Yale Concert Band
Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director with special guests the
New Haven All-City Honors Band
Rubén Rodriguez, Music Director Woolsey Hall, Yale University
Friday, February 14, at 7:30 pm GIOACHINO ROSSINI arr. Erik W. G. Leidzén
William Tell Overture (1829)
MORTEN LAURIDSEN trans. H. Robert Reynolds
O Magnum Mysterium (1994)
DARIUS MILHAUD
Suite Française (1944) I. Normandie II. Bretagne III. Île-de-France IV. Alsace-Lorraine V. Provence
~ INTERMISSION ~
LEONARD BERNSTEIN arr. Michael Sweeney GUSTAV HOLST
LENONARD BERNSTEIN trans. Marice Stith
JULIUS FUČÍK arr. J. S. Seredy
“Mambo” from West Side Story (1957) with the New Haven All-City Honors Band Rubén Rodriguez, Music Director First Suite in E flat (1909) I. Chaconne II. Intermezzo III. March Three Dance Episodes from On the Town (1945) I. The Great Lover II. Lonely Town: Pas de Deux III. Times Square: 1944 Thunder and Blazes (1897)
About Tonight’s Music William Tell Overture (1829)
GIOACINO ROSSINI (arr. Erik W. G. Leidzén)
Many critics consider Rossini’s 1829 William Tell Overture to be his masterpiece. This serious work made a profound impression on the musical community, and in a short time, was being performed in all of the capitals of Europe. Disappointingly, William Tell was Rossini’s last opera, though he lived thirty-nine years after its premiere. Based on Schiller’s drama of thirteenth-century Switzerland, one hears the lake, the beginning rain, the violent tempest, the clearing and emergence of the sun, and, finally, the famous fanfare. Eric Leidzén was a respected arranger whose transcriptions of classical masterpieces became staples of the 20th-century wind band repertoire.
O Magnum Mysterium (1994)
MORTEN LAURIDSEN (trans. H. Robert Reynolds)
O Magnum Mysterium is an old chant from the Matins of Christmas. “For centuries,” writes Lauridsen, “composers have been inspired by the beautiful O Magnum Mysterium text depicting the birth of the newborn King amongst the lowly animals and shepherds. This affirmation of God’s grace to the meek and the adoration of the Blessed Virgin are celebrated in my setting through a quiet song of profound inner joy.”
Suite Française (1944) DARIUS MILHAUD
In 1945, the publishing firm of Leeds Music commissioned Darius Milhaud to write an extended work for band as part of a proposed series of new works by contemporary composers. The result was Suite Française. The composer wrote about the work: “The five parts of this suite are named after French provinces, the very ones in which the American and Allied armies fought together with the French underground for the liberation of my country – Normandy, Brittany, Île-de-France (of which Paris is the center), Alsace-Lorraine, and Provence. I used some folk tunes of the provinces. I wanted the young Americans to hear the popular melodies of those parts of France where their fathers fought.” Suite Française was so successful that Milhaud was asked to rescore it for orchestra, which was first performed by the New York Philharmonic.
Mambo from the “West Side Story” (1957)
LEONARD BERNSTEIN (arr. Michael Sweeney)
The musical, West Side Story, is set in the Upper West Side neighborhood of New York City in the 1950s. The story depicts the feud between two teenage street gangs, the Jets, of Polish-American descent, and the Sharks, of Puerto Rican descent. Amidst the feud, Tony, a Jet, falls in love with Maria, the sister of Bernardo, leader of the Sharks. One of the memorable numbers from West Side Story is Mambo, a spirited Latin dance with driving rhythms and dance steps, originating from Cuba. In Act I of West Side Story, the Mambo is heard in the dance scene, where the Jets and the Sharks meet at a local gym in a “challenge dance” to decide who will
YALE CONCERT BAND control the streets. It is during this scene where Tony and Maria first meet and begin their love story. Tonight, select members of the New Haven All-City Honors Band will join the Yale Concert Band for a performance to be conducted by their music director, Rubén Rodriguez.
First Suite in E flat (1909) GUSTAV HOLST
Holst wrote his First Suite in E flat in 1909, one of the few band originals that have been transcribed for symphony orchestra. The suite consists of three movements: Chaconne, Intermezzo, and March. The opening theme of the Chaconne is passed from the low brass through the middle brass to the upper brass, while the woodwinds weave filigrees above the “ground.” Eventually, the filigrees give way to the actual theme, presented high in the woodwinds, thus completing the orchestral journey of the ground from the lowest to highest instruments. The Intermezzo is based on a variation of the Chaconne theme, presented first in an angular and giocoso setting, then in a cantabile style. The two settings alternate throughout he movement. The two themes of the March, one dynamic and the other lyric, are also taken from the Chaconne theme, the first being something of an inversion, the latter being “right side up.” The suite culminates in a setting of the two themes contrapuntally.
Three Dance Episodes from “On the Town” (1945) LEONARD BERNSTEIN (trans. Marice Stith) Marice Stith arranged Three Dance Episodes from “On the Town,” from the original pit orchestra scoring for the Cornell University Wind Ensemble. The ballet, originally entitled “Fancy Free,” depicts a New York street corner and bar. Three sailors appear, obviously on the prowl for girls. The story of the ballet unfolds as the sailors walk about New York City on twenty-four hour leave. The first sailor dances in an acrobatic vaudeville style; the second sailor changes from mock gentility to a sensuous dancehall style; the third sailor displays an intensely emotional acrobatic style. The music reflects these choreographic attributes. The original scoring was for a military band of five flutes, seven oboes, twenty clarinets, ten bassoons, six horns, six trumpets, nine trombones, three tubas, and six muted snare drums.
