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Home , Joseph Joachim

The Medina Community Band

Marcus Neiman, conductor

John Connors, associate conductor & Matthew Hastings, assistant conductor

In Memory of Sarah Nelson

Daniel Doty, tenor voice soloist - Paul Rocco, flugel horn soloist Kristin Thompson, flute soloist

Lu Ann Gresh and Marcia Nelson-Kline, cornet; George Rosin, Mark Mitchell, and Rodney Hannah, trombone, and Clayton Van Doren – Brass Sextet soloist

Ice Cream Social Host – Medina Creative Housing MCBA Welcome – Lu Ann Gresh, president

Friday Evening, July 26th, 2019 – Season Final

Medina Uptown Park Square Gazebo 8:30 p.m.

Anthem, Star Spangled Banner (1889/1917) ...... Francis Scott Key John Philip Sousa

Suite, Seventeen Come Sunday (from English Folk Song Suite) (1924) ...... Ralph Vaugh Williams

March, Esprit De Corps (1878/2015) ...... John Philip Sousa

Flute Solo, La Pastorella delle Alpi (1865/2019) ...... David Seiberling Kristin Thompson, soloist

Cake Walk, After the Cake Walk (1900/2018) ...... Robert Nathaniel Dett Lee Orean Smith / Dana Paul Perna

John Connors, conducting

Flugel Horn Solo, Adagio (from Concierto De Aranjuez) (1942-1947) ...... Joaquin Rodrigo Kevin Bolton Paul Rocco, soloist

March, Emblem of Unity (1941) ...... Joseph John Richards

Opera, Sextet (from Lucia di Lammermoor) (1835/1977) ...... Leonard B. Smith Lu Ann Gresh, cornet Mark Mitchell, trombone Marcia Nelson Kline, cornet Rodney Hannah, trombone George Rosin, trombone Clayton Van Doren, euphonium

March, Buick March (1921) ...... John Hazel

Tenor Voice Solo, Nessun Dorma (from Turandot) (1926/1994) ...... Gaetano Donizetti D.W. Stauffer

Tenor Voice Solo, L Donna è Mobile (from Rigoletto) (1851/1992) ...... D.W. Stauffer Daniel Doty, soloist

March, The Elephant March (1910) ...... James Ord Hume

National March, The Stars and Stripes Forever (1896) ...... John Philip Sousa

Theme Song, Till We Meet Again (from Till We Meet Again) (1918/1968) ...... Richard A. Whiting William Teague

Patriotic Sing-A-Long, God Bless America (1917) ...... Irving Erik William Gustav Leidzén

Program subject to change

MCB Gazebo Concert – Friday, July 26th, 2019 – Program Notes – page 1

Folk Song Suite Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams led a long and illustrious career as a composer. He and his close friend were considered to be late bloomers in the field of composition, but once they reached maturity, both were active in composition to the end of their lives. Vaughan Williams outlived Holst by some twenty-four years. Having studied at Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music, Vaughan Williams augmented his studies with work in the German Romantic school, studying with in Berlin, beginning in 1897. In 1908 he honed his orchestration skills while studying with the younger but more advanced Maurice Ravel in Paris. Ever aware of his slow pace to a mature level of composition, Vaughan Williams enjoyed a new stimulus when he joined the Folk-Song Society in 1904. As was the case with Holst, folk songs provided the impetus for a number of pieces, though personal interest led to further development of his own melodic and harmonic style. After World War I, a new style developed which was influenced by music of the Elizabethan era of the late Renaissance, as mentioned earlier. This, in combination with his own stylistic traits, created such mystical works as the Third and The Lark Ascending. English Folk Song Suite reveals Vaughan Williams interest in and association with the folk song movement which swept through England toward the close of the . His wife, Ursula, wrote: “Folk music weaves in and out of his work all through his life, sometimes adapted for some particular occasion, sometimes growing into the fabric of orchestral writings.”1 The suite English Folk Songs, was written for the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall. After the first performance on July 4, 1923, The Musical Times reviewer commented, “The good composer has the ordinary monger of light stuff so hopelessly beaten.”2 Vaughan Williams had been particularly happy to undertake the Suite, according to his wife, as he enjoyed working in a medium new to him. “A military band was a change from an , and in his not-so-far off army days he had heard enough of the ‘original monger’s light stuff” to feel that a chance to play real tunes would be an agreeable and salutary experience for bandsman.”3 At the head of his condensed score (the only one available until the mid-1950s) the composer gave the following credits, not printed in the full score: “The tune, ‘My Bonny Boy’, is taken from ‘English Country Songs’ by kind permission of Miss. L.E. Broadwood, J.A. Fuller-Maitland Esq., and the Leadenhall Press. The tunes of ‘Folk Song from Somerset’ are introduced by kind permissions of Cecil Sharp Esq.”

