Four Suites Suite No

Home , Alec Wilder, Crystal Records

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This CD is dedicated to Glenn Bowen Four Suites Suite No. 1 for Horn, Tuba and Piano was recorded November 9th, 2013. Suite for Clarinet, Horn and Piano was recorded May 20th, 2014. Suite No. 2 for Horn, Tuba and Piano was recorded November 11th, 2013. Charles Tibbetts Jazz Suite for Four Horns was recorded October 24th, 2013.

All works were recorded and edited by Marv Nonn at his studio in Cross Plains, Wisconsin, and friends play mixed and mastered by Henning Backhaus at Blue Planet Studios in Germany. Tone master for the Jazz Suite was Mike Forbes, and for the Tuba and Clarinet Suites, Ricardo Almeida.

Publishers Suite No. 1 for Horn, Tuba and Piano; Suite for Clarinet, Horn and Piano; and Suite No. 2 for Horn, Tuba and Piano are published by Margun Music Jazz Suite for Four Horns is published by TRO Ludlow Music, Inc

Cover design by Rebecca Tibbetts. Photo of Alec Wilder courtesy of Sandy Ouzer Hecht.

WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM TROY1520 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 © 2014 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD Alec Wilder WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. THE COMPOSER THE MUSIC Alec Wilder was one of those unusual composers who managed to bridge the worlds of serious and Suite No. 1 for Horn, Tuba and Piano was written in 1962. Clark Galehouse, then president of popular music, jazz and classical, the concert hall and the dance hall, without losing credibility Golden Crest Records, had gotten the idea of bringing Harvey Phillips and John Barrows together in any of those areas. A major figure in the New York music world, he was equally at home writing after hearing their similar styles of phrasing on earlier recordings that each had done for his label. ballet and opera, or composing songs for Tommy Dorsey, authoring concertos or pop standards for He then spoke to Alec Wilder, who agreed that the two should be blended musically, and immediately Frank Sinatra. Wilder was born in Rochester, New York, and studied at the Eastman School of Music. began work on a trio combining his two close friends and pianist Bernie Leighton. It was premiered His teachers included the composer Howard Hanson. He first established himself in New York as a in the summer of 1963 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where both Barrows and Phillips were songwriter and arranger in big-band jazz circles at the end of the 1920s and the early ‘30s, com- teaching on the summer music faculty. posing for Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey, among others. He wrote hundreds of popular songs during his career, including All the King‘s Horses, which was used in the 1930 Howard Dietz-Arthur The five movements, according to the liner notes from James T. Maher on Golden Crest RE 7018, Schwartz stage musical Three‘s a Crowd, and Stop That Dancin’ Up There, and he saw his work “are marked, in sequence, Energetic, Elegy, Relaxed, Berceuse and Finale. The outer movements are recorded by such major artists as Harry James and Frank Sinatra. marked by canonic entries as is the Elegy. The entries of the tuba, horn and piano, in that order, in the first movement are reversed in the second. The Elegy reveals Wilder at his most poetic and His first major success as a songwriter came in 1934 with While We‘re Young, and he delivered a recalls his singular gifts as a composer of memorable popular ballads. He is one of the most haunt- succession of hits over the decades that followed. Wilder’s exposure to the world of popular jazz ing melodists of this era and the plaintive lines he has here interwoven for the brass/wind duologue exerted a powerful influence on his career as a serious composer — he composed jazz music for are marvelously suited to the mood of mournful recollection. The third movement makes authoritative wind instruments, and in 1942 premiered a ballet entitled Juke Box with the American Ballet, built use of the diction and rhetoric of jazz. It swings, then, in a second section marked poco meno, it is on popular thematic material. It was the first of several ballets, including False Dawn and Life Goes lyrical and tender. The Berceuse has an appropriate ‘rocking’ six-eight section in the midst of the On. In some ways, he was the heir to George Gershwin as a composer of jazz-based classical music, lullaby. Wilder changes the color of the brass in this movement with the use of straight mutes in authoring works such as the Concerto for Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra and numerous suites an antiphonal exchange, a conversation in the nursery, as it were. In the finale movement the piano for jazz ensemble and orchestra, well into the 1960s. Wilder also composed operas (Ellen, 1955), swings gracefully and a staccato flourish announces the canonic entry into the closing measures of stage cantatas (Miss Chicken Little, 1957), and many works aimed at younger listeners, including the suite. The counterpoint is marked by vigor and clarity.” the Child‘s Introduction to the Orchestra in 1954. —CHARLES TIBBETTS In the fall of 1961, John Barrows and I were new faculty members at the University of Wisconsin- Suite No. 2 for Horn, Tuba and Piano was written in 1971. It was in that fall of my sophomore year Madison. We had some friends and interests in common and we began chatting and wondering what at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that Mr. Barrows gave me an early copy of the manuscript for we might do to encourage wind chamber music at the University and in the state. One choice was the second suite. I had been practicing and performing the first suite with two student friends, John for us and pianist Tait Sanford (later Barrows) to search the available music for clarinet, horn and Cole (tuba) and Rich Bower (piano). We immediately sat down to learn the new