SFCM Wind Ensemble

Brad Hogarth’12 conductor

Saturday, February 13th, 2021 7:30 PM PST

Program

Octet Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) I. Sinfonia (Lento – Allegro moderato) II. Tema con variazioni (Andantino) III. Finale

Octet Anna Meredith *US premiere (b. 1978)

Dream Elegy Jonathan Bailey Holland (b. 1974) *World premiere of arrangement for chamber ensemble

Serenade for Wind Instruments Antonín Dvořák arr. Anne Dich for nonet (1841-1904) I. Moderato quasi marcia II.Tempo di minuet III. Andante con moto. Allegro molto IV. Allegro molto

SFCM Wind Ensemble

Stravinsky: Octet Elissa Brown, Ivan Ferguson, Shelby Capozzoli, Jamael Smith*, Michail Thompson, Karlee Wood, Chase Waterbury, Jeremy Mojado, trombones

Meredith: Octet Jolie Fitch, flute Jake Byers, clarinet Shelby Capozzoli, Jamael Smith*, bassoons Michail Thompson, Scott Macomber*, trumpets Carlos Reyes, Jeremy Mojado, trombones

Holland: Dream Elegy Jolie Fitch, flute/piccolo Quinton Smith, /english horn Eugenia Coe, clarinet Tian Qin, bass clarinet Davis Hampton, contrabass clarinet Shelby Capozzoli, Adolfo Pena, Ben Engelmann, horns Karlee Wood, Scott Macomber*, trumpets Ned Harlan, Jeremy Mojado, trombones SFCM Wind Ensemble

Dvorak: Serenade Jolie Fitch, flute Jini Baik, oboe Eugenia Coe, Tian Qin, Davis Hampton, bass clarinet Shelby Capozzoli, Jamael Smith*, bassoons Ben Engelmann, Adolfo Pena, horns

*indicated guest artist Personnel

Hank Mou Associate Dean of Artistic Operations

Bryan Lin Manager of Ensemble Operations

Sydney Apel Assistant Ensembles Manager and Librarian

Jason O’Connell Director of Recording Services

Kelley Coyne Assistant Director of Recording Services

Chris Ramos Director of Concert Operations

John Jaworski Director of Production Services

Andrew Ross Concert Operations Manager

Julian Bennett, Connie Song Ensemble Student Assistant Managers

Elisabeth Bruckner, Daniel Hallett, James Nelson Ensemble Library Assistants Program Notes

Igor Stravinsky Born: June 5, 1882; Oranienbaum, Russia Died: April 6, 1971; New York, New York Octet (1923, rev. 1952)

According to Stravinsky, the Octet is “not an ‘emotive’ work, but a musical composition based on objective elements that are sufficient in themselves.” The conducted the 1923 premiere himself to ensure that no unwanted interpretation was imposed on the work. In the audience of this performance was a young Aaron Copland, who expressed a feeling of “mystification” about the piece, wondering why Stravinsky would abandon his popular, avant-garde Russian style--seen in works like The Rite of Spring--for a “mess of 18th-century mannerisms.” In retrospect, Copland admitted that Stravinsky was actually bringing forward a prominent new category of music called neoclassicism. Although Stravinsky himself hated the term and believed it was meaningless, most scholars agree that the Octet was the first major work to truly embody the ideals of this style. Born out of a rejection of modernity and romanticism after the devastation caused by World War I, neoclassical works drew inspiration from eighteenth century forms and traditions, valuing simplicity, clarity, and restraint, while still maintaining twentieth century melodic and harmonic language. The piece is scored for flute, clarinet, two bassoons, two trumpets, and two trombones, differing from traditional eighteenth century wind octets, which include and horns rather than flute and brass. Stravinsky chose to compose this piece for wind instruments because he felt they were “more apt to render a certain rigidity of the form [he] had in mind,” unlike string instruments, which were “less cold.” In his mind, the most important element of this work was form, which must be respected and kept intact at all costs, or the work would be destroyed. Program Notes Continued Each movement follows a Classical period form. The first movement reflects Stravinsky’s “rediscovery” of sonata form. As in typical classical sonatas, the piece starts with a slow introduction that moves into a faster exposition. However, Stravinsky steps outside tradition by relating the two major themes by a half-step, rather than a perfect fifth. The highly chromatic development then leads into a varied but clear recapitulation. The second movement, the longest and most complex, is a theme and variations. Like in the previous movement, Stravinsky takes a modern approach to this form by making each variation distinct in character. Variation A also reappears several times throughout the movement, which contains what Stravinsky referred to as “ribbons of scales,” where the entire ensemble engages in a frenzy of quick-moving notes. Several of the variations are whimsical and humorous, but the movement ends solemnly with a fugue inspired by Bach’s two-part inventions. A flute cadenza ties the second and third movements together with no break. The finale is in the form of a five part rondo with a coda, with the thematic material from this movementj derived from previous movements and pairs different groups of instruments together in the presentation of another fugue. The coda unexpectedly incorporates some rhythms that evoke jazz and Latin music, reminding us in the end that this is still a modern and progressive piece of music. Elissa Brown, PSD, ‘21

