Report Spring 2015
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
SCOTT S. HANNA Editor REPORT SPRING 2015 FROM THE PODIUM Dear Colleagues, and imagination. As it turns out, great concerts were just the beginning. I left Nashville with my head just as I write this having just returned from the national nourished as my soul. conference in Nashville and I am trying to sort through it all. Perhaps we share some of these same Encouraged. CBDNA is in great shape. The work emotions: done by Steve Peterson, now Immediate Past- President, is evident in all aspects of our association. Energized. My batteries are definitely recharged after Steve’s vision permeated the Nashville conference in hearing the many rousing performances by the ways both grand and subtle. Under his tenure, we participating ensembles; premieres, old favorites, have brought closure to many long-standing issues. featured soloists, cutting-edge compositions, jaw- His are big shoes to fill. I won’t try to cover up that I dropping technique and inspired conducting. All the am more than a bit intimidated by the responsibility I ingredients were there for music making guaranteed to have inherited. We leave Nashville with renewed reinvigorate the heart and soul. Nothing else makes vigor, but there are challenges ahead. We must me as eager to get back into the rehearsal room as the continue to work on diversity in both our student and firsthand experience of hearing great music performed professional ranks. Small colleges face ever-evolving by outstanding student musicians led by colleagues problems both musical and pragmatic. Administrators who understand our craft inside and out. My heartfelt are looking at changes to curriculum that may alter thanks to all the performing ensembles, not just for the way ensembles are integrated. Music education in putting in the time and effort to make such a the public schools needs our attention, but finding our performance possible, but also for sending us home niche remains elusive. These things will be a part of with renewed spirit. my focus for the next two years. And yet, even with issues looming large, it is safe to say there has never Enlightened. It’s reassuring to know that we care been a better time to be a member of CBDNA. The enough about our profession to question it. To that creation of new music flourishes at an all-time high. end, I thank everyone who presented a session, panel Our students continue to push the boundaries of discussion or clinic. Everything I heard was terrific. technique and expressivity. Scholarship and research From composer’s discussing new music to members are enjoying renewed attention and activity. The state debating the issues of the day, I believe we are of our art and craft is quite sound. Like many of you, I enjoying a heightened sense of ‘professional thinking.’ am proud to count myself among the dedicated artist- This was evident not just in formal presentations but scholars who fill the ranks of our association. across almost every gathering. On the bus, across the dinner table, in the lobby, even at the bar, our Exhausted! The national conference is always a bit of members are not just going through the motions. We an endurance test: eighty-two hours packed with great are thinking about the future and doing so with care music, inspired thinking, and the chance to catch up IN THIS ISSUE From the Podium – 1 Commissions/Premieres – 2 Programs – 5 Resources – 2 Dissertations/Treatises – 3 CBDNA REPORT – 2 SPRING 2015 with great colleagues from around the nation. It COMMISSIONS AND always leaves me feeling overwhelmed. But holding this event in a city as vibrant as Nashville, well, that PREMIERES takes it to a whole different level. Every trip to the Schermerhorn Symphony Center was a thrill ride Downshifting – Dan Welcher worthy of a major theme park; dense traffic, hundreds (Program note by the composer) of tourists, music lovers and party-goers from around One of the joys of life for me is riding my 21-speed the world filling the streets in search of revelry. I’ve bicycle. As a basically non-athletic person who been to Nashville dozens of times, but I’ve never seen nonetheless likes to stay in shape, I have found that it this alive. Hats off to Thomas Verrier, his staff, and riding my bike provides just the exercise I need. The the good folks at Vanderbilt for an outstanding four workout is strenuous, but pleasant---and the infinite days. All things considered, it was a perfect location variety of scenery I pass keeps me alert and wide for the national conference. Well-played, Nashville. awake. When I decided to write a piece for band that Well-played. was basically entertaining and uplifting, it made perfect sense to call if Downshifting. I