1 Ursula Vaughan Williams, R.V.W.: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams (London: Oxford University Press, 1964), pp. 150-153. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid.

MCB Gazebo Concert – Friday, July 26th, 2019 – Program Notes – page 2

Marches by John Philip Sousa

John Philip Sousa

DOB: November 6th, 1854 (Washington, DC) DOD: March 6th, 1932 (Reading, PA) John Philip Sousa wrote the most famous American military marches of all time, including "Stars and Stripes Forever," earning him the nickname "the March King"; he was also known as a great bandleader, and organized the famed concert and military group, Sousa's Band. Born in Washington, D.C., on November 6, 1854, Sousa followed in the footsteps of his father, a musician in the U.S. Marine Corps, and enlisted by the age of 14. Before this, Sousa had studied violin with John Esputa. While active in the Marines, he composed his first march, "Salutation." Around the age of 16, Sousa began studying harmony with G.F. Benkert, then worked as a pit orchestra conductor at a local theater, followed by jobs as first chair violinist at the Ford Opera House, the Philadelphia Chestnut Street Theater, and later led the U.S. Marine Corps Band (1880-1992). Although most famous for his marches, Sousa composed in other styles as well, including a waltz, "Moonlight on the Potomac"; a gallop, "The Cuckoo" (both in 1869); the oratorio "Messiah of the Nations" (1914); and scores for Broadway musicals The Smugglers (1879), Desiree (1884), The Glass Blowers (1893), El Capitan (1896; which was his first real scoring success), American Maid (1913), and more. Sousa formed his sternly organized marching band in 1892, leading them through numerous U.S. and European tours, a world tour, and an appearance in the 1915 Broadway show Hip-Hip-Hooray. Sousa's Band also recorded many sides for the Victor label up through the early '30s. His most famous marches include "The Stars and Stripes Forever" (1897), "U.S. Field Artillery March," "Semper Fidelis" (written in 1888, it became the Marine Corps anthem), "Washington Post March" (1889), "King Cotton" (1895), "El Capitan" (1896), and many more. In addition to writing music, Sousa also wrote books, including the best-seller Fifth String and his autobiography, Marching Along. Actor Clifton Webb portrayed Sousa in the movie about his life entitled Stars and Stripes Forever. The instrument the sousaphone was named after this famous composer and bandleader. ~ Joslyn Layne, All Music Guide Esprit de Corps (March). Inspiration for this composition would be obvious had Sousa composed it while he was in service, but he was not. The march was not published for band until the year after he resigned from the U. S. Marine Corps. The dedication reads, “To my old friend Wilson J. Vance of Ohio.” In addition to being Sousa’s friend, Vance (1845-1911) was a Medal of Honor recipient who served with the 21st Ohio Infantry during the American Civil War. He was cited for voluntarily rescuing a wounded and helpless comrade while his command was falling back under heavy fire during the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee on December 31, 1862. Vance later became Captain, 14th U. S. Colored Troops, was the author of several books, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The “Esprit de Corps” Sousa references in this march is the camaraderie, the bond of friendship that forms between those who serve together. The dedication’s timing is not coincidental; the two were beginning to work together in 1878 on the operetta The Smugglers, for which Vance was the librettist.

MCB Gazebo Concert – Friday, July 26th, 2019 – Program Notes – page 3

Reference: Paul E. Bierley, The Works of John Philip Sousa (Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1984), 50. Supplemented with information provided by Loras J. Schissel.4 The Stars and Stripes Forever (March) is considered the finest march ever written, and at the same time one of the most patriotic ever conceived. As reported in the Philadelphia Public Ledger (May 15, 1897) “ ... It is stirring enough to rouse the American eagle from his crag, and set him to shriek exultantly while he hurls his arrows at the aurora borealis.” (referring to the concert the Sousa Band gave the previous day at the Academy of Music).5 The march was not quite so well received though and actually got an over average rating for a new Sousa march. Yet, its popularity grew as Mr. Sousa used it during the Spanish-American War as a concert closer. Coupled with his Trooping of the Colors, the march quickly gained a vigorous response from audiences and critics alike. In fact, audiences rose from their chairs when the march was played. Mr. Sousa added to the entertainment value of the march by having the piccolo(s) line up in front of the band for the final trio, and then added the trumpets and trombones join them on the final repeat of the strain. The march was performed on almost all of Mr. Sousa’s concerts and always drew tears to the eyes of the audience. The author has noted the same emotional response of audiences to the march today. The march has been named as the national march of The United States. There are two commentaries of how the march was inspired. The first came as the result of an interview on Mr. Sousa’s patriotism. According to Mr. Sousa, the march was written with the inspiration of God. “I was in Europe and I got a cablegram that my manager was dead. I was in Italy and I wished to get home as soon as possible, I rushed to Genoa, then to Paris and to England and sailed for America. On board the steamer as I walked miles up and down the deck, back and forth, a mental band was playing ‘Stars and Stripes Forever.’ Day after day as I walked it persisted in crashing into my very soul. I wrote it on Christmas Day, 1896.”6 The second, and more probable inspiration for the march, came from Mr. Sousa’s own homesickness. He had been away from his homeland for some time on tour, and told an interviewer: “In a kind of dreamy way, I used to think over old days at Washington when I was leader of the Marine Band ... when we played at all public functions, and I could see the Stars and Stripes flying from the flagstaff in the grounds of the White House just as plainly as if I were back there again.” “Then I began to think of all the countries I had visited, of the foreign people I had met, of the vast differences between America and American people and other countries and other peoples, and that flag our ours became glorified ... and to my imagination it seemed to be the biggest, grandest, flag in the world, and I could not get back under it quick enough.” “It was in this impatient, fretful state of mind that the inspiration to compose ‘The Stars and Stripes Forever’ came to me.”7