Program Notes Continued

Anna Meredith Born: January 12, 1978; Tufnell Park, England Octet Anna Meredith’s music defies stylistic boundaries, touching every point on the musical spectrum—contemporary classical, art pop, techno, experimental rock, and film scores to name a few. This fluidity stems from her unique relationship with music. After spending a day with the composer, Sam Walton realized that to her, music is about the “light-headed giddiness” she gets when playing and creating. “When I’m writing,” she said, “I can physically tell if the material’s good because I feel it very clearly in my hands.” This creates a compositional process that is very intuitive and experimental by nature and, therefore, allows for a lot of freedom. Rather than framing ideas within a set musical language, Meredith lets the ideas determine the language needed to communicate them. Such is the case with her Octet. The piece was originally commissioned by Sinfonia ViVa to pair with Stravinsky’s Octet, also included on this program. Her composition not only uses the same instrumentation as Stravinsky’s, but also acts as a musical response to the groundbreaking neoclassical work. Meredith took three of her favorite parts of the Stravinsky—his opening, his sudden leaps, and his closing—and used them as jumping-off points in order to build her work. That being said, Meredith’s piece is not neoclassical, but rather post-minimalist in nature. Meredith’s Octet opens similarly to the Stravinsky with a B-flat in the first followed by short woodwind gestures. Meredith then takes this first cell and begins to repeat and develop it slowly. Soon, the main melody of the piece appears above the complex counterpoint in the flute and the second trumpet. This continues to develop until the melody drops out and the focus shifts to the clarinet, playing a very pointillistic line. This highlights Meredith’s adoption of Stravinsky’s sudden leaps. Throughout his Octet, Program Notes Continued

Stravinsky frequently would have instruments float between a handful of pitches via stepwise motion before leaping up high for a single note and coming back down. This isn’t the first place where Meredith uses this technique in the work—and it is far from the last—but it is the first place where it takes center stage. After a short pause, the work transitions into its B section. Three patterns make up the texture in the B section: the trombones on a short, two note motif, clarinet and bassoons in rhythmic unison on highly syncopated interjections, and flute and trumpets on longer, static lines. This texture slowly develops until all of the instruments die out, leaving only the flute to vault the piece into the final A section.

The final A section starts with the flute, clarinet, and first trumpet playing fast, rhythmic lines on two or three notes. Soon after, the melody comes back, this time played by the second trumpet with Harmon mute (giving the instrument a cool, soft, metallic buzz) and trombone. The timbre created by these two instruments gives a lonely, hollow tone to the piece, like looking at a foggy landscape at dusk. This is further compounded by the lush chords that appear at the end of the work, which recall the sudden appearance of similar chords at the end of the Stravinsky octet. Finally, all of the instruments drop out, leaving the flute to close the piece.

