David Maslanka's Compositional Process Examined Through Correspondence with Conductor and Collaborator Gary Green

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UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

DAVID MASLANKA’S COMPOSITIONAL PROCESS EXAMINED THROUGH CORRESPONDENCE WITH CONDUCTOR AND COLLABORATOR GARY GREEN

Christina DiMeglio Vafiadis

A DOCTORAL ESSAY

Submitted to the Faculty of the University of Miami in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts

Coral Gables, Florida

May 2021

UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

A doctoral essay submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts

DAVID MASLANKA’S COMPOSITIONAL PROCESS EXAMINED THROUGH CORRESPONDENCE WITH CONDUCTOR AND COLLABORATOR GARY GREEN

Christina DiMeglio Vafiadis

Approved:

______Robert Carnochan, D.M.A Laura Sherman, D.M.A. Director of Wind Ensemble Activities Lecturer of Harp and Music Theory Professor of Instrumental Performance

______J. Steven Moore, D.M.A. Guillermo Prado, Ph.D. Professor in Practice Dean of the Graduate School

______Melvin Butler, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Musicology

VAFIADIS, CHRISTINA DIMEGLIO (D.M.A., Instrumental Performance) (May 2021)

David Maslanka’s Compositional Process Examined Through Correspondence with Conductor and Collaborator Gary Green

Abstract of a doctoral essay at the University of Miami.

Doctoral essay supervised by Professor Robert Carnochan No. of pages in text. (204)

Composer David Maslanka first met Gary Green in 1987. While working as

Director of Bands at the University of Connecticut, Gary Green programmed David

Maslanka’s A Child’s Garden of Dreams, and through a series of connections welcomed the composer to campus for rehearsals and a performance of this groundbreaking piece. A lifelong friendship was initiated, in conjunction with a professional relationship that involved commissioned works and various other collaborations.

For decades, Green and Maslanka communicated via letters, emails, and phone calls, and mailed score sketches, drafts, and personal effects to each other, establishing a personal and professional relationship that was greatly impactful to both men and the music they wrote and conducted. Luckily, much of this written communication is still intact, and the memories of their friendship and collaborations live on in Gary Green.

David Maslanka passed away in 2017. While his music was composed relatively recently, his works for wind ensemble are groundbreaking and monumental. His music is creatively crafted, emotionally driven, and intensely powerful, and his works are significant in their depth and artistic merit as well as in their contribution to the wind ensemble repertoire.

Conductors, as interpreters of musical compositions, strive to facilitate performances that accurately reflect the intentions of composers. Due to David

Maslanka’s recent passing, Gary Green’s firsthand knowledge of the composer and his music has become a valuable resource in helping Maslanka’s music to live on. More specifically, details regarding Maslanka’s meditative practices and compositional processes are revealed in personal communication between the two men which is examined throughout this document.

While some work on Maslanka’s music has already been documented, mostly in the form of music analysis, there is much left to explore. This study uses primary sources provided by Gary Green in the form of letters, emails, score sketches, concert discussions, and recorded rehearsals, as well as interviews that the writer conducted with

Gary Green, to provide a reliable resource about Maslanka and his music for other conductors and musicians.

DEDICATION

To Professor Gary Green, with gratitude for your willingness to share your love for David Maslanka and his music. I am forever appreciative of your knowledge, wisdom, counsel, and commitment to preserving David Maslanka’s music and legacy.

iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Melvin Butler, Dr. Steven Moore, and

Dr. Laura Sherman for their support and insight while serving on my committee, and to my mentor and advisor Dr. Robert Carnochan for guiding me through every aspect of my doctoral studies. Your guidance and commitment to my musical growth have been invaluable to me and will stay with me forever.

I am especially grateful to Professor Gary Green, to whom this document is dedicated and without whom it would not be possible. Professor Green’s willingness to share his personal communications with David Maslanka was the catalyst for this project.

Thank you, as well, to Professor Arthur Chodoroff for exposing me to the music of David Maslanka as an undergraduate student at Temple University, to Dr. Matthew

Brunner for exemplifying what it means to be a student-centered band director and educator, to Dr. Greg Martin for your openness and guidance during my Masters degree studies at West Chester University, and to Dr. Andrew Yozviak for having greater confidence in me and foresight for my future than I had myself.