work. piano, forming a manageable trio for travel and concerts. In the spring semester of 1972, because of his failing health, Mr. Barrows took a leave of absence After weeks of searching publishers, Library of Congress music and friends’ memories, we had a from Madison and went to the University of Arizona, Tempe. During his absence, Cole, Bower and I small stack of music to read on a Saturday morning in Tait’s studio. It was a great bit of luck that presented the world premier performance of Wilder’s second suite at a recital held in Mills Hall, on Alec Wilder was in Madison to visit long-time friend Barrows and came to our reading. Wilder even the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Serendipitously, Mr. Wilder was already on campus for participated as narrator in one piece called The Dying Poet or some such title. The text and music the premier of another of his works, and so happened to be in our audience. were very ripe, Wilder’s reading was dramatic and we laughed long and hard. After listening through the morning, Wilder commented that he had not recently thought about combining horn, clarinet and Later that fall, Barrows returned to Madison, and on October 23, 1972 he and Mr. Phillips recorded piano, but liked the sound and would write a piece for us. Great! We were quite excited about this. the second suite for Golden Crest. In his book, Mr. Tuba, published by Indiana University Press, We read the new trio in 1964. Wilder was not satisfied with the first movement (a double fugue); he Phillips talks about his experience: “This trio was the last solo recording of John Barrows and was felt it did not compliment the rest of the piece, and a new first movement was composed. We were recorded in 1972, when John was losing his battle with Hodgkin’s disease. With pianist Milton Kaye very happy and satisfied to perform the completed piece a number of times. In my opinion, it is one (long-time accompanist for Jascha Heifetz), John and I drove out to the Golden Crest Records studio of the great chamber music pieces that Wilder composed. on Long Island. John sounded fabulous, but Milton and I noticed how tired he was becoming. We might wish to do a phrase over again, but John very politely said, ‘I can’t do it, fellas; let’s go on.’ Wilder’s unique style is everywhere: arching expressive melodies, full and rich harmony and some I released it on an LP I entitled Tribute to a Friend. John sounds strong and vital and the listener very skillful counterpoint. The Suite for Clarinet, Horn and Piano is a piece that deserves the would never guess that it was done under any kind of duress.” listener’s attention, especially in this premiere recording by some of the best artists around. Their performance originates from Barrows’ hand written copy of the Wilder manuscript, rather than the The second suite also consists of five movements, connected similarly to those of the first suite. Both published editing of Margun Music. first and last movements start off in canonic form: first the tuba, then horn, followed by piano. The —GLEN BOWEN second and fourth movements use slow, song-like melodies with beautiful but melancholic lyrical PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF MUSIC lines. The third movement is again in a jazz style, with a short canonic middle section in 7/8 meter. THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON Though he had written them nine years apart, Wilder kept the suites’ overall musical structures much the same, yet each movement maintains its unique charms. —CHARLES TIBBETTS Alec Wilder has always been one of those composers who is considered to be a “tweener.” Classical Vincent Fuh gained his first performing experience as a jazz pianist, while studying musicians consider his music too jazzy, and jazz musicians feel his music too classical. The Jazz piano performance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Fuh has been active in Suite for Four Horns and rhythm section is one of Wilder’s compositions that falls much closer to the Madison classical and jazz communities since 1983. He is pianist and writer/ the jazz side of his muse. This piece is almost certainly inspired by the series of Octets that brought arranger for both Madisalsa, a twelve piece Latin jazz and salsa ensemble founded Wilder’s music to the public fore in 1939 both by the cleverness of the titles (Horns O’Plenty and in 1992, and El Clan Destino, a contemporary Afro-Cuban quintet founded in 2004. Horn Belt Boogie) and by the particular use of the harpsichord in the rhythm section. The two outer As a “cross-genre” classical pianist, he has performed with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, movements are unabashedly jazzy while the second movement (Conversation Piece) is eerily spooky. the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, the Oakwood Chamber The gem of the suite is the Serenade that contains a complex, sinuous melody that Gunther Schuller Players, and Sound Ensemble Wisconsin. He is most recently featured on CDs with Marc Vallon describes as “ravishing” and “a melody worthy of an Ellington or a Gershwin or a Schubert, and (bassoon), Mark Hetzler (trombone), and Laura Medisky (oboe). arguably one of the most beautiful melodies ever composed in our century.” —WILLIAM HOYT Mike Forbes is “…an outstanding tubist with a solid, colorful tone, terrific technical PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF MUSIC skills, and dramatic flair” (American Record Guide). He is the Principal Tubist with UNIVERSITY OF AKRON the LaCrosse Symphony Orchestra and can often be heard as the tubist with the “Guy’s All-Star Shoeband” on Garrison Keillor’s popular radio show, “A Prairie Home Companion.” He can also be heard on his solo album, “Forbes Plays Koetsier” where THE PERFORMERS he features all seven works for solo tuba by Dutch composer, Jan Koetsier. He is currently recording his Charles Tibbetts began his horn studies at the age of 14 with the