4 Paul E. Bierley, The Works of John Philip Sousa (Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1984), 50. Supplemented with information provided by Loras J. Schissel 5 Research done by Elizabeth Hartman, head of the music department, Free Library of Philadelphia. Taken from John Philip Sousa, Descriptive Catalog of His Works (Paul E. Bierley, University of Illinois Press, 1973, page 71) 6 Taken from program notes for the week beginning August 19th, 1923. Bierley, John Philip Sousa, page 71. 7 Ibid., page 72

MCB Gazebo Concert – Friday, July 26th, 2019 – Program Notes – page 4

La Pastorella delle Alpi Gioachino Rossini / David Seiberling

Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some and piano pieces, and some works of sacred music. He set new standards for both comic and serious opera before retiring from large-scale composition while still in his thirties, at the height of his fame. Born in Pesaro to parents who were both musicians (his father a trumpeter, his mother a singer), Rossini began to compose by the age of 12 and was educated at music school in Bologna. His first opera was performed in Venice in 1810 when he was 18 years old. In 1815 he was engaged to write operas and manage theatres in Naples. In the period 1810–1823 he wrote a total of 34 operas for the Italian stage which were performed in Venice, Milan, Ferrara, Naples and elsewhere; this productivity necessitated an almost formulaic approach for some components (such as ) and a certain amount of self-borrowing. Rossini's withdrawal from opera for the last 40 years of his life has never been fully explained; contributory factors may have been ill-health, the wealth which his success had brought him, and the rise of spectacular Grand Opera under composers such as . From the early 1830s to 1855, when he left Paris and was based in Bologna, he wrote relatively little. On his return to Paris in 1855 he became renowned for his musical salons on Saturdays, regularly attended by musicians and the artistic and fashionable circles of Paris, for which he wrote the entertaining pieces Péchés de vieillesse. Guests included , , Giuseppe Verdi, Meyerbeer and . Rossini's last major composition was his Petite messe solennelle (1864). He died in Paris in 1868.8 La Pastorella delle Alpi. Rossini, having composed no fewer than forty operas between the ages of nineteen and thirty-seven, wrote none in the next forty years. After Guillaume Tell was premiered at the Paris Opéra in 1829, he turned his back on the theatre and composed little else but some church music (Stabat Mater and the Petite Messe solennelle) and a succession of short vocal and instrumental works. Before moving to Bologna in 1836 (where he was to live for some twelve years), he held weekly soirées in his Parisian home, the musical fruits of which were published in 1835 under the title of Serate musicali or Soirées musicales. This publication comprises twelve songs for various voices—eight ariettas and four duets, the last of which, for tenor and bass, is not included here—to poems by the Imperial Court poet Pietro Metastasio, the most prolific of librettists, and Count Carlo Pepoli, the librettist of Bellini’s I Puritani. All these pieces are ‘salon music’, written with great elegance and often characterized by the irony and sarcasm of a composer who had already become a legend in his lifetime.

