descent into hell where angels are doing good deeds.

*funds from the Robert Flanagan Yale Band Commissioning Endowment made it possible to join the consortium that commissioned the video presentation of David Maslanka’s pastel drawings Yale University acknowledges that indigenous peoples and nations, including Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, and the Quinnipiac and other Algonquian-speaking peoples, have stewarded through generations the lands and waterways of what is now the state of Connecticut. We honor and respect the enduring relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land.

About Tonight’s Music Duplicity (2023) [world premiere] RORY BRICCA(b. 2004) “Duplicity (premiere) is a dance between honesty and deceit, with two main themes — one introduced at the beginning by the solo flute, representing deception; and the second played later by French horns, representing truth. These two themes then come together simultaneously, representing the mind’s ability to know one thing and say another without us even realizing it.” — Rory Bricca

Rory is a sophomore music major in Yale College and a French hornist in the Yale Concert Band. He has written several pieces for symphony orchestra while participating in the Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s Young Composers Project under the instruction of composer Vincent Calianno; his piece Landfall was featured in the Symphony’s 2018-19 season. After ten years of playing French horn in concert bands, he is excited to contribute a work of his own. He is grateful to Mr. Duffy for providing this incredible opportunity, and to his composition professor, Dr. Kathryn Alexander, for her valuable guidance.

Trains of Thought (2015) ALEX SHAPIRO (b. 1962) Alex Shapiro says of her piece: “A year before this piece was even imagined, my Vermont composer friend Dennis Bathory-Kitsz happened to post a short video on Facebook of a neighborhood Amtrak train zipping past his lens and microphone at full speed. There was something hauntingly beautiful about the particular chords and rhythms of that moment, and after replaying the clip several times I sensed that maybe sometime in the future, I could make use of these evocative sounds. I asked Dennis to return to the edge of the tracks and collect more audio samples. After cataloguing the pitches and patterns so I could work with them as musical elements, I tucked the edited files away, for an unknown project.

“That project appeared the next year, in the form of a commission from band director and educator Paul Kile for the Cochran Chamber Commissioning Project. They requested a work for a small group of any instruments commonly found in a wind band. Being the underdog-loving gal that I am, rather than include the usual all-stars of flute, clarinet or trumpet, I chose six, much lower-register instruments which deserve more repertoire. And, instead of taking a traditional approach to band instruments which tends — in my own works as well — to enjoy fast and remarkably loud notes whenever possible, I decided to offer these musicians the challenge of playing something moody, slower, and often quiet. The sound of a train summons many different emotions, from anticipation, to regret.

Recalling the files I had previously edited, I knew the timbre of this ensemble would be the perfect match.

“As it turns out, Trains of Thought is very effective with many types of instrumental groups— all brass, all woodwind, etc. Its first trip down the tracks was scored for bass clarinet, baritone saxophone, French horn, trombone, euphonium, and tuba, and the video and recording on this page feature a tenor sax in lieu of the bass clarinet. I dedicate the piece to all the heroes of the low-pitched world!”

YALE CONCERT BAND Russian Christmas Music (1944) ALFRED REED (1921-2005) Russian Christmas Music is one of the most popular and frequently performed pieces of concert band literature. Commissioned as a tribute to the friendship between the Russian and American allies in WWII, it celebrates the common bonds between peoples, which sustain regardless of political divisions and governmental disagreements. Originally written in November 1944, the work was first performed in December of that year in Denver, Colorado. Two years later, the piece was elaborated and revised, and in that form was one of the three prize-winning works in the 1947 Columbia University contest for new serious music for symphonic band.

An ancient Russian Christmas carol, Carol of the Little Russian Children, is mixed with motives from orthodox liturgical music from the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Though set as a single piece, the composer originally subtitled the four easily separated sections “Children’s Carol,” “Antiphonal Chant,” “Village Song,” and “Cathedral Chorus.” Reed also utilized this theme, as well as the “Cathedral Chorus” section, as source material for Slavonic Folk Suite, a piece written for novice musicians.

A Child’s Garden of Dreams (1981) DAVID MASLANKA (1943-2017) A Child’s Garden of Dreams was commissioned by John and Marietta Paynter for the Northwestern University Symphonic Wind Ensemble. It was composed in the summer of 1981 and premiered by Northwestern in 1982.