legendary second solo album featuring his own works for solo tuba (to be released in 2014 on Summit Records). John Barrows, the French horn professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He began his career as a tubist with the U.S. Army Band, “Pershing’s Own” and subsequently During the eight years he studied with Barrows, Tibbetts also got to know Alec served on the music faculties at a number of Midwestern universities. He is an active soloist, high Wilder, who frequently visited Barrows in Madison. Tibbetts studied from 1966 in demand throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. He recently performed in Spain and until Barrows’ death in January 1974. That same month Charles flew to Montreux Portugal and has solo engagements in Scandinavia in 2014. As founder and manager of the Isthmus Switzerland where he studied briefly with Alan Civil, Barry Tuckwell and Hermann Baumann. It was Brass and the Sotto Voce Quartet, Forbes enjoys performing and recording exhilarating chamber Baumann who helped him apply for auditions in Germany. music with his colleagues around the globe. Both ensembles have recordings available: Isthmus Over the next 36 years, Tibbetts played professionally in Germany with the Philharmonia Brass Christmas (2013), and Take This Hammer: Music Composed for the Sotto Voce Quartet (2014). Hungarica, Badische Staatstheater Karlsruhe, National Theater Mannheim and the SWR Radio orchestras. In 2010, he returned to Wisconsin and currently enjoys playing chamber music with the Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and as newest member of the NFB Horn Quartet. In 2013, he completed his first Alec Wilder CD with Albany Records. Maurita Murphy Marx’s clarinet performances include soloing with the internationally David Kappy is Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington in Seattle. He studied renowned Cleveland Quartet and soloist at many international conferences, including horn with John Barrows from 1966-1971. Kappy received his Bachelor of Music in 1970 and the National Symposium of Brazil. Dr. Marx specializes passionately in Brazilian his Masters in 1971 while also becoming Mr. Barrows’ Teaching Assistant that same year. “choro” music. Her “choro” CDs have received high acclaim internationally He has been a member of Soni Ventorum, the NFB Horn Quartet, Mannheim Steamroller, (Eurocass), “with command of the idiom, accomplished clarinet playing, verve, and has supplemented the horn sections of the St. Louis and Seattle Symphonies. A warmth and intensity.” She has also been invited to give lecture/recitals around the world on the Fulbright Professor, Mr. Kappy has taught in Japan, China, Brazil and Germany. He has numerous “choro.” Hailed as a “master teacher,” she has been the recipient of the Collegiate Teaching Award recordings on the Telarc, Musical Heritage Society, Crystal, Margun, and American Gramaphone labels. and the invited speaker for the University of Iowa commencement exercises. Dr. Marx is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music with the Performer’s Certificate and Michigan State University. Ricardo Almeida was born in Havana, Cuba. He studied horn at the University of She has been on the faculty at the University of Iowa since 1983. Her clarinet teachers include Wisconsin-Madison with John Barrows and Doug Hill and finished his studies with Dr. Glenn Bowen, D. Stanley Hasty, Fred Ormand, and Dr. Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr. Adriaan van Woudenberg in Amsterdam, Holland. His first professional engagement was at the National Theater in Mannheim, Germany from 1979-1982. In 1982, William Hoyt is a recently retired Professor of Horn at the University of Akron. He he was granted the second horn position in the Guerzenich Orchestra of Cologne, is also Music Director of the Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival. He performs Germany, where he played until 2006. Almeida held a teaching position at the Musik Hochschuler regularly with the Paragon Brass Quintet, the Solaris Quintet, the Jazz Unit and the Aachen, Germany from 1991-2000. He has also been a longstanding member of the NFB Horn Quartet Cleveland Pops Orchestra. He has also performed with the Akron Symphony, the with whom he has recorded several CDs for Crystal Records. Canton Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra. His primary teachers have been In 2006, he relocated to rural Wisconsin where he is currently busy as a freelance horn player and John Barrows, Barry Tuckwell, and Paul Ingraham. continues to teach horn privately. Simultaneously, he has become a certified medical interpreter and Mr. Hoyt was the winner of the coveted Concert Artists Guild award and as a result performed a also raises beef cattle. debut recital in Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City. Mr. Joseph Horowitz of the New York Times reviewed the recital and declared Mr. Hoyt, “clearly a poised, sensitive horn player.” Henning Backhaus is a German composer and music producer, who began his career back Mr. Hoyt can be heard with the NFB Horn Quartet on Crystal Records and GM Recordings, with the in the 1980s. His studio studies began in 1979 at the University in Karlsruhe, where Solaris Quintet on Capstone Records, and with the Jazz Unit on the Go Bop label. he learned to work with analogue tape recordings, splicing, mixing and mastering. Today working as a freelancer, his knowledge in the digital audio world has expanded greatly. His favorite activity is producing music for film, media, songs and instrumental CD projects at Blue Planet Studios in Bavaria Germany, where he founded his own label in 1995. He uses modern audio computers for DAW recordings, for which he offers audio engineering, including mix and mastering orders and audio restoration processes. NFB Horn Quartet l to r: Charles Tibbetts, Vincent l to r: Bill Hoyt, Ricardo Almeida, Fuh, Maurita Murphy Marx David Kappy, Charles Tibbetts

