Yale Concert Band Centennial Season Opener - Oct 12, 2018, 7:30 pm, Woolsey Hall

Yale Concert Band Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director

Centennial Season Opener “Remembering 1918” Woolsey Hall, Yale University

Friday, October 12, 2018, at 7:30 pm

Percy Aldridge Grainger arr. Richard Franko Goldman Irving Berlin arr. James Lamb Charles E. Ives trans. Jonathan Elkus Daniel Bukvich

Handel in the Strand (1911)

God Bless America (1918) James Reese Europe & His Society Orchestra (1914) Decoration Day (1912)

Agincourt Hymn (1987)

~ INTERMISSION ~

Oliver E. (“Chick”) Story arr. Thomas C. Duffy Leonard Bernstein trans. Paul Lavender

The Yankee Division March (1918)

Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (1960)

About Tonight’s Music Handel in the Strand (1911) PERCY ALDRIDGE GRAINGER (arr. Richard Franko Goldman) Percy Aldridge Grainger, a pianist, composer, and champion of the saxophone, was born in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. His architect father was an immigrant from London, and his mother, Rose, was the daughter of hoteliers from Adelaide, South Australia. His father was an alcoholic, and when Grainger was 11, his parents separated. His mother – a domineering and possessive, but cultured, figure who recognized his musical abilities – took him to Europe in 1895 to study at Dr. Hoch’s conservatory in Frankfurt. There he displayed his talents as a musical experimenter, composing in irregular and unusual meters. From 1901 to 1914, Grainger lived in London, where he befriended Edvard Grieg and developed a particular interest in recovering the folk songs of rural England.

Grainger originally planned to name this piece Clog Dance, but his close friend William Gair Rathbone, to whom the piece is dedicated, suggested the title Handel in the Strand. The piece reminded Rathbone of both Handel’s music and English musical comedy (the “Strand” – a street in London – is the home of London musical comedy) — as if “jovial old Handel were careening down the Strand to the strains of modern English popular music.” The Yale Concert Band visited the Grainger Museum in Melbourne, Australia in June of 2018.

God Bless America (1918) IRVING BERLIN Irving Berlin wrote God Bless America in 1918 while serving in the U.S. Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York. He did not promote the piece until the late 1930s, when it was made famous by American songstress Kate Smith (with lyrics as follows): God bless America, land that I love, Stand beside her and guide her Through the night with the light from above.

From the mountains, to the prairies, To the oceans white with foam, God bless America, My home sweet home.

James Reese Europe & His Society Orchestra (1914) (arr. James Lamb) James Reese Europe & His Society Orchestra presents the sounds of the “sweet society” music that links the American brass band to the coming “Roaring Twenties” Jazz Age.

YALE CONCERT BAND Decoration Day (1912) CHARLES E. IVES (trans. Jonathan Elkus) “Charles Ives’ postface to Decoration Day is as follows:

‘In the early morning the gardens and woods about the village are the meeting places of those who, with tender memories and devoted hands, gather the flowers for the Day’s Memorial. During the forenoon as the people join each other on the Green there is felt, at times, a fervency and intensity – a shadow, perhaps, of the fanatical harshness – reflecting old Abolitionist days. It is a day as Thoreau suggests, when there is a pervading consciousness of “Nature’s kinship with the lower order – man.”

‘After the Town Hall is filled with the Spring’s harvest of lilacs, daisies and peonies, the parade is slowly formed on Main Street. First come the three Marshals on plough horses (going sideways); then the Warden and Burgesses in carriages, the Village Cornet Band, the G.A.R., two by two, the Militia (Company G), while the volunteer Fire Brigade, drawing the decorated hosecart, with its jangling bells, brings up the rear – the inevitable swarm of small boys following.

‘The roll of muffled drums and Adeste Fideles answer for the dirge. A little girl on the fencepost waves to her father and wonders if he looked like that at Gettysburg.

‘After the last grave is decorated, Taps sounds out through the pines and hickories, while a last hymn is sung. Then the ranks are formed again and “we all march back to town” to a Yankee stimulant – Reeves’ inspiring Second Regiment Quickstep – though to many a soldier, the somber thoughts of the day underlie the tunes of the band. The march stops – and in the silence, the shadow of the early morning flower-song rises over the Town, and the sunset behind West Mountain breathes its benediction upon the Day.’ “Decoration Day is the second (‘spring’) movement of Ives’ symphony Four New England Holidays.