The following material is from Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung: “A very important case came to me from a man who was himself a psychiatrist. One day he brought me a handwritten booklet he had received as a Christmas present from his ten-year-old daughter. It contained a whole series of dreams she had had when she was eight. They made up the weirdest series of dreams I had ever seen, and I could well understand why her father was more than just puzzled by them. Though childlike, they were uncanny, and contained images whose origin was wholly incomprehensible to the father….

“In the unabridged German original, each dream begins with the words of the old fairy tale: ‘Once upon a time….’ By these words the little dreamer suggests that she felt each dream were a sort of fairy tale, which she wants to tell her father as a Christmas present. The father tried to explain the dreams in terms of their context. But he could not do so because there appeared to be no personal associations with them…. “‘The little girl] died of an infectious disease about a year after that Christmas….’ “[The dreams were a preparation for death, expressed through short stories, like the tales told at primitive initiations.]

“The little girl was approaching puberty and at the same time, the end of her life. Little or nothing in the symbolism of her dreams points to the beginning of a normal adult life…. When I first read her dreams, I had the uncanny feeling that they suggested impending disaster….

“These dreams open up a new and rather terrifying aspect of life and death. One would expect to find such images in an aging person who looks back upon life, rather than to be given them by a child…. Their atmosphere recalls the old Roman saying, “Life is a short dream,” rather than the joy and exuberance of its springtime…. Experience shows that the unknown

approach of death casts an adumbratio (an anticipatory shadow) over the life and dreams of the victim. Even the altar in Christian churches represents, on the one hand, a tomb, and on the other, a place of resurrection – the transformation of death into eternal life.”

“I have selected five of the twelve dreams as motifs for the movements of this composition: I. II. III. IV. V.

There is a desert on the moon where the dreamer sinks so deeply into the ground that she reaches hell.

A drunken woman falls into the water and comes out renewed and sober.

A horde of small animals frightens the dreamer. The animals increase to a tremendous size, and one of them devours the little girl.

A drop of water is seen as it appears when looked at through a microscope. The girl sees that the drop is full of tree branches. This portrays the origin of the world.

An ascent into heaven where pagan dances are being celebrated; and a descent into hell where angels are doing good deeds.”

— David Maslanka (Excerpts from pp. 69-75 of Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung. New York: Doubleday, 1964)

The Yale Concert Band joined a consortium of university bands to commission the series of projections that accompany tonight’s performance (they are creations of David Maslanka). Here are words from David’s son, Matthew, on this projection project: “I have been interested in joining my father’s music with beautiful and evocative visuals for many years. Done well, they can help deepen the immersion and power of his masterful works. A Child’s Garden of Dreams is an incredibly rich piece, written as a meditation on the vivid dream images of a dying girl.

“For many years, my father made pastel drawings with his left hand when he came to sticking points while writing music. They are a direct visual representation of his profound inner life. It seemed fitting to bring his musical and visual worlds together. As Child’s Garden helped confirm the wind band’s ability to perform sublime and subtle music at the highest level, so do I hope this visualization helps establish the wind band concert hall as a place for fully immersive and transcendent experiences.”

— Matthew Maslanka

YALE CONCERT BAND

Photo: Harold Shapiro

Upcoming Yale Bands Performances • Saturday, February 10 – 8:00 p.m. Yale and Harvard Jazz Ensembles in Boston. Wayne Escoffery and Yosvany Terry, Music Directors. Scullers Jazz Club, 400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston MA. $ Admission/Info TBA. • Friday, February 16 – 7:30 p.m. Yale Concert Band, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Mother of a Revolution (Omar Thomas), Luminance (Shuying Li), Cave of the Winds (Russell Peck), The Firebird Suite (Igor Stravinsky).

Free (no tickets).

• Wednesday, March 6 – 7:30 p.m. Yale Jazz Ensemble Big Band, Wayne Escoffery, Music Director. Program TBA. Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall. Free (no tickets).

