Yale Concert Band Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director
Woolsey Hall, Yale University
Friday, November 15, at 7:30 pm
DANIEL RIGBERG Framework (2013) [world premiere] Robert Linn Concerto Grosso for Trumpet, Horn, Trombone and Band (1961) Robby Moser YSM ’14, trumpet Zachary Quortrup YSM ’14, horn Kevin Dombrowski YSM ’14, trombone thomas c. duffy I Sit Alone in Martins’ Church (1998) ~ INtermission ~
W. A. Mozart Suite: Gran Partita, K. 361 (1781) I. Largo: Molto allegro III. Adagio VII. Finale: Rondo Frank Ticheli Angels in the Architecture (2008) Caroline Diehl TD ’15, soprano,
About Tonight’s Music Framework (2013) Daniel Rigberg
“Framework is an impressionistic work based on the painting ‘The Scream,’ by Richard Lindner. In this painting, myriad colors and forms clutter the canvas, and despite the presence of a realistic tiger and some rather confusing curves, the eye is constantly drawn back to the focal point: two small, unassuming trapezoids. This piece details my attempt to see the image as a whole and to perceive the focal point both in isolation and in the context of the surrounding shapes.” – Daniel Rigberg Daniel Rigberg is a 20-year-old composer from Hershey, Pennsylvania. A junior music major in Yale College, Daniel has had his works performed by several Yale ensembles, including Coup de Brass and the Krolik Saxophone Quartet. In his spare time, Daniel enjoys playing the French horn, singing with the Yale Spizzwinks(?), and dancing with the Yale Ballroom Dance Team.
Concerto Grosso for Trumpet, Horn, Trombone, and Band (1961) Robert Linn In the standard concerto, the ensemble accompanies a solo instrument. The concerto grosso (the German word gross means big) pits the ensemble against a group of solo instruments, called the concertino. Robert Linn’s Concerto Grosso is a one-movement tour de force for the concertino: trumpet, French horn and trombone. Linn was a student of some of the greatest composers of the time – Darius Milhaud, Halsey Stevens, Roger Sessions, and Ingolf Dahl – and includes among his students Morten Lauridsen. I Sit Alone in Martins’ Church (1998) Thomas C. Duffy The question is: Who is Martin? The immediate candidates are Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr. Both represent religious heritages born from the energies of protest and oppression. Yet, even as the church of Martin Luther King, Jr., reflects the syncracy of the African slaves’ experiences in this foreign land and the Christian ethics of the slave-owners, it cannot be entirely detached from the rituals of early Christianity and its Protestant evolution. In 1517, Martin Luther (1483-1546) nailed his “95 Theses” to the cathedral door in Wittenberg, initiating what was to become the Protestant Reformation. An important part of his reform was Luther’s desire to make the congregation an active and informed participant in the liturgy. This was achieved partly by incorporating the vernacular into the Latin mass and partly by the inclusion of German hymns (chorales). Luther viewed the congregational singing of chorales as important both because chorales were the instructive and edifying. The chorale thus becomes the central point of the new church. In creating a body of chorales to be sung throughout the liturgical year, Luther and his colleagues drew from many musical and textual traditions. Latin hymns and sequences were translated and the music modified to fit the new text; vernacular devotional songs called Leisen were pressed into service;
YALE CONCERT BAND secular melodies drawn from German folk song and French or Netherlandish art song were provided with new religious texts and melodies composed. The chorale Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland is Luther’s translation and adaptation of the Latin hymn Veni Redemptor Gentium, attributed to St. Ambrose (340?-397), the famous bishop of Milan. Both the hymn and chorale are for the Advent season. Martin Luther King Jr.’s tradition is represented by sounds from voices of the slave world, chains, rhythmic grunts that represent the cadences of the hollers and field songs of slaves, chants that embody the bluesy alterations of the diatonic scale (as happened when the African pentatonic scale was imposed over the diatonic scales of Western music), and the overall sounds of the plagal “Amen” cadence (IV-I). All of these concepts support the program of the composition: Someone sits alone in Martin’s church (piccolo). The echoes of past services float around, the light that glistens off and through stained glass reflects and flashes through the space, and the fundamental sounds of both traditions float from foreground to background. In its ultimate evolution, the sounds of Martin Luther King Jr.’s tradition become distinctly jazzy, a relentless walking bass line supporting the antiphonal five-part setting by Johann Walter (1496-1570) of Martin Luther’s Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland. Solitude, reflection, hope, oppression, sadness, melancholy, and the incredible weight of history and tradition all become embodied in sounds and echo through Martin’s church. The initially melancholy/bluesy