Commencement Concert 2018
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Arizona Lutheran Academy COMMENCEMENT CONCERT May 25, 2018 | 7:00 PM COMMENCEMENT CONCERT 2018 A CAPPELLA CHOIR Another Day of Sun Music by Jusn Hurwitz Lyrics by Benj Pasek and Jusn Paul Arr. Jacob Narverud Notes from the composer: (This) was a really tricky number. It has to introduce us to the world, and it does so in such a complicated way. You’re meeng all these characters in rapid‐fire succession, and you’re never going to see them again. So you have to get their stories very quickly and then move on. It needs to be a fast, joyous song on a lot of fronts—but it also has to have melancholy in it, because of what these characters are singing about. They’re all these dreamers who have moved to L.A. for one reason or another: to make it in the film business, or the music business, or something else creave. And none of them are doing what they want to be doing yet. It’s an opmisc song, but it’s also about unfulfilled dreams. The structure is basically "I came here, this is what I want to do, and I’m not doing it. But I’m glad I’m in L.A., and tomorrow’s another day of sun!" WELCOME CONCERT BAND Featuring Senior Benjamin Althoff, clarinet, and 8th grade students Gabriel’s Oboe Ennio Morricone Arr. Robert Longfield Born in Rome in 1928, Ennio Morricone was taught several instruments as a child by his father, and as a young man played the trumpet with jazz bands throughout the 1940’s. He achieved worldwide fame in 1966 for his iconic score to the film The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Morricone has since become one of the most versale and influenal composers of the modern era. He is the prolific creator of over 500 scores for film as well as for television and has composed well over 100 classical works. “Gabriel’s Oboe” was composed as the main theme of the 1986 film The Mission. The story concerns a Jesuit Priest, Father Gabriel, who is trying to found a mission in the new world. In order to befriend the naves who are stalking him from the forest, Father Gabriel plays the theme on his oboe, and the tribesman respond to this new, lovely, and haunng sound by approaching and finally offering their friendship. Enchanted Spaces Samuel R. Hazo A sparkling, full ensemble entrance gives way to musical painngs of vast spaces and natural beauty. The ebb and flow between grand sounds and lush charm provide contrast and complement each other. “Enchanted Spaces” depicts the majesty and quaintness of the mountains, rivers, culture and cityscape of this unique town. Jim Fritz, the commissioner of “Enchanted Spaces,” wrote the following: “The community of Decorah, Iowa, lies in the Oneota Valley with the Upper Iowa River running through it. American Indians lived there first, but immigrant Norwegian farmers were aracted to the rich farmland while the towering bluffs reminded them of ords back home. Today Decorah is home to farmers and arsts. This eclecc blend of residents has fostered a ferle home for music and the arts. It is truly an ‘Enchanted Space’ in which to live!” 2 OUTSTANDING 8th GRADE INSTRUMENTALIST Edison Sonntag, alto saxophone Badine Arr. Henry W. Davis FRESHMAN CHOIR Can’t Buy Me Love (Medley of Hits by the Beatles) Choral Arr. Audrey Snyder Ins. Arr. Paul Murtha “Here Comes the Sun”: George Harrison wrote this in Eric Clapton's garden using one of Clapton's acousc guitars. There, while wandering around the garden with one of Eric's guitars, the sun came out for the first me that spring. Seeing it as a good omen, Harrison wrote "Here Comes the Sun" on the spot. “In My Life”: Rolling Stone has given this song the #23 slot on its “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” It appeared on the Rubber Soul album (1965). The song’s original lyrics evidently consisted of a list of stops onLennon’s Liverpool bus route. Lennon found that “ridiculous” and so he reworked the words to capture more of an overall meditaon on his earlier life. The bridge was wrien by producer George Marn, with the request from Lennon to make “something Baroque‐sounding.” The Bach‐like piece was intricate enough that Marn couldn’t actually play it at the tempo of the song that the Beatles had already laid down, so he recorded it at half speed on a piano and dropped it into the song at double‐speed, which both transposed the piano up an octave and made it sound more like a