• Monday, April 8: Yale Jazz Ensemble Big Band in New York. Wayne Escoffery, Music Director. Dizzy’s Club, 10 Columbus Circle, New York, NY. $ Admission/Info TBA. • Friday, April 12 – 7:30 p.m. Yale Concert Band, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. African American Symphony (William Grant Still), Medieval Suite (Ron Nelson), New England Triptych (William Schuman). Woolsey Hall. Free (no tickets).

About the Music Director Thomas C. Duffy is Professor (Adjunct) of Music, Director of University Bands, and Clinical Professor of Nursing at Yale University, where he has worked since 1982. He is known as a composer, a conductor, a teacher, an administrator, and a leader. His interests and research range from non-tonal analysis to jazz, from wind band history to creativity and the brain. Under his direction, the Yale Bands have performed at conferences of the College Band Directors National Association and New England College Band Association; for club audiences at New York City’s Village Vanguard, Birdland, Dizzy’s Club, and Iridium; Ronnie Scott’s (London); the Belmont (Bermuda); as part of the inaugural ceremonies for President George H.W. Bush; and concertized in twenty-one countries in the course of eighteen international tours.

Duffy produced a two-year lecture/performance series, Music and the Brain, with the Yale School of Medicine; and, with the Yale School of Nursing, developed a musical Photo: Harold Shapiro intervention to train nursing students to better hear and identify body sounds with the stethoscope. He combined his interests in music and science to create a genre of music for the bilateral conductor – in which a “split-brained conductor” must conduct a different meter in each hand, sharing downbeats.

His compositions have introduced a generation of school musicians to aleatory, the integration of spoken/sung words and “body rhythms” with instrumental performance, and the pairing of music with political, social, historical and scientific themes. He has been awarded the Yale Tercentennial Medal for Composition, the Elm/ Ivy Award, the Yale School of Music Cultural Leadership Citation and certificates of appreciation by the United States Attorney’s Office for his Yale 4/Peace: Rap for Justice concerts – music programs designed for social impact by using the power of music to deliver a message of peace and justice to impressionable middle and high school students.

Duffy has served as associate, deputy and acting dean of the Yale School of Music. He has served as a member of the Fulbright National Selection Committee, the Tanglewood II Symposium planning committee, the Grammy Foundation Music Educators Award Screening Committee, and completed the MLE program at the Harvard University Institute for Management and Leadership in Education. He has served as: president of the Connecticut Composers Inc., the New England College Band Directors Association and the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA); editor of the CBDNA Journal, publicity chair for the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles; and chair of the Connecticut Music Educators Association’s Professional Affairs and Government Relations committees. He is a member of American Bandmasters Association, American Composers Alliance, the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Connecticut Composers Incorporated, the Social Science Club, and BMI. Duffy has conducted ensembles all over the world, including the National Association for Music Education’s National Honor Band in the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. (More extensive data is available at www.duffymusic.com, including a high resolution downloadable photo.)

Photo: Harold Shapiro

YALE CONCERT BAND 2023-2024 THOMAS C. DUFFY, Music Director STEPHANIE HUBBARD, Operations and Productions Manager

