Beginnings and Endings- GT Concert Band and Symphonic Band- April 13, 2014

Concert Band

Chorale and Alleluia- Howard Hanson (1896-1981)

Chorale and Alleluia was completed in January 1954, and was Dr. Hanson's first work for symphonic band. It was given its premiere on February 26 at the convention of the American Bandmasters Association at West Point with Colonel William Santelmann, leader of the U.S. Marine Band, conducting. The composition opens with a fine flowing chorale. Soon the joyous Alleluia theme appears and is much in evidence throughout. A bold statement of a new melody makes its appearance in lower brasses in combination with the above themes. The effect is one of cathedral bells, religious exaltation, solemnity, and dignity. The music is impressive, straightforward, and pleasingly non- dissonant, and its resonance and sonority are ideally suited to the medium of the modern symphonic band.

Howard Hanson was one of the most important composers and music administrators of the 20th Century. In 1924, he began a 40-year career as Director of the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. It was during Hanson's tenure that Frederick Fennell founded the Eastman Symphonic Wind Ensemble. Hanson was the recipient of many awards for his compositions, including the 1944 Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No. 4.

Bloom- Steven Bryant (b. 1972)

Bloom is a celebration of springtime. The bright, sunny days, with nature in bloom all around, give me a powerful sense of well-being, simultaneously tranquil and exuberant. Bloom is my attempt to recreate that feeling.

Steven Bryant, the son of a professional trumpeter and music educator, composes music across a variety of media and ensembles, ranging from electronic and electro-acoustic works, to chamber music, to works for wind ensembles and orchestras. Steven strongly values music education, and his creative output includes a number of works for young and developing musicians.

Steven's music has been performed by numerous ensembles across North America, Europe, and East Asia. He is a three-time winner of the National Band Association's William D. Revelli Composition Award: in 2010 for Ecstatic Waters, in 2008 for Suite Dreams, and in 2007 for his work Radiant Joy. His first orchestral work, Loose Id for Orchestra, hailed by celebrated composer Samuel Adler as "orchestrated like a virtuoso," was premiered by The Juilliard Symphony and is featured on a CD release by the Bowling Green Philharmonia on Albany Records.Alchemy in Silent Spaces, a new large-scale work commissioned by James DePreist and The Juilliard School waspremiered by the Juilliard Orchestra in May 2006. Since its 2008 premiere, his seminal work for large ensemble and electronics Ecstatic Waters has become the most performed work of its kind in the world.

Other notable commissions have come from cellist Caroline Stinson (Lark Quartet), pianist Pamela Mia Paul (University of North Texas), the Amherst Saxophone Quartet (funded by the American Composers Jerome Composers Commissioning Program), the University of Texas - Austin Wind Ensemble, the US Air Force Band of Mid-America, the Japanese Wind Ensemble Conductors Conference, and the Calgary Stampede Band, as well as many others. Recordings include multiple releases by Eugene Corporon and the University of North Texas Wind Symphony, the Ron Hufstader and the El Paso Wind Symphony, William Berz and the Rutgers University Wind Ensemble, and Thomas Leslie and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Wind Orchestra. Steven has also created a recomposition of the Iggy Pop and the Stooges song, "Real Cool Time," for the independent Italian record label, Snowdonia, as well as music for portions of the Virtual Space Tour at space.com.

Steven is a founding member of the composer-consortium BCM International: four stylistically-diverse composers from across the country. BCM's music has generated a following of thousands around the world and two recordings: "BCM Saves the World" (2002, Mark Custom Records) and "BCM Men of Industry" (2004, BCM Records).

Steven studied composition with John Corigliano at The Juilliard School, Cindy McTee at the University of North Texas, and Francis McBeth at Ouachita University, trained for one summer in the mid-1980s as a breakdancer, and has a Bacon Number of 1. He resides in Durham, NC.

Gandalf from Symphony No. 1 “The Lord of the Rings”- Johan de Meij (b. 1953)

Johan de Meij’s first symphony “The Lord of the Rings” is based on the trilogy of that name by J.R.R. Tolkien. This book has fascinated many millions of readers since its publication in 1955. The symphony consists of five separate movements, each illustrating a personage or an important episode from the book. The movements are: I. GANDALF (The Wizard) II. II. LOTHLORIEN (The Elvenwood) III. III. GOLLUM (Sméagol) IV. IV. JOURNEY IN THE DARK a. The Mines of Moria b. The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm V. V. HOBBITS

The symphony was written in the period between March 1984 and December 1987, and had its première in Brussels on 15th March 1988, performed by the “Groot Harmonieorkest van de Gidsen” under the baton of Norbert Nozy. In 1989, The Symphony The Lord of the Rings was awarded a first prize in the Sudler International Wind Band Composition Competition in Chicago, and a year later, the symphony was awarded by the Dutch Composers Fund. In 2001, the orchestral version was premiered by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra.