These ‘Recollections of a boy’s holidays in a Connecticut country town,’ wrote Ives, ‘… are separate pieces and can be thought of and played as such.’ The transcription for band is based on Ives’ copyist Emil Hanke’s full score, as emended by Ives and corrected from the holography sources by Kenneth Singlton. Editorial choices and deviations from the Hanke score are my own.”

– Jonathan Elkus Agincourt Hymn (1987) DANIEL BUKVICH Agincourt Hymn musically depicts the events concerning the Battle of Agincourt, October 25, 1415.

Agincourt is remembered as one of the great triumphs of the British over the French who, 500 years later, would serve as their ally in the Second World War. There have been few victories so complete, or achieved against such heavy odds, as that won by Henry V. The ill-disciplined French Chivalry and the obsolete tactics of Charles VI were no match for the English longbow and Henry’s inspired leadership.

One hears throughout the piece the sacred chants to entreat and ultimately thank God for help in time of need, the sounds of the medieval battle, the persistent marching of the foot soldiers, and the bard-like intonations about the battle, set to a fifteenth century folk tune.

The Yankee Division March (1918) OLIVER E. (“CHICK”) STORY (arr. Thomas C. Duffy)

Oliver E. “Chick” Story’s Yankee Division March was originally written for piano to celebrate and honor the members of the 26th Infantry Division for their service in World War I. Comprised of soldiers from New England and based outside of Boston, Massachusetts, this was the second American division to reach the Western front during the war. Story composed this piece at the end of 1918, and it was performed in its band version on the New Haven Green one hundred years ago as part of the ceremonies commemorating the end of WWI. The band parts have long been lost; it was rescored for the Yale Concert Band by Thomas C. Duffy. The Yale Concert Band will repeat this march as part of the World War One Centennial Commemoration & Re-Dedication of the World War Memorial on the New Haven Green this Sunday, October 14, at 2:00 pm (free and open to the public).

Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (1960) LEONARD BERNSTEIN (trans. Paul Lavender) Leonard Bernstein (b. 1918) created West Side Story as the musical retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, set amid the tensions of rival social groups in modern New York City. This lively transcription of Symphonic Dances by Paul Lavender provides a musical arch similar to that of the Broadway musical and is performed tonight in honor of what would have been Bernstein’s 100th year.

Neither an opera nor a musical, audiences were at first somewhat unsure what to make of Leonard Bernstein’s groundbreaking West Side Story when it opened on Broadway in 1957. Pushing the boundaries of musical theater was not a new idea for Bernstein, who had been blurring the lines between its various forms from his earliest work for the stage, the ballet Fancy Free (1944). Some of Bernstein’s experiments were more successful than others. His musical On the Town (1944) was a popular hit that eventually was made into a successful movie, while more serious works like Trouble in Tahiti (1952) and Candide (1956) languished, opening to decidedly mixed reviews and lukewarm popular response. In West Side Story, however, Bernstein perfected his formula, astutely balancing elements of the Broadway musical, opera, ballet, and popular musical idioms. Despite its unusual identity, West Side Story enjoyed popular and critical success, initially running for 732 performances on Broadway and receiving a Tony Award nomination. It is ironic that this innovative musical, a work that forever changed the course of musical theater and is defined by its focus on twentieth century urban issues, lost the 1957 Tony Award to Meredith Willson’s The Music Man, a charming but nostalgic work that longingly looks back upon the America of our past.

In composing the score for West Side Story, one of Bernstein’s biggest orchestration challenges was to translate his large-scale symphonic concepts into a format that would work for the small pit orchestra of the Winter Garden Theater, the site of the premiere. His first step in solving this dilemma was to enlist the aid of Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, two musicians with considerable stage, radio, and television experience. But the problem was bigger than just the limited number of instruments available in the pit, for Bernstein was required by the local union to use a number of the

YALE CONCERT BAND regular pit orchestra members of the Winter Garden Theater, many of whom were not especially talented or motivated. Bernstein derisively labeled these house musicians “Shuberts,” a reference to the owners of the theater. He thought so little of them that he asked his orchestrators, “How would you guys feel if we got rid of the viola Shuberts?” Kostal warned Bernstein that the players would have to be paid even if they didn’t play, to which the composer replied: “Okay, let’s do without them, because I couldn’t stand listening to my show every night and hearing what those guys would do to the viola parts.” Other instrumental sections of “Shuberts” were accommodated by adding freelance musicians to play the difficult parts, while the house players “played the potatoes;” much simpler lines to which they could do little harm.

