KSU Wind Ensemble with Kell High School Wind Ensemble
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KENNESAW STATE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MUSIC KSU Wind Ensemble David Kehler, Conductor with Kell High School Wind Ensemble David Roth and Taylor Watts, Conductors Thursday, April 19, 2018 at 8 pm Dr. Bobbie Bailey & Family Performance Center, Morgan Hall One-hundred Eighteenth Concert of the 2017-18 Concert Season program KELL HS David Roth, Taylor Watts, Conductors Wind Ensemble ANDREW BOYSEN, Jr. (b. 1968) Kirkpatrick Fanfare (1999) Taylor Watts, conductor GUSTAV HOLST (1874–1934) First Suite in E-flat, opus 28, No. 1 (1909) I. Chaconne II. Intermezzo III. March David Roth, conductor DAVID MASLANKA (1946–2017) Give Us This Day (Short Symphony) (2005) I. Moderately slow II. Very fast BRIEF INTERMISSION KSU David T. Kehler, Conductor Wind Ensemble STEPHEN MONTAGUE (b. 1943) Intrada 1631 (2003) MORTEN LAURIDSEN (b. 1943) O Magnum Mysterium (1994), trans. Reynolds PERCY ALDRIDGE GRAINGER (1882–1961) Lincolnshire Posy (1937), edited Fennell (1984) I. Lisbon II. Harkstow Grange III. Rufford Park Poachers IV. The Brisk Young Sailor V. Lord Melbourne VI. The Lost Lady Found AFTER BRIEF INTERMISSION Combined Bands JOSEPH WILCOX JENKINS (1928–2014) American Overture for Band (1954) program notes Kirkpatrick Fanfare | Andrew Boysen Andrew Boysen, Jr. is presently a full professor in the music department at the University of New Hampshire, where he conducts the wind symphony and teaches conducting, composition and orchestration. Boysen earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in wind conducting at the Eastman School of Music, where he served as conductor of the Eastman Wind Orchestra and assistant conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble. He received his Master of Music degree in wind conducting from Northwestern University in 1993 and his Bachelor of Music degree in music education and music composition from the University of Iowa in 1991. The composer writes: Kirkpatrick Fanfare was commissioned by Central Missouri State University for the dedication of the James C. Kirkpatrick Library in March 1999. This work has a definite Irish flavor, including a strain of Danny Boy. The "fanfare" features driving rhythms and exciting brass figures, making this dramatic work sure to please both performers and audiences alike. First Suite in E-flat| Gustav Holst Gustav Holst learned piano at an early age, but was stricken with a nerve condition that affected the movement of his right hand, forcing him to give up the piano for the trombone. He received his degrees from The Royal College of Music in London, where he met fellow composer (and lifelong friend) Ralph Vaughan Williams and became interested in Hindu mysticism and spirituality, interests that would later shape the course of his compositional output. First Suite in E-flat occupies a legendary position in the wind band repertory and can be seen, in retrospect, as one of the earliest examples of the modern wind band instrumentation still frequently performed today. Its influence is so significant that several composers have made quotation or allusion to it as a source of inspiration to their own works. Holst began his work with Chaconne, a traditional Baroque form that sets a series of variations over a ground bass theme. That eight-measure theme is stated at the outset in tubas and euphoniums and, in all, fifteen variations are presented in quick succession. The three pitches that begin the work -- E-flat, F, and B-flat, ascending -- serve as the generating cell for the entire work, as the primary theme of each movement begins in exactly the same manner. Classical Jazz The Intermezzo, which follows, is a quirky rhythmic frenzy that contrasts everything that has preceded it. This movement opens in C minor, and starts and stops with abrupt transitions throughout its primary theme group. The contrasting midsection is introduced with a mournful melody, stated in F Dorian by the clarinet before being taken up by much of the ensemble. At the movement's conclusion, the two sections are woven together, the motives laid together in complementary fashion in an optimistic C Major. The March that follows immediately begins shockingly, with a furious trill in the woodwinds articulated by aggressive statements by brass and percussion. This sets up the lighthearted and humorous mood for the final movement, which eventually does take up the more reserved and traditional regal mood of a British march and is simply interrupted from time to time by an uncouth accent or thunderous bass drum note. The coda of the work makes brief mention of elements from both the Chaconne and Intermezzo before closing joyfully. Give Us This Day | David Maslanka Dr. Maslanka attended the Oberlin College Conservatory where he studied composition with Joseph Wood, and spent a year at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. He also did graduate work in composition at Michigan State University