The Soirées musicales begins with three short, formally simple, song-like arias that Rossini called ‘canzonettas.’ In La pastorella dell’ Alpi the shepherdess’s anguish sounds strangely lighthearted, but chords interrupt the catchy tune and express grief at Aminta’s faithlessness.9 (Richard Stokes © 2008)

8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gioachino_Rossini 9 https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67647

MCB Gazebo Concert – Friday, July 26th, 2019 – Program Notes – page 5

David Seiberling, arranger, received his B.M. and M.A. in Music Education from Appalachian State University. Between degrees he spent three years in the U.S. Army. He retired in 2001 after teaching 31 years in the North Carolina public school system. For seven years he was director of bands at North Stokes High School. The next twenty-four years were spent at Union Pines High School in Moore County. Since its inception in 1982, Seiberling has been the conductor and musical director of the Moore County Concert Band, and adult band that performs four formal concerts and a Christmas program each year to large and enthusiastic audiences. In January of 2008 he organized a beginner band program for adults over the age of 50. As an arranger, Seiberling’s music has been performed by middle school bands and high school bands in the area. He has written accompaniments for solo performers, including David Vining, trombonist formerly with Cincinnati Conservatory, and background music for a solo Contemporary Christian CD. His original compositions have been performed by community bands in North Carolina and Ohio, and by The UNC Pembroke and Ohio University bands. From 2001 to 2006 Seiberling taught Orchestration/Arranging and Applied Low Brass at UNC Pembroke and is happy to be back, after a year off, teaching Orchestration/Arranging, Conducting, and Music Appreciation

Kristin Thompson, flute soloist, is a 2017 graduate of The University of Akron with a Bachelor of Science Degree. in Biomedical Engineering. She works as a Clinical Research Coordinator for her Alma Mater in addition to being a Quality & Production Engineer for Yanke Bionics in downtown Akron. While she has grown up in Medina for 25 of her 26 years, she has spent much time abroad in Spain, Germany, and Italy. She has been devoted to music for over 15 years, beginning on flute in 2002 at age 9 and progressing into piccolo studies. Her principal teachers include Kyra Kester and Heidi Ruby-Kushious. Kristin is a 2012 alumna of Medina High School where she played in Symphony Band and the Medina Marching Band for all four years, the Symphony Orchestra for two, and played in the pit orchestra, in addition to making select appearances with the Medina Choirs. High school solo performances featured Kristin with the Stardusters jazz ensemble as well as the Symphony Orchestra, where she played Vivaldi's for Flautino (piccolo). During her high school years, she was also a member of the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, the latter of which offered her performances alongside members of the Cleveland Orchestra flute section. While at The University of Akron, Kristin played in the Concert Band, Flute Choir, and Symphonic Band. Currently, she plays with the Akron Pops Orchestra. She has been a member of the Medina Community Band since 2015 and was recently appointed to the Medina Community Band Association, where she serves as Social Host Chair.

MCB Gazebo Concert – Friday, July 26th, 2019 – Program Notes – page 6

After the Cakewalk Robert Nathaniel Dett / Dana Perna

Robert Nathaniel Dett (October 11, 1882 – October 2, 1943), often known as R. Nathaniel Dett and Nathaniel Dett, was a composer, organist, pianist and music professor. While born in Canada, he spent most of his professional career in the United States. During his lifetime he was a leading Black composer, known for his use of African-American folk songs and spirituals as the basis for choral and piano compositions in the 19th century Romantic style of Classical music. He was among the first Black composers during the early years of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). His works often appeared among the programs of 's New York Syncopated Orchestra. Dett performed at Carnegie Hall and at the Boston Symphony Hall as a pianist and choir director. His position as a major pianist-composer was earned in 1914. His piece Magnolia was performed at the Samuel Coleridge- Taylor Club. On June 3 that year he performed Magnolia and In the Bottoms. The Chicago Evening Post reported that among the works on the "All Colored" program, his works were the most innovative and complimented his high level of piano skills. On December 27, 1916, he married Helen Elise Smith— the first black graduate of the Institute of Musical Art, which became the Juilliard School of performing arts. In 1918, Dett wrote of his compositional goals: Despite his having moved to the United States with his family when he was 11 years old, Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943) was born in Canada where glimpses of his talent had already begun to manifest themselves at an early age. Among Dett's earliest titles was his “Characteristic March Two- Step,” After the Cakewalk. Perhaps written when Dett was just a teenager, this current edition is wholly based upon its original 1901 band publication that was arranged by Lee Orean Smith. Smith was also responsible for preparing Dett's piano solo version for publication, as well as its form for “theatre” orchestra and “mandolin club.” Owing to the fact that Smith's highly idiomatic scoring was prepared for a band of that period, this edition adapts, edits and extends Smith's instrumentation in order to make it possible for Dett's music to become available to a new generation of musicians and listeners alike. From the Concerts in the Park series by Southern Music10