Finally, my most sincere thanks to my husband, Jonathan, for the sacrifices you made to enable me to complete this project and attain my doctoral degree. Your faith in me allowed me to pursue this dream, and I could not have possibly done this without your steadfast support.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Chapter

1 INTRODUCTION ...... 1 Justification ...... 1 Methodology ...... 2 Organization ...... 3 Review of Literature ...... 4

2 GARY GREEN’S FIRST EXPOSURE TO THE MUSIC OF DAVID MASLANKA ...... 8

3 A CHILD’S GARDEN OF DREAMS: DAVID MASLANKA’S FIRST VISIT TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT WITH GARY GREEN ...... 14 Rehearsal Process ...... 16

4 THE COMMISSIONING OF SYMPHONY NO. 3 ...... 21

5 MASLANKA’S MEDITATION PRACTICE AND COMPOSITIONAL PROCESS ...... 28 Meditation Instructions ...... 33 Journaling ...... 36 Gary Green’s Reluctance ...... 40 Gary Green’s Baton ...... 42 Discovery Through Meditation ...... 46 Voice of the Earth ...... 48 Programmatic Considerations ...... 50

6 MEDITATIVE INFLUENCE ...... 56 American Indian Heritage Revealed ...... 56 The Importance of Meditation ...... 59

7 SYMPHONY NO. 3 REFLECTIONS ...... 64 Letters Accompanying Each Movement of Symphony No. 3 ...... 64 Musical Implications Based on the Composer’s Reviews of Performances of Symphony No. 3 ...... 67 Tempo ...... 69 C Major Scale ...... 72 A Conductor’s Interpretation ...... 77 The Composer’s Presence ...... 80

8 THE LIFE OF SYMPHONY NO. 3 ...... 85 Conclusion ...... 94

REFERENCES ...... 97

APPENDICES ...... 100 A. INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS ...... 100 A1 Gary Green, interview by author, September 23, 2020 ...... 100 A2 Gary Green, interview by author, October 28, 2020 ...... 106 A3 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021 ...... 113 A4 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021 ...... 125 A5 Gary Green, interview by author, March 16, 2021 ...... 135

B. LETTERS – IMAGES AND TRANSCRIPTS ...... 137 B1 David Maslanka to Gary Green. August 15, 1990 ...... 137 B2 David Maslanka to Gary Green. March 18, 1991 ...... 141 B3 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 8, 1991 ...... 142 B4 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 15, 1991 ...... 145 B5 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 23, 1991 ...... 146 B6 David Maslanka to Gary Green. May 10, 1991 ...... 155 B7 David Maslanka to Gary Green. May 16, 1991 ...... 165 B8 David Maslanka to Gary Green. June 2, 1991 ...... 168 B9 David Maslanka to Gary Green. January 14, 1992 ...... 170 B10 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 17, 1992 ...... 173 B11 David Maslanka to Gary Green. January 12, 1993 ...... 182 B12 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 27, 1993 ...... 185 B13 David Maslanka to Gary Green. July 6, 2003 ...... 188 B14 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 22, 2014 ...... 191 B15 Kevin Salley to Gary Green. No date ...... 192

C. OTHER WRITTEN DOCUMENTS ...... 193 C1 David Maslanka, “Meditation Notes” typed for Gary Green, 1991 ...... 193 C2 University of Connecticut Research Foundation, Panel Deliberation, May 23, 1990...... 195 C3 David Maslanka, interview in possession of Gary Green, November 11, 2001 ...... 199 C4 Score Sketch of David Maslanka’s Symphony No. 3, Movement I ...... 201

D. SCORE INSCRIPTIONS ...... 202 D1 Title page of score to David Maslanka’s Hosannas – Inscription in the hand of David Maslanka ...... 202 D2 Title page of score to David Maslanka’s MASS – Inscription in the hand of David Maslanka ...... 203 D3 Title page of score to David Maslanka’s Symphony No. 8– Inscription in the hand of David Maslanka ...... 204

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

JUSTIFICATION

David Maslanka is a prolific and seminal composer of music for wind band.