Jonathan Bailey Holland Born: February 27, 1974; Flint, Michigan Dream Elegy

While disportionate police brutality towards people of color--especially Black Americans--has been a systemic issue throughout American history, in 2014 it came to a head with the killing of Eric Gardner and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. In the midst of these horrific tragedies, composer Jonathan Bailey Holland found himself without words, and thus turned to music. Program Notes Continued

The result is his only wind ensemble piece, Dream Elegy. This extremely emotional work is crafted as a passacaglia, with one melody repeated in different harmonies throughout the piece. However, what makes this piece stand out is the way that segments of the melody constantly hop between different instruments in the ensemble. This technique starts with the in the first measure, jumping down an octave and continuing with the clarinet. The trombones then take over the melody before tossing it to the trumpets a measure later and the flutes with oboe a measure after that. Altogether, this creates one full melody combined pointillistically by many different instruments. This technique, called Klangfarbenmelodie (or “color-only melody”), not only gives the piece an enormous amount of color but, moreover, creates the emotional throughline of the work: different people separately begging for peace before all joining together into a larger movement.

The first section of the piece consists of all of the different instruments contributing on their own to the same unified message (the Klangfarbenmelodie). Over time, they slowly begin to join together, not only growing in size and volume but in complexity as well, with different countermelodies being added in the flutes above the ensemble. This builds to the first climax of the piece, as all the instruments join on a giant, cool yet inviting D minor7 add 11 chord (built D-F-G-A-C). Emotionally, this represents everyone affected by police brutality coming together to beg for peace —a message which resonates even stronger now than it did when the piece was originally written in 2016. After this first climax, the piece transitions into a short section in which the main motive is developed slightly before the original returns. The piece builds one more time to a final climax, restating the same message from before with even stronger emotions, and then fades away into a single solemn flute.

Terrence Martin MM’21

Program Notes Continued Antonin Dvořák Born: September 8, 1841; Nelahozeves, near Prague Died: May 1, 1904; Prague

Serenade for Wind Instruments, Op. 44 (1878) Antonin Dvořák’s beginnings were rather ordinary, if not inauspicious. The son of a butcher and one of eight siblings, his rise to the ranks of the great European was nothing short of extraordinary. Scraping together a living teaching music lessons and playing in local , he composed by night and in his spare time. In an effort to get more financial support for his growing family, he sought funding through an artist stipendium from the Austrian Imperial government, which ruled his Bohemian homeland in this era. The stipendium committee saw his potential and over the years he received 5 of these grants. As Dvořák’s popularity grew across Europe, he battled anti-Czech sentiment, with his publisher urging him to include German translations and abbreviate his first name as “Ant.,”which could be interpreted as the German ‘Anton’ just as easily as the Czech ‘Antonín’. However tempting it may have been to leave behind his Czech roots publicly, Dvořák’s music never does so. If anything, the Serenade for Winds showcases these roots. The Serenade was mainly a German-Austrian historical genre, and Opus 44 certainly preserves much of that heritage; yet it was also highly adaptable, making it quite amenable to Dvořáks unique influence. His Czech take on this form is peppered with folk dances and idiomatic rhythmic features. As an almost tongue-in-cheek reference to the marches that prelude Mozart’s serenades, the first movement is a quasi marcia with dotted rhythms and a bass-heavy foundation that suggests the grandeur and distinction of a military parade. However, the ensemble of mostly wind instruments lacks the brassy timbre of a military band and its sombre D minor suggests something almost foreign. The second movement, labeled as a minuetto, features two Czech dances including a traditional couple’s dance called a Program Notes Continued sousedská. The twin clarinets twirl around each other in tandem before alighting into a lively furiant: a vivacious dance with alternating rhythms. The third movement (andante con moto) bears the harmonic and lyrical weight of a symphonic movement with long, complex phrases and rich harmonies. The last movement begins with a polka-like theme that drifts into contrasting material between appearances before building to an exultant horn volley and triumphant end. The work is full of youthful invention, illustrates the breadth of Dvořák’s compositional style and captures his genuine playfulness and excitement. As Brahms said of the piece in 1879, “It would be difficult to discover a finer, more refreshing impression of really abundant and charming creative talent.” Christian Hales MM ‘21