10 https://www.grothmusic.com/p-68695-after-the-cake-walk-concert-band.aspx

MCB Gazebo Concert – Friday, July 26th, 2019 – Program Notes – page 7

Adagio (from Concerto de Aranjuez) Joaquin Rodrigo / Kevin Bolton

Rodrigo was born in Sagunto (Valencia), and completely lost his sight at the age of three after contracting diphtheria. He began to study solfège, piano and violin at the age of eight; harmony and composition from the age of 16. Although distinguished by having raised the Spanish guitar to dignity as a universal concert instrument and best known for his guitar music, he never mastered the instrument himself. He wrote his compositions in Braille, which was transcribed for publication. Rodrigo studied music under Francisco Antich in Valencia and under Paul Dukas at the École Normale de Musique in Paris. After briefly returning to Spain, he went to Paris again to study musicology, first under Maurice Emmanuel and then under André Pirro. His first published compositions date from 1923. In 1943 he received Spain's National Prize for Orchestra for Cinco piezas infantiles ("Five Children's Pieces"), based on his earlier composition of the same piece for two pianos, premiered by Ricardo Viñes. From 1947 Rodrigo was a professor of music history, holding the Manuel de Falla Chair of Music in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, at Complutense University of Madrid. Notable students include Yüksel Koptagel, Turkish composer and pianist. His most famous work, Concierto de Aranjuez, was composed in 1939 in Paris for the guitarist Regino Sainz de la Maza. In later life he and his wife declared that it was written as a response to the miscarriage of their first child. It is a concerto for guitar and orchestra. The central adagio movement is one of the most recognizable in 20th-century classical music, featuring the interplay of guitar with cor anglais. This movement was later adapted by the jazz arranger Gil Evans for Miles Davis' 1960 album "Sketches of Spain". The Concierto de Aranjuez is a guitar concerto by the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo. Written in 1939, it is by far Rodrigo's best-known work, and its success established his reputation as one of the most significant Spanish composers of the 20th century. he Concierto de Aranjuez was inspired by the gardens at Palacio Real de Aranjuez, the spring resort palace and gardens built by Philip II in the last half of the 16th century and rebuilt in the middle of the 18th century by Ferdinand VI. The work attempts to transport the listener to another place and time through the evocation of the sounds of nature. According to the composer, the first movement is "animated by a rhythmic spirit and vigor without either of the two themes... interrupting its relentless pace"; the second movement "represents a dialogue between guitar and solo instruments (cor anglais, bassoon, oboe, horn etc.)"; and the last movement "recalls a courtly dance in which the combination of double and triple time maintains a taut tempo right to the closing bar." He described the concerto itself as capturing "the fragrance of magnolias, the singing of birds, and the gushing of fountains" in the gardens of Aranjuez.11

11 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concierto_de_Aranjuez

MCB Gazebo Concert – Friday, July 26th, 2019 – Program Notes – page 8

Paul V. Rocco, originally from Brooklyn, New York, studied trumpet at SUNY at Fredonia, later completing a Bachelor's of Fine Arts Music at the University of Akron. While at The University of Akron, he studied with Tucker Jolly and Scott Johnston, continuing with Geoff Hardcastle after graduation. Rocco moved to Ohio to take the position of police officer for the City of Medina, retiring in 2009 after 20 years of service. He became a member of Medina Community Band in 1989. He also performs with the Brass Band of the Western Reserve. Rocco is presently teaching private trumpet lessons for Barberton Middle and High Schools, and Green Middle School. He resides in Medina with wife Gayle, son Gary, three rescue dogs and a cat

Emblem of Unity March Joseph John Richards

Joseph John Richards was born in Cwmavon, Wales, in 1878; when he was lour years old, his family moved to the United States and settled in Peterson, Kansas. "Johnny," as he was known to his family and friends, began playing alto horn and cornet around the age of ten and soon joined the town band. His progress was steady, and by the age of nineteen he was directing the Norton-Jones Circus Band. Five years later, in 1902, he Joined the Josh Spruceby Circus Band which, according to Richards, was prosperous enough to have uniforms but had to depend on a hay rack (instead of a circus wagon) for transportation in the longer parades. In subsequent years he conducted or played cornet with the circus bands of Barnum and Bailey (1908-1909), Dickson Humpty Dumpty, Si Plunkard, and Forepaugh-Sells (1910). From 1912 to 1918 he led the Ringling Brothers Band but was not chosen to conduct the newly combined Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus Band in 1919, because (according to Merle Evans, who was selected for that position) Richards' previous circus band "sounded too much like a concert band." During the off seasons of his circus touring years Richards studied music at Kansas State Teachers College and the American Conserva•tory in Chicago. He taught music at the U.S. Army School in Camp Grant, Illinois, during World War I. In 1920 Richards began teaching public school music and directing the local Shrine Band in Pittsburgh, Kansas. In 1927 to around 1933 he spent the winter seasons in Bradenton, Florida, to conduct the Florida Concert Band, and he returned to Kansas each summer to conduct the Pittsburg Municipal Band. In 1937 he moved to Sterling, Illinois, where he conducted the municipal band the first year, added the high school band the second year, and by 1945 was also conducting the St. Mary's, Rock Falls, and Kable Brothers Bands. When Herbert L. Clarke died in 1945, Richards was selected to succeed him as conductor of the famous Long Beach, California, Municipal Band. At that time the band was playing eleven concerts each week throughout the year with thirty-five professional players, a five-man staff, complete rehearsal and performing facilities, and an annual budget which exceeded $100,000. Herman Vincent, now a retired U.S. Air Force bandmaster, remembers that he was impressed with the group's sight-reading abiltty when, at the age of fifteen, "Richards let me play Clarke’s Carnival of Venice on a band concert one Sunday afternoon in 1945." Information in the April, 1981, Circus Fanfare Includes a note specifying