l to r: Charles Tibbetts, Vincent Fuh, Mike Forbes Four Suites Charles Tibbetts & Friends Play Alec Wilder Alec Wilder

Suite No. 1 for Horn, Tuba and Piano Suite No. 2 for Horn, Tuba and Piano 1 I. Energetic [2:05] 10 I. Allegro pesante [2:22] 2 II. Elegy [3:27] 11 II. Espressive e dolce [3:33] 3 III. Relaxed [3:05] 12 III. Jazz Style [2:34] 4 IV. Berceuse [4:02] 13 IV. Air [3:52] 5 V. Finale [1:47] 14 V. Firm and swinging [1:54] Charles Tibbetts, horn Charles Tibbetts, horn Michael Forbes, tuba Michael Forbes, tuba Vincent Fuh, piano Vincent Fuh, piano TROY1520

Suite for Clarinet, Horn and Piano Jazz Suite for Four Horns, 6 I. [2:40] Harpsichord, Guitar, Bass and Drums 7 II. [3:31] 15 Horns O’ Plenty [2:22] 8 III. [3:40] 16 Conversation Piece [3:00] 9 IV. [3:22] 17 Serenade [2:40] Maurita Murphy Marx, clarinet 18 Horn Belt Boogie [2:30] TROY1520 Charles Tibbetts, horn Charles Tibbetts | William Hoyt | Vincent Fuh, piano David Kappy | Ricardo Almeida, horns Vincent Fuh, harpsichord Henning Backhaus, guitar, bass & drums

total time = [52:34]