Maslanka’s works are unique and innovative, and they are well-respected and frequently performed. While Maslanka’s works for winds were written within the past 40 years, several pieces, including A Child’s Garden of Dreams, Symphony No. 4, Give Us This

Day, Traveler, and others are frequently performed by major collegiate ensembles and have already become permanent fixtures of the wind band repertoire. Despite this, little work or writing has been done in evaluation of Maslanka and his compositions. The research that does exist is described in the following literature review.

Gary Green, former Director of Bands at the University of Connecticut and, subsequently, the University of Miami, and composer David Maslanka had a long and close friendship and professional relationship. Through correspondence as well as collaboration at rehearsals and performances, Green gained a knowledge of Maslanka and his music that few people were exposed to. Maslanka discussed his life, spiritual journey, meditative practices, and more with Green, and shared how these aspects of his life are deeply ingrained in and essential to his music.

While other scholars and conductors have completed analyses and interpretations of Maslanka’s compositions, the direct correspondence from Maslanka to Green, as well as Green’s intimate knowledge of Maslanka and his music, provides a unique perspective of David Maslanka, his compositional process, and his music.

1 2

This document does not include analysis of any of Maslanka’s works; however, through his own words and those of Gary Green, readers can gain insight into the life and compositional process of this composer in an effort to more accurately understand and interpret his music.

METHODOLOGY

At various times in late 2020 and early 2021, the writer met with Gary Green via online video communication to engage in recorded discussions related to his friendship and professional collaborations with David Maslanka. The discussions were centered on written correspondence from Maslanka to Green received over several decades in the late

20th century and early 21st century, as Green assisted the writer in relating the content to compositions, performances, and other events and people. The complete transcripts of these interviews are included as appendices to this document and have formed the basis of the discussion along with correspondence between Maslanka and Green in the form of letters, emails, and other documents. These documents have been transcribed and are included, in full, as appendices. Excerpts from these letters are included throughout the body of this essay.

Excerpts from letters, interviews, and other primary sources appear frequently throughout this work in the form of block quotes. The speaker or writer is designated at the start of each block quote and, for further clarification of the source of the quote, the speaker’s name is sometimes accompanied by an additional note. Explanations, descriptions, and expansions based on additional research completed throughout the

3 writing process are also included. Footnotes are used extensively to confirm the source of all quoted material.

ORGANIZATION

The second chapter of this essay documents Gary Green’s first exposure to

Maslanka’s music via a taped recording of A Child’s Garden of Dreams, as well as the monumental impact this experience had on his life and career.

Chapter three documents the first meeting of Green and Maslanka, which took place on the University of Connecticut campus during rehearsals and performance of A

Child’s Garden of Dreams, while offering musical considerations based on documented anecdotes from the rehearsal process.

Chapter four provides details about the commissioning of Maslanka’s Symphony

No. 3, including detailed accounts from Gary Green as well as panel reviews completed by the University of Connecticut Research Foundation.

Meditation, journaling, and musical details of Maslanka’s Symphony No. 3 serve as the focus of Chapter five and six of this document. Letters from David Maslanka to

Gary Green, as well as an insightful meditation journal, are included and evaluated in these chapters, which also offer important musical considerations for conductors.

Chapters seven and eight continue the discussion centered on Symphony No. 3, while offering broad implications revealed through Maslanka and Green’s communication via letters and interviews. Chapter seven includes musical details and preferences of the composer insinuated in his reviews of performances of his work. This

4 chapter, in particular, contributes to the understanding of how conductors might consider interpreting Maslanka’s music and bringing it to life.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The body of literature investigated during this study consisted mainly of David

Maslanka’s works for wind band, in addition to primary sources in the form of written correspondence between David Maslanka and Gary Green, as well as interviews with

Gary Green executed by the author. Previous studies that explore David Maslanka and his music, as well as Gary Green and his commissioning legacy, in the form of dissertations, theses, and articles, are also referenced. The writer relied heavily on interviews with

David Maslanka included as appendices in other dissertations, as Maslanka passed away in 2017, four years prior to the writing of this essay.