MCB Gazebo Concert – Friday, July 26th, 2019 – Program Notes – page 9

April 6, 1947, as the date of the band's 18,733rd concert. Richards retired from the Long Beach position in 1950, because of civil service age regulations, but he was persuaded to return to Mount Morris, Illinois, to conduct the Kable Concert Band from March to September each year-he lived in Long Beach each fall and winter. Richards was popular with band audiences and with other musicians. A member of the American Bandmasters Association since 1936, he was elected president of that group in 1949. In 1981 he was posthumously elected to the Windjammers' Hall of Fame on the University of Kansas Band album of his works, conductor Robert Foster summa•rizes his life as follows: "J. J. Richards was a virtuoso solo virtuoso cornetist, a respected musician. a noted conductor, a noted conductor, and a prolific composer and arranger." At the time of his death in Long Beach in 1956, he was survived by his wife, Anna, two brothers, and one sister. During his career, J. J. Richards wrote over 300 composi•tions for school and circus bands, over fifty of which are still published His most popular marches Include: Crusade for Freedom; Emblem of Unity; Golden Bear; Hail Miami, Shield of Liberty; and The Westerner, all published by the C L. Barnhouse Co.

Sextet (from Lucia di Lammermoor) Gaetano Donizetti / Leonard B. Smith

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti 29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer. Along with Gioachino Rossini and , Donizetti was a leading composer of the bel canto opera style during the first half of the nineteenth century. Donizetti's close association with the bel canto style was undoubtedly an influence on other composers such as Giuseppe Verdi. Donizetti was born in Bergamo in Lombardy. Although he did not come from a musical background, at an early age he was taken under the wing of composer Simon Mayr who had enrolled him by means of a full scholarship in a school which he had set up. There he received detailed training in the arts of fugue and counterpoint. Mayr was also instrumental in obtaining a place for the young man at the Bologna Academy, where, at the age of 19, he wrote his first one-act opera, the comedy Il Pigmalione, which may never have been performed during his lifetime. Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor is perhaps best-known for Lucia’s Act III Mad Scene – but the Act II sextet ‘Chi mi frena in tal momento’ is almost as famous. It was rapturously applauded at the opera’s premiere, went on to influence such composers as Verdi and was one of the first ever opera ensembles to be recorded. Its fame is easy to understand: the sextet, and its ensuing finale, are archetypal examples of beautiful, complex music used at a crucial dramatic turning point. The sextet opens with a duet between Edgardo and Enrico, in which Edgardo expresses pity and enduring love for Lucia, and Enrico expresses remorse for his treachery. The men’s closely linked vocal lines show how, for the first time, these two enemies are united in compassion. Lucia then takes up the melody, shadowed by the chaplain Raimondo. Lucia is too unhappy even to weep; Raimondo fears an evil end to the day, and pities her. Meanwhile, Edgardo and Enrico reiterate their feelings in short asides. The sextet grows richer in texture and the range of emotions expand as we discover each character’s reaction to the shocking event.

MCB Gazebo Concert – Friday, July 26th, 2019 – Program Notes – page 10

Brass Sextet

Medina Community Band members performing in the Leonard Smith arrangement of Gaetano Donizetti’s Sextet (from Lucia di Lammermoor) at the EHOVE concert are (from left to right): Lu Ann Gresh and Marcia Kline (cornet); George Rosin, Mark Mitchell, and Rodney Hannah (trombone); and Clayton Van Doren (euphonium).