When Bernstein asked Kostal and Ramin to help him create a symphonic suite from West Side Story’s ballet music in 1961, they were understandably excited. According to Sid Ramin: “We were in ecstasy! Every orchestral color was ours for the asking; strings could be subdivided ad infinitum, percussion could be spread out among many players, winds and brass were expanded; and our only concern was whether the classically oriented symphonic player could handle the ‘jazzier’ elements of the score. Cool, for example: Lenny assured us that symphonic orchestras could play the Cool Fugue stylistically, and indeed they have! In retrospect, I now realize that Lenny himself, because he had a foot in both camps, was a classically trained musician who knew just how far we could go with popular styles.”

Bernstein felt strongly that music and dance were integral elements of West Side Story’s narrative: “So much was conveyed in the music, including enormous reliance upon dance to tell the plot — not just songs stuck into a book.” This conviction led him to construct a ballet suite that is more than just a potpourri of popular tunes from the show. Although the sequence of dances does not strictly adhere to the plot line, the episodes were carefully chosen and ordered by Bernstein to reflect the general contour of the story. He had no doubt that the suite should begin with the distinctive tritone that is heard throughout the music of West Side Story, followed immediately by the swaggering Prologue that sets the stage for his modern, urban version of Romeo and Juliet. Some of the subsequent dances were shifted from the original plot sequence to facilitate pacing, such as the placement of “Somewhere” between the “Prologue” and “Mambo,” and the use of the “Meeting Scene” music as transitional material into “Cool.” The idea to end the suite with “I Have a Love,” the same music that ends the show, came from longtime friend and collaborator Jack Gottlieb, a decision that prompted Bernstein to compose a new flute cadenza to transition into this hauntingly beautiful coda.

Although the music was originally conceived for the Broadway stage, Symphonic Dances from West Side Story has become Leonard Bernstein’s most successful concert work. Concert band musicians have long wished for a transcription of the suite, but until now the Bernstein estate had not sanctioned one. Paul Lavender’s marvelous new setting was published in 2007, just in time to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of this icon of American musical theater.

– (Program Note courtesy of the United States Marine Band)

Upcoming Yale Bands Performances • Sunday, October 14, 2018: World War One Centennial Commemoration & Re-Dedication of the World War Memorial. Music by the Yale Concert Band, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. New Haven Green, 1:00 pm. Free and open to the public.

• Monday, October 15, 1018: Yale Jazz Ensemble Centennial Season Opener. Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director.

Music of George Gershwin, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Billy Strayhorn, Maria Schneider, and more. 7:30 pm, Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall. Free.

• Sunday, November 11, 2018: Yale Concert Band Matinee. Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Three Dance Episodes from On The Town (Leonard Bernstein), Twist (Jodie Blackshaw), Tunbridge Fair (Walter Piston). 2:00 pm, Woolsey Hall. Free.

• Saturday, December 1, 2018: Holiday Concert. “Side By Side: The Nutcracker Swings!” Yale Concert Band and Yale Jazz Ensemble, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director, present the classic wind orchestra version and Duke Ellington/ Billy Strayhorn “big band” arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. 2:00 pm, Woolsey Hall. Free.

• Saturday, February 9, 2019: Yale Jazz Ensemble in Boston. Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Wayne Escoffery, guest artist. Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA. Details TBA. • Friday, February 15, 2019: Yale Concert Band Winter Concert. Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. La Fiesta Mexicana (H. Owen Reed), Magic of this Dawn (Christopher Sainsbury). 7:30 pm, Woolsey Hall. Free.

• Monday, February 25, 2019: Yale Jazz Ensemble Winter Concert. Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. 7:30 pm, Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall. Free.

• Sunday, March 31, 2019: Stan Wheeler and Marcia Chambers Memorial Jazz Concert. Yale Jazz Ensemble, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director, and the Reunion Jazz Ensemble. 2:00 pm, Levinson Auditorium, Yale Law School, 127 Wall Street. Free.

• Friday, April 12, 2019: Yale Concert Band Spring Concert. Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. The Rite of Spring (Igor Stravinsky/Terry Vosbein), Symphony No. 1 (Frank Ticheli). 7:30 pm, Woolsey Hall. Free.