harpsichord. “Can’t Buy Me Love”: "‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ is my aempt to write [in] a bluesy mode," McCartney said. He wrote it while the band was doing concerts in Paris for 18 days straight, two or three shows a day. The single was released a few months later, at the height of Beatlemania. When it hit number one, the band occupied all five top posions on the American charts. PIANO SOLO ‐ Olivia Meyer, freshman You Raise Me Up Arr. Lori Line A CAPPELLA CHOIR And So It Goes Words and Music by Billy Joel Arr. Bob Chilco The closing song on Storm Front is the heart‐breaking ballad "And So It Goes." The song is about a doomed relaonship or imminent break‐up. Billy Joel originally wrote it in 1983 when he was briefly dang model Elle McPherson. He has said that he knew the relaonship was not going to last because of various career and professional commitments that each had. It was not released on 1983's An Innocent Man, however, since it did not fit into the retro style of that album (one wonders why it was not put on 1986's The Bridge). The words and emoons are so raw, you can hear his heart cry ("every me I've held the rose, it seems I only felt the thorns" and "I would choose to be with you, that's if the choice were mine to make"). He is at his most vulnerable and open. He is openly telling her that "you can have this heart to break." And she did. OUTSTANDING 8th GRADE PIANIST Elena Brauer, piano Rocktata Michael Valen 3 CONCERT CHOIR You Are the New Day Words and Music by John David Arr. Peter Knight “You Are the New Day” was composed by mul‐talented Welsh rock musician John David. Born in Cardiff in 1946, David started his life as a musician at 14, playing drums in his father’s band. He has subsequently performed many roles throughout his career: playing bass with the Dave Edmonds Band, performing and wring songs for the group Airwaves, among others, and funconing as engineer/producer for a list of hit songs by important arsts. “You Are the New Day” is a secular song. David wrote it for Airwaves in 1978 during a me when personal difficules and threats to world peace caused him to look for hope within himself. In John David’s own words: “The inspiraon for ‘New Day’ was quite simple; I had just had a major blow in my personal life and was sing alone late at night on the seee feeling very low and watching an ominous story on the news about the very real possibility of nuclear war. I started singing to the (hopefully) soon‐to arrive ‘New Day’ like it was an enty that would rescue me from the depths. If the sun came up and the birds started singing as usual, then I could believe that it really was the new day in which life would go on and in which hope would survive. The tune and the words popped into my head at the same me, and it was all wrien in about 10 minutes, which is why (to me at least) it’s not perfect. But I didn’t feel I had the right to change anything.” City of Stars Music by Jusn Hurwitz Lyrics by Benj Pasek and Jusn Paul Arr. Jay Althouse Hurwitz says, “‘City of Stars’ started at the piano with me just working on demos for Damien, sending him ideas unl something really sparked...We went through a lot of ideas, but I can’t really think of any music I was listening to at the me that I was thinking of when I was wring it. I was just composing it from an emoonal place and thinking about the tone. I would say the tone is hopeful, but melancholy at the same me. And it kind of goes back‐and‐forth between cadencing in major and cadencing in minor, because I think that’s kind of what the song is about. “You have these great moments and then you have these less great moments in life and in Los Angeles and we see it happen in the story. I was thinking about that idea a lile bit and just trying to compose a melody that I thought was shapely and beauful...And then aer it was composed, we handed it off to Pasek and Paul, and that was actually the first lyric they wrote...Pasek and Paul came back with a lyric and they came to my apartment—it was me, Damien, Benj and Jusn—and they just performed this lyric for us. It was a revelaon because we’d been thinking to ourselves, ‘What is this song about?’ We’re not lyricists, Damien and I. We didn’t know. A couple of other lyricists had taken a shot at it, but the song you hear in the movie is, except for maybe a couple of the word changes, exactly what Pasek and Paul came back with.