Buick March John Hazel

John Hazel DOB: September 28th, 1865 (Bellefonte, Pennsylvania) DOD: January 26th, 1948 (Williamsport, Pennsylvania)

In 1891, he was a guest soloist with Patrick Gilmore’s famed 22nd Regiment Band in New York City. Soon a national music magazine of the time hailed him as “one of the greatest cornetists the world has produced.” From 1903 to 1907, Hazel was invited to record several solos and duets for the Edison Phonographic Studios. In addition, he also performed on hundreds of records with the Edison studio band and orchestra.12 Known as the” Wizard Cornetist” in an era when concerts in the park were as popular as rock concerts are today and community bands numbered in the tens of thousands,13 John Hazel returned to Williamsport, Pennsylvania in 1907 upon his retirement as a performer and lent his considerable musical expertise to local musical activities John began to play the cornet at an early age. He was self-taught and spent many hours practicing and improving his tone by blowing against the brick wall of the old Elliott Paint Shop on Market Street in Williamsport. John used the famous Arban’s Celebrated Method for Cornet and said that he “blew every note in it” (Grit, February 1, 1948). When he was only ten years old, he traveled as a member of the Stopper Band of Williamsport to play at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876. While he was there, he heard the great Jules Levy, his future rival, and determined that he would one day be a cornet soloist.

12 12 http://repaszband.org/john-hazel/ 13 13Ibid

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In 1877 Hazel was the only child member of the Smith Band and in 1881 joined the Repasz Band. In April 1883, he resigned from the Repasz Band to assume the directorship of the Hammer Band. John was only 17 years old, but the local papers reported: “[T]he members are becoming proficient musicians and under their new leader, who is a thorough teacher, they will rank as one of the best bands in the State” (Gazette & Bulletin, April 24, 1883). How long John remained with the Hammer Band is not known, but during the summer, he played with the Albian Hotel orchestra in Atlantic City where he performed his first public solo. He rejoined the Repasz Band and became its leader in the summer of 1887. G. Morris Repasz was the musical director. That summer Hazel spent a week as bugler for Company D, National Guard of Pennsylvania when they were encamped at Mt. Gretna. In August 1887 Hazel was to sail to England to join Buffalo Bill’s Cowboy Band at a salary of $18 per week plus expenses. Hazel went to New York, purchased his ticket, but at the last minute, he had a “change of heart.” The cause was Miss Sophie Langgans, the daughter of the Park Hotel’s pastry chef. John and Sophie were married four days later on September 1, 1887. Sophie’s father baked their wedding cake. In 1903 Hazel was hired as staff cornetist for the Edison Phonographic Studios in East Orange, New Jersey. At Edison, he recorded hundreds of cylinder records as a member of the Edison Military Band and as a member of the orchestra. It should be noted that phonographs in private homes were not common until after 1900. Prior to that date, phonographs were to be found primarily in entertainment arcades. The method of recording in that period was described by Hazel in a letter published in the Gazette & Bulletin in June 1906: Buick March was dedicated to the Williamsport Motor Supply Company. Publication date, from solo cornet part, was 1921, published by Williamsport Motor Supply Company (Williamsport, PA). The Williamsport Motor Car Company was 98 years old (as of January 1st, 1921, when the company filed for business corporation).14

Nessun Dorma (from Turandot) / D. W. Stauffer

Giacomo Puccini has been called the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi. While his early work was rooted in traditional late- 19th-century romantic Italian opera, he successfully developed his work in the 'realistic' verismo style, of which he became one of the leading exponents. From Turandot Nessun dorma Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924). In his sixties, Giacomo Puccini decided to “strike out on new paths.” The result was Turandot, a fantastic tale from the eighteenth century set in a mythical China. But Puccini never felt at ease with the plot: “My life is a torture because I fail to see in this opera all the throbbing life and power which are necessary in a work for the theater if it is to endure,” he wrote in desperation. He agonized over the opera for four years, finally dying of throat cancer before he finished the last scene. To avenge the rape and death of a distant ancestress, the Chinese princess Turandot challenges her suitors with three riddles and, if they fail to answer them correctly, has them beheaded. Prince Calaf has just seen Turandot on the ramparts of the palace and is instantly bewitched by her beauty. He beats Turandot at her own game. For many of the arias and ensembles, Puccini used authentic Chinese melodies.