and ultimately ebullient sounds of the African-American spiritual tradition are fashioned after the painting of Chicago artist, Melvin King, entitled “Revival.” “King uses his life experiences and observations to artistically depict ethnicity, spirituality, and hope for the African-American community.” Suite: Gran Partita, K. 361 (1781) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Gran Partita, K. 361, was written around 1781 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The three movements in tonight’s performance incorporate a kind of mini-symphony (without scherzo) – Overture, Adagio, and the finale, Rondo. The third movement was highlighted in the movie, Amadeus, when Salieri recounts his first hearing of the Adagio, which “begins with low winds, cranking like a persistent, rusty squeezebox, and then… a single oboe, hovering there high above the rest… oh this was a music I had never heard before… I knew then that we were to be enemies!” The standard 18th-century woodwind harmoniemusik octet is augmented by two French horns, two bassett horns (a member of the clarinet family) and a contrabass. Angels in the Architecture (2008) Frank Ticheli Angels in the Architecture premiered at the Sydney Opera House on July 6, 2008 by a band of musicians from Australia and the United States. The title is inspired by the Sydney Opera House itself, with its halo-shaped acoustical ornaments hanging directly above the stage. The work unfolds as a dramatic conflict between the two extremes of human existence – one divine, the other evil. The piece begins with a single voice singing a 19th-century Shaker song:
I am an angel of Light I have soared from above I am cloth’d with Mother’s love. I have come, I have come, To protect my chosen band And lead them to the promised land. Tonight’s singer, Caroline Diehl, represents this “angel,” who frames the work, surrounding it with a protective wall of light and establishing the divine. Other representations of light – played by instruments rather than sung – include a traditional Hebrew song of peace, Hevenu Shalom Aleichem and the 16th century Genevan Psalter, Old Hundredth. These three borrowed songs represent the universal human ideals of peace, hope, and love. An original chorale, appearing twice in the work, represents Frank Ticheli’s own personal expression of these aspirations. In opposition, turbulent, fast-paced music appears as a symbol of darkness, death, and spiritual doubt. Twice during the musical drama, these shadows sneak in unnoticeably, slowly obscuring, and eventually obliterating the light altogether. The darkness prevails for long stretches of time, but the light always returns, more powerful than before. The alteration of these opposing forces creates a kind of fivepart rondo form. Angels in the Architecture poses the unanswered question of existence. It ends as it began: the angel reappears singing the same comforting words. But deep below, a final shadow reappears – distantly, ominously.
Upcoming Yale Bands Performances • Friday, February 7, 2014: Yale Jazz Ensemble Winter Concert, feat. Paul Lieberman ’78, saxophone. 7:30 pm, Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall. Free. • Friday, February 14, 2014: Yale Concert Band Winter Concert Three Dance Episodes from “On the Town” (Bernstein); Solitary Dancer (Benson); Gabrieli Infusion (Cohen). 7:30 pm, Woolsey Hall. Free. • Sunday, April 6, 2014: Yale Jazz Ensemble 7th Annual Stan Wheeler Memorial Jazz Concert. With the Reunion Jazz Ensemble. 2:00 pm, Levinson Auditorium, Yale Law School, 127 Wall Street. Free. • Friday, April 11, 2014: Yale Concert Band Spring Concert. Lincolnshire Posy (Grainger); Three Merry Marches (Krenek) [Toshiyuki Shimada, guest conductor]; Corpus Callosum (Duffy); Ghost Train (Whitacre); Country Band March (Ives); Spiel fur Bläsorchestr (Toch); Dionysiaques (Schmidt). 7:30 pm, Woolsey Hall. Free. For further information please contact: Yale University Bands P.O. Box 209048, New Haven, CT 06520–9048 ph: (203) 432–4113; fax: (203) 432–7213 stephanie.hubbard@yale.edu; www.yale.edu/yaleband
YALE CONCERT BAND
About Tonight’s Guest Performers The East Coast Brass Trio is made up of three Yale School of Music students who perform extensively in the New Haven area: Robert Moser, trumpet (Cincinnati Conservatory of Music ’11), Zachary Quortrup, French horn (Indiana University ’12), and Kevin Dombrowski, trombone (Eastman School of Music ’12). The Trio performs both classical and popular music genres, making their performances exciting and accessible to many audiences. They are passionate about music education and community outreach. This spring, they will travel to the Dallas and Houston, TX, areas to perform a number of educational concerts for local middle and high schools. Caroline Diehl is a junior psychology major at Yale concentrating in neuroscience. She is the current musical director of The New Blue, Yale’s oldest all-female a cappella group, and in the past has served as a tour manager for the Yale Glee Club. She is excited to perform for the first time with the Yale Concert Band and grateful to Mr. Duffy and the band for this opportunity to collaborate.