President: Ana Rodrigues | General Managers: Rory Bricca, Miranda Margulis-Ohnuma Social Chairs: Daniel Denney, Emily He | Publicity Chair: Ben Swinchoski Piccolos Salena Huang YSEAS ’26* - Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Emily He DC ’24 - Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Flutes Tiffany Jiang MED ’27* - Medicine Emily He DC ’24 - Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Julien Yang TC ’27 - Undeclared Allie Gruber PC ’26 - English Noah Tin-yu Brazer MED ’27 - Medicine Alliese Bonner BK ’27 - Undeclared Zoe Frost MY ’27 - Undeclared Peter Nelson JE ’26 - Undeclared Lisa Meixuan Huang SOM ’24 - Global Business and Society Mei Hao YSEAS ’28 - Mechanical Engineering Oboes Miranda Margulis-Ohnuma BR ’23* - Earth and Planetary Sciences Ana Rodrigues BR ’25 - History of Art and Urban Studies Sophia Graham DC ’26 - Economics Sophie Dauerman BK ’25 - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology English Horn Ana Rodrigues BR ’25 - History of Art and Urban Studies Clarinets Ben Swinchoski BF ’25, Keith L. Wilson Principal Clarinet Chair† - Neuroscience Margalit Patry-Martin GH ’24 - Music/History of Science, Medicine, and Public Health Michael Ying BK ’24 - Statistics & Data Science Joshua Chen SY ’27 - Undeclared Daniel Denney ES ’24 - Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry Avery Maples PC ’26 - Ethnicity, Race & Migration Sebastian Papa BR ’27 - Undeclared Peilin Lu PC ’26 - Ethics, Politics, & Economics Jessica Liu GH ’25 - Applied Mathematics/Chemistry Meiling Laurence BF ’26 - Mathematics Amalee Bowen GSAS ’28 – Egyptology Bass Clarinet Nicole Martin YSM ’25 - Music Contrabaass Clarinet Aaron Yu MC ’25 - Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Bassoons Kennedy Plains YSM ’25* - Music Darius Farhoumand YSM ’24 - Music Alicia Brak MY ’27 - Computer Science Winfred Felton YSM ’24‡ - Music Contrabassoon Darius Farhoumand YSM ’24 - Music Alto Saxophones Dennis Lee DC ’24* - Ethics, Politics and Economics/Mathematics and Philosophy Elizabeth Seward DC ’27 - Undeclared Jesse H. Mullins MY ’27 - Ethics, Politics, and Economics Tenor Saxophone Amal Dhanesh SM ’27 - Undeclared Baritone Saxophone Aaron Yu MC ’25 - Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Allie Gruber PC ’26‡ - English Cornets/Trumpets Jared Wyetzner PC ’27* - Physics

Aidan Garcia MC ’26 - Economics Kyle Chen SY ’27 - Undeclared Izzy Lopez MY ’23 - Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry Hunter Robbins SM ’27 - Psychology Grace O’Connell YSM ’25¶ - Music Karlee Wood YSM’ 25¶- Music French Horns (rotating) Rory Bricca ES ’26 - Music Kate Hall ES ’26 - Applied Physics Miriam Huerta BF ’24 - Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Andrés Luengo TC ’27 - Astrophysics Shell Ross GH ’26 - Classics Trombones Theo Haaks BR ’24* - Political Science Cody Uman MC ’25 - Mathematics Max Watzky BF ’27 - Undeclared Nathan Lange SY ’27 - Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry Kamali Clora YSPH ’24 - Public Health Euphoniums John Liu TD ’25* - Statistics and Data Science Lily Hyde TC ’27 - Undeclared Anna Calkins MC ’27 - Undeclared Steven Shepherd BR ’27 - Ethics, Politics, & Economics Tubas Benson Wang BK ’27* - Computer Science & Economics Karim Najjar MC ’27 - Undeclared Julia Chen YSE ’24 - Forestry Gregory Wolf TD ’26 – Psychology String Bass Esther Kwon YSM ’24 - Music Piano Serina Wang SY ’26 - Computer Science & Economics Electric Organ Alexander Straus-Fausto YSM ’24‡ - Music Harp Yun Chai Li YSM ’24‡ - Music Percussion (rotating) Madeline Chun SM ’26 - Undeclared Jacob Leshnower GH ’27 - Statistics & Data Science and Music John Raskopf PC ’27 - Music/Engineering Nikolai Stephens-Zumbaum BF ’26 - Undeclared Max Su SY ’25 - Mathematics and Computer Science Tally Vaneman GH ’27 - Astrophysics Zahra Virani SY ’26 – Urban Studies/Film and Media Studies Music Librarian Madeline Chun SM ’26 - Undeclared Visual Engineer Oved Rico MUS ’25 - Music * principal † Friends of Keith L. Wilson (Director of Yale Bands from 1946-1973) honored him by endowing the principal clarinet chair in the Yale Concert Band in his name. If you would like information about naming a Yale Concert Band chair, please contact the Yale Bands Office. ‡ Playing on Maslanka only ¶ Playing on Reed only

YALE UNIVERSITY BANDS P.O. Box 209048, New Haven, CT 06520-9048 ph: 203-432-4111 stephanie.hubbard@yale.edu | bands.yalecollege.yale.edu