Thunder and Blazes (1897)
JULIUS FUČÍK (arr. J. S. Seredy)
Fučík composed this march when he was a military bandmaster in the Austro-Hungarian city of Sarajevo. The title was inspired by a scene in Henry Sienkiewicz’s book, Quo Vadis? – Whither Goest Thou?, which describes gladiators entering a Roman amphitheater. The book concerns the gladiator during the rule of the infamous and depraved Nero (54-68 A.D.); however, the Emperor Titus (79-81 A.D.) presented an even bloodier exhibition of gladiators, wild beasts, and sea fights, which involved 10,000 men and lasted a hundred days. In this march the upper brasses announce the entry of the gladiators, followed in the second strain by the lower brasses, who represent the combat.
About The New Haven All-City Honors Band The New Haven All-City Honors Band was founded in spring 2011, under the baton of Dr. Thomas C. Duffy, Director of the Yale Bands. New Haven Public Schools music teachers Matthew Fried, Melinda Hartfiel, and Olivia Malin work with director Rubén Rodriguez to lead the Band. A collaboration between the Yale School of Music and the New Haven Public Schools, the Band is open for audition to all NHPS students in 5th-12th grades who play brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Participants are expected to maintain membership in their schools’ music ensembles as well, if available. The All-City Honors Band rehearses weekly from late October through May in Hendrie Hall on the Yale University campus. The season culminates with a public performance in Sprague Hall at the Yale School of Music. Membership in the group comprises musicians from schools throughout New Haven, who are admitted to the Band based on auditions in October each year. A native of Colombia, South America, Rubén Rodriguez is currently the Lead Teacher of the Music in Schools Initiative, director of the All-City Honors Ensembles (Chorus, Concert Band, Wind Ensemble, and String Orchestra), and director of the Morse Summer Music Academy. He studied trombone performance in the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Lyon, Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris, and received his Master of Music from the Yale School of Music in 2011. For more than 15 years he has been performing, teaching, coaching, conducting ensembles, and promoting music as a tool to change lives in Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, Argentina, and the US. He has created and coordinated several artistic projects in underprivileged communities bringing music into the lives of thousands of children. Tonight’s select members of the New Haven All-City Honors Band include: Flute Alif Albiruni Orlando Algarin Anna Ciacciarella Sinead Donnelly Maya Geradi Maggie Guarino-Trier Di Lu Tiler McPherson Prastik Mohanraj Ashley Rivera Sara Thakur Lauren Wezenter
Clarinet Alex Coman Michael Gritzbach Youngjae Kim Charles Orr Javier Padilla Anthony Wiley Alto Saxophone Sayerah Kennedy Joseph Lampo Reval Martinez Jr. Richard Romero
Trumpet Evan Chen Devonte Fletcher Conor Regan Kimberly Sullivan Trombone Ejoel Molina Euphonium Brian Carrera Percussion Laura Rosado
Tonight’s Represented New Haven Public Schools
Benjamin Jepson School, Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School, Edgewood School, Engineering & Science School, High School in the Community, James Hillhouse High School, Sound School,Wilbur Cross High School, Worthington Hooker School
YALE CONCERT BAND
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.
Upcoming Yale Bands Performances • Sunday, April 6, 2014: Yale Jazz Ensemble Seventh 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 (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. • Sunday, May 18, 2014: Yale Concert Band Annual Twilight Concert. Ceremonial music on the eve of Yale’s Commencement. 7:00 pm, outside on the Old Campus. 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 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 Kristin Kall YSM 14 Tim Gocklin YSM 14 English Horn Kristin Kall YSM 14 Eb Clarinet Andrew Brod BK 17 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
Contrabass Clarinet Catherine Holland ES 16
French Horn John McNamara CC 17 Principal Nishwant Swami SM 17 Brandon Wanke MC 17 Patrick Jankowski YSM 15
Bassoon Nick Baskin ES 14 Principal Miguel Goncalves ES 16 Benjamin Lawrence ES 17
Trombone Emily Massey JE 14 Principal Melvin Loong SY 14 Noah Steinfeld MC 14
Alto Saxophone Alex Pappas SM 15 Principal Steve Goulas MC 17
Euphonium Ernest Chamberlain
Bass Clarinet Libby Dimenstein MC 17 Catherine Holland ES 16
Tenor Saxophone William Gearty BR 14
Tuba James Volz SY 15 Principal Quinn White BR 14
Baritone Saxophone Catherine Stark BR 16
Piano David Molina TD 15
Trumpet Billy Thomas PC 16 Principal David Goerger TD 14 Jeffrey March TD 15 Connor Moseley BK 14 Margaret Ott JE 16 Doron Rose SM 17
Percussion Nat Harrington BK 14 Alysa Hasbrouck MC 14 Erin Maher SM 14 Anne Schweikert BK 15 Music Librarian Nick Baskin ES 14
YALE CONCERT BAND OFFICERS President: Eugene Kim General Managers: John McNamara, Jacob Neis Social Chairs: Libby Dimenstein, Emma Platoff
Personnel Manager: Anson Wang Publicity Chair: Joohee Son