While several scholarly documents discuss David Maslanka and his work, there is much left to be explored. In order to complete the conversation throughout this essay, frequent references are made to dissertations by other scholars who had the opportunity to interview David Maslanka directly. The interview transcripts with Maslanka supplement the letters and interviews with Green that this writer has curated and assembled.

Dr. Brent Alston’s Doctoral Essay, published in 2004, includes a collaboration with Gary Green at the University of Miami. Alston examines the commissioning and composing of Symphony No. 3 and includes a musical analysis of the piece. Alston offers a biography of David Maslanka and an analysis of the Third Symphony, however his interviews with Maslanka and Green were most relevant to this project. The writer has

5 included her own analysis and consideration of interview transcripts and musical connections offered in Alston’s document. Alston references and quotes letters and other primary documents in his work, however this essay will provide the full letters and documents in the appendix, while discussing excerpts in greater detail within the body of the writing.

Similarly, interview transcripts provided in scholarly documents by Drs. Robert

Ambrose, Craig McKenzie, Lane Weaver, and Lauren Denney Wright are included in this work as they pertain to relevant subjects and contribute to the discussion. The writer is grateful for the preservation of Maslanka’s responses, as they contribute greatly to the conversation facilitated in this document.

Dr. Robert Ambrose provides a biography of Maslanka and information regarding his compositional process, personal influences and compositional style, and an overview of his works for wind band. The bulk of Ambrose’s work is dedicated to Maslanka’s

Second Symphony, though he also includes a transcript of an interview with David

Maslanka which was most applicable to this document.

Dr. Lauren Denney Wright’s Doctoral Essay includes a brief biography of David

Maslanka as well as a historical, compositional, and interpretive analysis of Maslanka’s

Give Us This Day; however, the aspect most meaningful to this essay is her interviews with both David Maslanka and Gary Green. Wright’s interviews supplemented those executed by the writer of this document. This essay includes a comprehensive account of

Green and Maslanka’s personal and professional relationship and collaboration, which is not as thoroughly investigated by Wright.

Craig McKenzie’s comprehensive work on the history of the band program at the

University of Miami includes the contributions of former University of Miami Director of

Bands, Gary Green, especially in relation to his commitment to cultivating new works by living composers, including David Maslanka. McKenzie interviewed Gary Green and included the transcripts in his essay.

In his Doctoral Essay, Douglas Phillips provides an archive list of commissions, premieres, and University of Miami Frost Wind Ensemble concert programs. He also includes a catalog of repertoire performed by the University of Miami band program.

Similar to this work, Phillips’ essay documents Gary Green’s thoughts and philosophies, specifically related to repertoire programming for the wind ensemble. Phillips’ Doctoral

Essay cites audio recordings of Green conducting Maslanka’s music, as well as critical reviews of these performances that provide insight into Green’s influence on

“encouraging significant literature for the wind ensemble.”

Composers on Composing for Band, Volume Two, edited by Mark Camphouse, includes a foreword by Gary Green as well as a chapter written by David Maslanka. In the foreword, Green provides insight into his own philosophies and practices referenced in this essay, including this statement: “It is my firm belief that we, as teacher- conductors, act simply as conduits through which the composer’s spirit (intent) flows.”

David Maslanka is one of the contributing composers to this volume, providing a brief autobiography as well as information on his creative process, approach to orchestration, notes to conductors, and more. This chapter assisted the writer in studying David

Maslanka, his compositional approach, and his thoughts on the composer-conductor relationship.

Barbara Harrison’s Visions of Glory: A History and a Memory of Jehovah’s

Witnesses recounts stories of children raised in the church of Jehovah’s Witnesses and remarks on the morality, spirituality, and cultural implications of the religion. In the chapter entitled “Waiting for the World to Die,” Harrison mentions David Maslanka and offers quotes from him regarding his childhood, his relationship to his mother, her religious and spiritual affiliations, and his struggle with the Jehovah’s Witness religion.

This brief section gives a glimpse into Maslanka’s early spiritual and religious journey and contributed to chapter five of this document.