hope your ‘end of the semester’ activities all wrap up well. Have a great summer. With three gears on the front sprocket and seven on the rear, it’s possible to keep one’s legs going at a Patrick Dunnigan constant speed (for me, that’s 126 to the quarter note) while the bike itself may be moving very slowly or very RESOURCES quickly. I determined to capitalize on this in writing Trans-Atlantic Passages: Philip Hale on the the music, which manages to keep the same Boston Symphony Orchestra (1889-1933) mathematical inner pulse, “shifting” (with a ratchet) as Jon Mitchell the terrain changes. So Downshifting begins with that steady pulse, on a grid of eighth notes in 2/4 to propel Trans-Atlantic Passages was recently published by the little vehicle forward. There’s a joyous little tune in Palgrave Macmillan. It is a book about esteemed our heads as we begin our ride. As the initial thrill of music critic Philip Hale, but is just as much about the riding on the flat gives way to monotony, we stay in Boston Symphony and works performed during his that pulse for the first minute or so of the ride. Then, tenure. as the first hill becomes visible, we shift the bike down: The first part concerns Hale's life and the events even though the eighths are equal, the pulse feels shaping the Boston Symphony Orchestra during his slower (and we’re now in 6/8 time). Ultimately the reign as newspaper critic and program annotator compound meter shifts again as the climb begins, and there, including the verbal war with Henry Krehbiel we’re now plodding doggedly up the hill. (The music over Dvorak's New World Symphony, the building of reflects all of these changes, with subtitles such as Symphony Hall, arrest of conductor Karl Muck “Working harder---Seeing the climb, ahead”, “Steady during WWI, the 1920 players' strike, and the and committed…the climb begins!”, “Straining Koussevitzky golden anniversary commissions of against the grade”, etc.). 1930-31. There are two hills, and two long climbs (but in The second part consists of selected columns of his different keys, reflecting the change in scenery). When dealing with conductors, works, and soloists. at last the summit of the second hill is reached (“Flying, Over the Top”), we coast at last down the other side at Scattered throughout the text are Hale’s breakneck speed. The initial joyous melody returns, commentaries about wind works performed by the but now in a spread-out coasting pulse. Boston Symphony Orchestra (i.e. the Mozart Serenade No. 10 in B flat, K. 361/370a, Holst’s Hammersmith, Op. At the end of the ride, we slow to a stop----then take 52, etc.) and the Longy Club (i.e. Richard Strauss’ one last sprint (shifting five times in the process) in Suite in B-flat, Arthur Bird’s Serenade, etc.) as well as a order to end on a biker’s high. review of the Sousa band. Downshifting was commissioned by a consortium of fourteen high school and college bands, overseen by CBDNA REPORT – 3 SPRING 2015 my longtime colleague at The University of Texas, instrumentation. The beginning thematic material Scott Hanna. The piece is dedicated to him (and to returns near the end before being overpowered by a all bicycle enthusiasts). short variation on the fanfare-theme, giving the impression that life goes on, even for a world in a post- Downshifting will be available from Theodore Presser in chaotic state. Summer 2015. Vital Signs of Planet Earth – David Gillingham Electric Vortex—Jennifer K. Bellor The Central Michigan University Symphonic Wind Electric Vortex (2013) is written for wind ensemble and Ensemble, John E. Williamson, conductor, performed jazz combo with soloist. Written for a consortium of the world premier of Vital Signs of Planet Earth by David ten university wind ensembles, Electric Vortex is an Gillingham on Thursday, February 19, 2015 in innovative new piece featuring both classical and jazz Staples Concert Hall. The piece was written as a result musicians. The jazz combo instrumentation is of a grant project coauthored by Dr. Robert Lindahl, comprised of guitar (preferably electric), bass Professor of Trombone and the composer. The grant (preferably electric), drums and soloist, which can be project involves the composition of a new major chosen from alto saxophone, tenor saxophone or concerto for bass trombone and wind ensemble. The trombone. There is also a piano part within the wind soloist will be George Curran, bass trombonist with ensemble that includes chord symbols if the performer the New York Philharmonic, a graduate of CMU. wants to improvise, so the pianist is both a member of The concerto is programmatic and seeks to depict the the wind ensemble and the jazz combo. The “vital signs” of the earth as related to global warming.