About the Music Director Thomas C. Duffy (b. 1955), composer and conductor, is Professor (adjunct) of Music and Director of Bands at Yale University. He served as Acting Dean of the School of Music in 2005-2006, having served as Associate Dean since 1996 and Deputy Dean since 1999. He has served as a member of the Fulbright National Selection Committee and was a member of the historic Tanglewood II Symposium (2007). He attended the Harvard University Institute for Management and Leadership in Education in 2005. He has served as president of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) and the New England College Band Association (NECBA), 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, and has represented music education in Yale’s Teacher Preparation Program. He is member of American Bandmasters Association, American Composers Alliance, Connecticut Composers Inc., the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, and BMI. An active composer with a D.M.A. in composition from Cornell University, where he was a student of Karel Husa and Steven Stucky, he has accepted commissions from the American Composers Forum, the United States Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Army Field Band, and numerous bands, choruses and orchestras. He joined the Yale faculty in 1982. In 2009 he received an award from the United States Attorney’s Office for his innovative program with the Yale Concert Band (Yale 4Peace Rap for Justice) which, through the integration of classical and rap music, addressed gangs, crime and violence in Connecticut’s cities.
YALE CONCERT BAND 2013-2014 THOMAS C. DUFFY, Music Director STEPHANIE T. HUBBARD, Business Manager Piccolo Joohee Son SY 15 Flute Eve Roth MC 16 Principal Paige Breen SY 16 Emma Platoff MC 17 Jamar Williams SY 17 Oboe Mason Ji MC 16* Principal Timothy Gocklin YSM 14*
Basset Horn Michael Wang JE 17* Eugene Kim BK 16* Bassoon Nick Baskin ES 14* Principal Miguel Goncalves ES 16* Benjamin Lawrence ES 17 Contrabassoon Benjamin Lawrence ES 17
Trombone Emily Massey JE 14 Principal Melvin Loong SY 14 Noah Steinfeld MC 14 Euphonium Timothy Gladding SY 14 Tuba James Volz SY 15 Principal Quinn White BR 14 Dudley Hall PC 16
English Horn Timothy Gocklin YSM 14
Alto Saxophone Alex Pappas SM 15 Principal Steve Goulas MC 17
Eb Clarinet Andrew Brod BK 17
Tenor Saxophone William Gearty BR 14
String Bass Jonathan Hammonds YSM 14*
Clarinet Albert Jiao SY 16* Keith L. Wilson Principal Clarinet Chair Claudia See DC 17* Michael Wang JE 17* Eugene Kim BK 16* Jacob Neis SY 17* Daniel Hwang TC 16 Anson Wang DC 17 Molly Haig DC 14 Liz Jones BR 15 Rachel Yen SM 14
Baritone Saxophone Catherine Stark BR 16
Piano/Celeste David Molina TD 15
Trumpet Billy Thomas PC 16 Connor Moseley BK 14 Doron Rose SM 17 Margaret Ott JE 16 Jeffrey March TD 15 David Goerger TD 14
Organ Daniel O’Connor YSM 15
Bass Clarinet Libby Dimenstein MC 17
French Horn John McNamara CC 17* Principal Nishwant Swami SM 17* Patrick Jankowski YSM 15* Brandon Wanke MC 17* Sarah Wing Lam Au YSM 14*
Harp Haley Rhodeside YSM 15
Percussion Garrett Arney YSM 14 Nathaniel Harrington BK 14 Alyssa Hasbrouck MC 14 Erin Maher SM 14 Annie Schweikert BK 15 Mari Yoshinaga YSM 14 Music Librarian Nick Baskin ES 14 *Performing in Mozart’s Suite: Gran Partita K. 361
Yale Concert Band Officers
President: Rachel Yen Personnel Manager: Eugene Kim General Managers: Annie Schweikert, Catherine Stark Media Specialist: Joohee Son Social Chairs: Liz Jones, Billy Thomas