I. GANDALF (The Wizard) The first movement is a musical portrait of the wizard Gandalf, one of the principal characters of the trilogy. His wise and noble personality is expressed by a stately motiff which is used in a different form in movements IV and V. The sudden opening of the Allegro vivace is indicative of the unpredictability of the grey wizard, followed by a wild ride on his beautiful horse “Shadowfax”.

Johan de Meij studied trombone and conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague. He has earned international fame as a composer and arranger. His catalogue consists of original compositions, symphonic transcriptions and arrangements of film scores and musicals. Besides composing and arranging, Johan de Meij is active as a performer, conductor, adjudicator and lecturer. As a trombone and euphonium player he has performed with the major orchestras and ensembles in The Netherlands, such as the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, the Dutch Brass Sextet, the Radio Chamber Orchestra, the Amsterdam Wind Orchestra and Orkest ‘De Volharding’. He has conducted some of the leading wind orchestras of Europe, Asia, North and South America and has led master classes around the world.

Symphonic Band

Tam O’Shanter Overture-Sir Malcolm Arnold (1921- 2006)

Sir Malcolm Henry was an English composer. He gained a reputation for composing light music, film scores, for theatre and ballet, and symphonies. Arnold began his career as a professional trumpet player, but by the age of 30, his life was devoted to composition. He was ranked with Benjamin Britten as one of the most sought-after composers in Britain. His natural melodic gift earned him a reputation as a composer of light music in works such as some of his concert overtures and the sets of Welsh, English, Scottish, Irish and Cornish Dances. He was also a highly successful composer of film music, penning the scores to over a hundred features and documentaries, including titles such as The Bridge on the River Kwai and Hobson's Choice. His nine symphonies are often deeply personal and show a more serious side to his work, which has proved more controversial. Arnold also wrote a variety of concertos and chamber works, as well as music for the theatre including major ballets. His brass music is widely acclaimed. Arnold was a relatively conservative composer of tonal works, but a prolific and popular one. He acknowledged Hector Berlioz as an influence, alongside Gustav Mahler, Béla Bartók and jazz. Several commentators have drawn a comparison with Jean Sibelius. Arnold's most significant works are generally considered to be his nine symphonies. He also wrote a number of concertos, including one for guitar for Julian Bream, one for cello for Julian Lloyd Webber, one for clarinet for Benny Goodman, one for harmonica for Larry Adler, and one – enthusiastically welcomed at its premiere during the 1969 Proms – for three hands on two pianos for the husband-and-wife team of Cyril Smith and Phyllis Sellick.

His sets of dances — comprising two sets of English Dances (Opp. 27 and 33), along with one set each of Scottish Dances (Op. 59), Cornish Dances (Op. 91), Irish Dances (Op. 126), and Welsh Dances (Op. 138) — are mainly in a lighter vein and are popular both in their original orchestral guise and in later wind and brass band arrangements. The English Dances also form the basis for Kenneth MacMillan's short ballet Solitaire, and one of them is used as the theme music for the British television program What the Papers Say (the Cornish Dances provide the theme music for the television programs of the cook Rick Stein). Arnold also wrote some highly successful concert overtures, including Beckus the Dandipratt (an important stepping stone in his early career), the strikingly scored Tam o' Shanter (based on the famous Robert Burns poem), the rollicking A Grand Grand Festival Overture (written for a Hoffnung Festival and featuring three vacuum cleaners and a floor polisher, all in turn polished off by a firing squad in uproarious mock 1812 manner), and the dramatic Peterloo Overture (commissioned by the Trades Union Congress to commemorate the historic massacre of protesting workers in Manchester). Another popular short work is his Divertimento for Flute, Oboe and Clarinet (Op. 37). Arnold is also known for his relatively large number of compositions and arrangements of his own compositions for brass band. Tam O’Shanter Overture Opus 51 (1955) is a piece of program music based on the famous poem by Robert Burns. The work was first performed at the BBC Proms on August 17, 1955, with the composer conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It is dedicated to John Michael Diack, director of Arnold’s publishing company, Paterson Sons & Co.