14 https://www.bizapedia.com/pa/the-williamsport-motor-car-company.html

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Calaf has now challenged her to discover his true name, agreeing to sacrifice his life if she fails. Turandot orders the citizens of Peking to uncover Calaf’s disguise, while he muses about the sleepless citizens, anticipating his ultimate victory over Turandot, but not before Liu, his slave who adores him, sacrifices her life in the face of torture.15

La Donna è mobile (from Rigoletto) Giuseppe Verdi / D.W. Stauffer Giuseppe Verdi Born October 10, 1813 Le Roncole, Italy Died January 27, 1901 Milan, Italy

Verdi’s parents were of peasant stock. While Verdi showed prodigious talent at an early age, his greatest works were produced late in his life. Though he wrote operas in his early years, operas which gained him wide recognition, they are rarely performed today. Rigoletto (1851) marked the beginning of his march to greatness which he achieved with such masterpieces as Aida, La Traviata, Otello, and Falstaff. The latter two works were created after the age of seventy. During his lifetime Verdi became a highly revered figure in his native country. During his funeral, great masses of people lined the streets of Milan to watch the procession and express their grief. A massed choir, accompanied by the La Scala orchestra directed by the young Arturo Toscani, sang Va Pensiero, “The Slaves’ Chorus”, from Verdi’s opera Nabucco. Today Verdi’s name is synonymous with Italian opera. Rigoletto is an opera in three acts (often given in four) based on ’s play Le roi s’amuse. Francesco Maria Piave wrote the libretto. Rigoletto was first performed on March 11, 1851 and was initially found to be so shocking and dangerous that censors required significant changes be made to it. La Donna è mobile (translation: women are fickle) is one of the most celebrated of arias for tenor.

Daniel Doty is a tenor who is equally at home on the opera, theatre or concert stage. He has appeared with the in Akron (OH), Mansfield (OH), Muncie (IN), Urbana (IL), Marion (OH), and community bands in Medina and Wadsworth (OH). Performances have found him in a variety of settings from church sanctuaries to concert halls, and at such locations as the Celle di Puccini (Puccini summer home) and Severance Hall. In Akron, Daniel has appeared on the stage of Weathervane Playhouse as King Kaspar in “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” As participant of the Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, Daniel spent six weeks in the Tuscan village of Lucca (Italy) singing operatic

15 http://www.williamsburgsymphonia.org/documents/2011MW4.pdf

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arias at various venues associated with Lucca's most famous son, Giacomo Puccini. Mr. Doty has appeared in Master Classes with such Metropolitan Opera stars as Martina Arroyo and Angela Brown. A past Guest Artist with the Masterworks Festival, Daniel worked with David Geier, Assistant Conductor for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Doty holds a Bachelor of Music Education Degree from Bowling Green State University. He is also an ordained minister and holds a Master of Divinity degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, IL. Currently Daniel is Senior Minister at The Bath Church, United Church of Christ in Akron, Ohio, Mr. Doty lives in Wadsworth with his wife Amy and is the proud father of Kristian, Sean, and Kaetlyn Doty. Daniel’s most recent Cleveland area performances were as Spoletta in Tosca with Cleveland Opera Theatre and Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street with KSU Opera Theatre. In May of 2017 Daniel made his Carnegie Hall debut singing the “Hostias” solo with the Hudson Festival Orchestra and Choir in the Fauré Requiem.

The Elephant March James Old Hume James Ord Hume Born: September 14th, 1864 (, ) Died: November 27th, 1932 (London, England) For certain works, he used the pseudonyms: William German, Paul Haake and Lilian Raymond. James Ord Hume began an active musical career in 1881 when he joined the Band of the Royal Scots Greys as a cornetist. During the next 50 years, he established an enviable record as a conductor, adjudicator, arranger, and composer of over 1,000 works for brass and wind band – including 200 marches. He was born in 1864 in Edinburgh, Scotland, the second of three sons of an army bandmaster. He was the victim of a series of accidents during his childhood, and at age nine his left arm and leg were badly hurt when a stack of planks toppled, killing three of his playmates. During a year of convalescence, he learned to play a number of toy instruments and gradually became interested in a career in music. Ord Hume became, at the age of sixteen, in 1880, a cornet at the music band of the Royal Scots Grays in Dalkeith. In 1890 he resigned from this military orchestra. He was very interested in the developments in the wind music world. A letter from 1895 to the conductor James Alexander Browne (1838-1914) of the Royal Horse Artillery Band (1870-1878) showed that in 1895 he was already a conductor of the "Band of the 3rd Durham Light Infantry" in Sunderland. used to be. Within the British army, he was requisitioned to the rank of Lieutanant-Colonel. In addition to his work as a wind music composer, he became a professional brass band conductor and a major initiator for the brass band movement. As a jury member at competitions he made a big name in Great Britain and beyond. He worked for several years in Australia and New Zealand as a jury member at brass band competitions including the "Ballarat Royal South Street" competitions of 1902 and 1924. Ord Hume was good friends with the composer Sir and conducted the orchestra in the concert that took place in 1900 in the London Crystal Palace in homage to the great composer.

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As a composer, he wrote to the 200 works. The spectrum ranges from the many marches - of which the BB & CF is most known - to the Bohemian Suite.16 The Elephant March. The march is considered a ‘professional level’ test piece in the European Brass Band competitions.

16 https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ord_Hume

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