with H. Owen Reed. David Maslanka served on the faculties of the State University of New York at Geneseo, Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, and Kingsborough College of the City University of New York. The composer writes: The words "give us this day" are, of course, from the Lord's Prayer, but the inspiration for this music is Buddhist. I have recently read a book by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh (pronounced "Tick Not Hahn") entitled For a Future to be Possible. His premise is that a future for the planet is only possible if individuals become deeply mindful of themselves, deeply connected to who they really are. While this is not a new idea, and something that is an ongoing struggle for everyone, in my estimation it is *the* issue for world peace. For me, writing music, and working with people to perform music, are two of those points of deep mindfulness. Music allows us to be immediately present, awake, and aware. Give Us This Day...Give us this very moment of aware aliveness so that we can build a future in the face of a most dangerous and difficult time. I chose the subtitle Short Symphony for Wind Ensemble because the music really isn't programmatic in nature. It has a full-blown symphonic character, even though there are only two movements. The music of the slower first movement is deeply searching, while that of the highly energized second movement is at times both joyful and sternly sober. The piece ends with a modal setting of the chorale melody Vater Unser in Himmelreich (Our Father in Heaven), #110 from the 371 Four-Part Chorales by J. S. Bach. Intrada 1631 (after Juan Perez Bocanegra) | Stephen Montague After studying piano, conducting and composition at Florida State University, B.M. 1965 with Honors, M.M. 1967, Montague received a Doctor of Musical Arts in composition from Ohio State University in 1972. He did additional study in conducting at the Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria, 1966, computer music at IRCAM, Paris, 1981, and at Stanford University, California, 1984. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship/Polish Cultural Grant to work at the Experimental Music Studio of Polish Radio, Warsaw, Poland, 1972 –74. Since 1974, Montague has lived in London working as a freelance composer, pianist, and conductor touring worldwide. Major commissions include London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Proms, London's Southbank and Barbican Centres, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Warsaw Autumn Festival, Paris, Singapore, and Hong Kong festivals. Conducting work has included the London Sinfonietta, City of London Sinfonia, Danish Chamber Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony and many others. Intrada 1631 was inspired by a concert of early South American liturgical music directed by Jeffery Skidmore at the Dartington International Summer Music School in the summer of 2001. One of the most moving and memorable works in the program was a Hanacpachap cussicuinin, a 17th century Catholic liturgical chant written in Quechua, the native language of the Incas. The music was composed by a Franciscan missionary priest called Juan Pérez Bocanegra who lived and worked in Cuzco (Peru), a small village east of Lima in the Jauja Valley, during the early 17th century. Intrada 1631 uses Bocanegra's 20-bar hymn as the basis for an expanded processional scored for the modern forces of a symphonic brass choir with field drums. O Magnum Mysterium | Morten Lauridsen Morten Lauiridsen is a long-time professor of Composition at the University of Southern California (USC) Thornton School of Music,and served as chairman of its Composition Department between 1990 and 2002. In 2006, Morten Lauridsen was named an "American Choral Master" by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2007, he was the recipient of the National Medal of Arts from the President in a White House ceremony, "for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide." The National Medal of Arts is the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States government. The composer writes: For centuries, composers have been inspired by the beautiful O Magnum Mysterium text with its depiction of the birth of the newborn king amongst 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. O magnum mysterium 0 great mystery, et admirabile sacramentum and wondrous sacrament ut animalia viderent Dominum that animals should see the new- natum jacetum in praesepio! born Lord, lying in their manger! Beata Virgo, cujus viscera Blessed is the Virgin whose womb meruerunt portare was worthy to bear the Dominum Christum. Alleluia! Lord Jesus Christ. Alleluia! Lincolnshire Posy | Percy Aldridge Grainger Percy Grainger was an innovative musician who anticipated many forms of twentieth century music well before they became established by other composers. As early as 1899 he was working with "beatless music," using metric successions (including such sequences as 2/4, 2½/4, 3/4, 2 ½ /4).