Irish Tune from County Derry and Shepherd’s Hey- Percy Grainger (1882-1961) Percy Aldridge Grainger was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many adaptations of other composers' works. Although much of his work was experimental and unusual, the piece with which he is most generally associated is his piano arrangement of the folk-dance tune "Country Gardens". Grainger left Australia at the age of 13 to attend the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. Between 1901 and 1914 he was based in London, where he established himself first as a society pianist and later as a concert performer, composer and collector of original folk melodies. As his reputation grew he met many of the significant figures in European music, forming important friendships with Frederick Delius and Edvard Grieg. He became a champion of Nordic music and culture, his enthusiasm for which he often expressed in private letters. In 1914, Grainger moved to the United States, where he lived for the rest of his life, though he travelled widely in Europe and in Australia. He served briefly as a bandsman in the US Army during 1917–18, and took US citizenship in 1918. After his mother's suicide in 1922 he became increasingly involved in educational work. He also experimented with music machines that he hoped would supersede human interpretation. In the 1930s he set up the Grainger Museum in Melbourne, his birthplace, as a monument to his life and works and as a future research archive. As he grew older he continued to give concerts and to revise and rearrange his own compositions, while writing little new music. After the Second World War, ill health reduced his levels of activity, and he considered his career a failure. He gave his last concert in 1960, less than a year before his death. Irish Tune from County Derry (1918) has stood the test of time for a number of reasons: colorful sonorities, straightforward accessibility, and a memorable climax. It is also a versatile piece, playable by younger bands and mature players, symphonic bands and wind ensembles. It can balance a heavier work on a concert program, or it can be a thoughtful closing piece just before intermission. The broad appeal of this piece will undoubtedly assure its position atop the wind band repertoire for years to come. Of the piece, Grainger wrote: For the following beautiful air I have to express my very grateful acknowledgement to Miss J. Ross, of New Town, Limavady, in the County of Londonderry--a lady who has made a large collection of the popular unpublished melodies of the county, which she has very kindly placed at my disposal, and which has added very considerably to the stock of tunes which I had previously acquired from that still very Irish county. I say still very Irish, for though it has been planted for more than two centuries by English and Scottish settlers, the old Irish race still forms the great majority of its peasant inhabitants; and there are few, if any counties in which, with less foreign admixture, the ancient melodies of the country have been so extensively preserved. The name of the tune unfortunately was not ascertained by Miss Ross, who sent it to me with the simple remark that it was 'very old', in the correctness of which statement I have no hesitation in expressing my perfect concurrence."

Grainger made several different settings of Shepherd’s Hey (1918), which is based on a folk tune collected by the British folk song expert, Cecil Sharp. The first setting, for “room-music 12-some” (Grainger’s phrase for chamber ensemble) first appeared in 1909. The band version came in 1918. This coincides with the end of Grainger’s stint in the US Military, which appears to have been instrumental in sparking his interest in band music. The tune itself is a Morris dance, a centuries-old tradition of fluid, group dancing from England. Still, Grainger insists on his 1913 piano solo score that “This setting is not suitable to dance Morris dances to.”

Red Cape Tango (1999)- Michael Daugherty (b. 1954) Michael Kevin Daugherty (b. 1954) is an American composer, pianist, and teacher. He is influenced by popular culture, Romanticism, and Postmodernism, and is one of the most widely performed American concert music composers of his generation. Daugherty's notable works include his Superman comic book-inspired Metropolis Symphony for Orchestra (1988–93), Dead Elvis for Solo Bassoon and Chamber Ensemble (1993), Jackie O (1997), Niagara Falls for Symphonic Band (1997), UFO for Solo Percussion and Orchestra (1999) and for Symphonic Band (2000), Bells for Stokowski from Philadelphia Stories for Orchestra (2001) and for Symphonic Band (2002), Fire and Blood for Solo Violin and Orchestra (2003) inspired by Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, Time Machine for Three Conductors and Orchestra (2003), Ghost Ranch for Orchestra (2005), and Deus ex Machina for Piano and Orchestra (2007). Daugherty has been described by The Times (London) as "a master icon maker" with a "maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear." Currently, Daugherty is Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Since 2003, his music has been published by Boosey & Hawkes. Red Cape Tango is the fifth movement of Michael Daugherty’s Metropolis Symphony, dedicated to David Zinman and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. As the title implies, the work is based around the Superman mythology, each movement taking the character of someone or something related to the Superman comics. Red Cape Tango was composed after Superman was “killed off” in the comic book series, the result of a fight with the super villain, Doomsday. The principal melody, first heard in the bassoon, is taken from the Latin hymn, Dies Irae (literally, “day of wrath”). This hymn has often been paired in music with connotations of death or loss. This hymn of death is transformed into a tango, complete with castanets, finger cymbals, and string bass. The ensemble alternates between the legato and staccato sections to suggest a music bullfight. This transcription was crafted by Mark Spede, Director of Bands at Clemson University.