• Monday, April 15, 2019: Yale Jazz Ensemble in New York. Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Randy Brecker and Wayne Escoffery, guest artists. Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in Lincoln Center. Details TBA. • Sunday, May 19, 2019: Yale Concert Band Annual Twilight Concert. Ceremonial music on the eve of Yale’s Commencement. 7:00 pm, outside on the Old Campus. Free.

Yale University Bands P.O. Box 209048, New Haven, CT 06520–9048 ph: (203) 432–4111; fax: (203) 432–7213 stephanie.hubbard@yale.edu; www.yale.edu/yaleband

YALE CONCERT BAND

About the Music Director Thomas C. Duffy (b. 1955) is Professor (Adjunct) of Music and Director of University Bands at Yale University, where he has worked since 1982.

He has established himself 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 NYC’s Village Vanguard and Iridium, Ronnie Scotts’s (London), and the Belmont (Bermuda); performed as part of the inaugural ceremonies for President George H.W. Bush; and concertized in twenty-three countries in the course of twenty 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 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.

From 1996 to 2006, he 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, and 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. For nine years, he represented music education in Yale’s Teacher Preparation Program. 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 and was selected to conduct the NAFME National Honor Band in the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.

YALE CONCERT BAND 2018-2019 THOMAS C. DUFFY, Music Director STEPHANIE HUBBARD, Business Manager

Piccolo Ben Tillinger MY 21 Flute Beatrice Brown PC 19 * Monica Barbosa DC 19 Jeremy Goldwasser MY 21 Julia Cai BR 20 Melissa Leone SY 21 Yaa Owusu JE 22 Katie Handler TC 21 Sarah Monahan MY 21 Alto Flute Beatrice Brown PC 19 Oboe Fiona Last YSM 15 * Madison Murphy JE 22

Bassoon Maddy Tung TD 21 * Bradford Case SM 20 Kunsang Dorjee TD 22

Euphonium Fernando Trejos Suarez ES 22 Tuba Josef Lawrence TC 20 * Adam Wolnikowski TC 21

Contrabassoon Maddy Tung TD 21

Piano/Celesta Julia Weiner BK 19

Soprano Saxophone Nick DeWalt SY 21

Harp Michelle Tong MY 21

Alto Saxophone Nick DeWalt SY 21 * Jacob Hillman BK 19 Flynn Chen TC 20 Jose Key TC 22

Bass Kohei Yamaguchi YSM 19

Bb Tenor Saxophone Antonio Medina MY 19

English Horn Lauren Williams YSM 18

Eb Baritone Saxophone Sara Harris SY 19

Eb Clarinet Alex Brod BK 19

Cornet/Trumpet (rotating) Eli Baum JE 19 * James Brandfonbrener MC 21 Joseph Cho BR 22 Adam Tucker MC 21 Jacob Zavatone-Veth MY 19

Clarinet Christopher Zhou PC 19 ** Keith L. Wilson Principal Clarinet Chair Eric Wang PC 21 Daphne Zhu ES 22 Christian Fernandez BF 20 Jessica Oki TC 20 Maddie Bender TD 20 Heather McClure MY 20 Derek Chen TD 22 Eb Alto Clarinet Jessica Oki TC 20

Bass Clarinet Ethan Dodd JE 22

French Horn (rotating) Esteban Garcia YSM 19 Ally Hammer BF 20 Miriam Huerta BF 22 Michael McNamara TD 20 Sida Tang SY 19 Trombone Elliott Smith BR 22 * Robert Howard GH 21 Luke Benz SM 19 Jordan Crimminger YSM 20

Percussion David Zuckerman DC 20 * Meshach Cornelius ES 22 Melina Delgado TD 19 Jocelyn Dicent MY 20 † Ryan Haygood BF 21 Jack McArthur MY 22 Josh Palmer MY 21 † Lance Saddler MY 22 Alexandria Wynn TD 22 Andrew Zheng TD 22 Music Librarian James Brandfonbrener MC 21 * 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. † performing in Agincourt Hymn only

YALE CONCERT BAND OFFICERS

President: Beatrice Brown General Managers: Madeline Bender, Heather McClure Social Chairs: Maddy Tung, David Zuckerman

Personnel Manager: Adam Tucker Publicity Chair: Jeremy Goldwasser