CHAPTER 2:

GARY GREEN’S FIRST EXPOSURE TO THE MUSIC OF DAVID MASLANKA

It was A Child’s Garden of Dreams that caused me to feel the need to leave teaching high school after 20 years to go teach college…1 - Gary Green

Gary Green’s first encounter with the music of David Maslanka occurred while he was a high school band director in Spokane, Washington. Green’s tenure as a high school director was one fueled by passion and a love for educating, and he was reluctant to leave this position for any reason, including the opportunity to teach at one of the multiple colleges that made him offers. However, a thirst for learning more about the complexities of wind band compositions, along with an introduction to Maslanka’s music, changed that.

GREEN: I was a high school band director, and I really had no ambition to teach at the collegiate level, at all. Zero. I was very happy. I had auditioned for university jobs prior to the time I went to Connecticut, and I was offered two or three of them but I [didn’t want to leave my high school position]. I just felt like my high school band was good and I was enjoying my life. College was kind of intriguing, but it wasn’t necessary. I didn’t feel like it was something that I really wanted to do, until, with my high school band, I programmed Sinfonietta by Ingolf Dahl. The Sinfonietta allows the ensemble to be clear in every turn of the score. The melody, and the form, and the scope of the piece are above most compositions, if not all.2

Green’s band at University High School had a demanding repertoire, playing pieces like

Grainger’s Lincolnshire Posy, Reed’s La Fiesta Mexicana, and Hindemith’s Symphony

1 Green, interview, October 28, 2020, and Gary Green, interview by author, March 16, 2021.

2 Gary Green, interview by author, October 28, 2020.

8 9 in B-flat, but the Dahl Sinfonietta was a new challenge. Green felt that this piece was too complex even for him to understand. His band struggled with the texture, and their common practices to solve technique and balance issues were not sufficient for this piece.

A turning point for Green occurred when, during a three-hour evening rehearsal, he was so involved in trying to discover Dahl’s intentions that he accidentally held his students until 11pm - two hours after the rehearsal was scheduled to end.

GREEN: I was horrified. What had happened was I had lost them. I was so deep into trying to understand what Ingolf Dahl was saying that I had forgotten that there were people doing that. The kids came in the next day and I said no music, no rehearsal, everybody sit on the floor. I sat in the middle and groveled for an hour, apologizing, because I did love them. But I knew then that there was something inside of me that was trying to get out. I didn’t know what it was, but I’ve always been drawn to the edge. The closer I get to the unknown the more interesting and exciting it becomes. The more engaging it becomes.”3 About that time, a friend of mine - Bill Hochkeppel - who was the band director at Eastern Washington University, and his wife invited me and a couple other band directors over and we were [chatting and listening to music]. He put on a recording of Maslanka’s A Child’s Garden of Dreams. Bill was a graduate of Northwestern University, so he had access to a dub of the premiere recording with John Paynter. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know what was going on inside of me. Something happened inside of me that struck me deeply. I had never heard sounds like that and I didn’t even know what instruments they were. But I was drawn to it. It was like a magnet. It wasn’t ever going to let me go.4

Upon hearing this recording, Green was finally convinced that, intellectually and emotionally, he needed to move on from his high school teaching to an environment that would allow him to discover and experience music like Maslanka’s A Child’s Garden of

Dreams firsthand. Green did not know Maslanka at this time, but he was so intrigued,

3 Gary Green, interview by author, October 28, 2020.

4 Green, interview, October 28, 2020, and Gary Green, interview by author, March 16, 2021.

10 curious, and mesmerized by the sound that he wanted to learn everything there was to know about Maslanka and his music.5

GREEN: It was A Child’s Garden of Dreams that caused me to feel the need to leave teaching high school [after 20 years] to go [teach] college, because I could not continue to do to kids what I had done with the Dahl. [I was] asking those kids to go far beyond their years emotionally and intellectually and as far as technique is concerned . . . I didn’t want to hurt my students. Leaving was necessary for me to play repertoire like this. I knew that I didn’t want to stay where I was because something in there was like a bug trying to crawl around and find its way out. That’s when I became interested in teaching at the university, and that’s when I went to Connecticut. I went 3000 miles away from Spokane, Washington to Storrs, Connecticut and didn’t know a single person and that’s precisely why I went. I didn’t know the culture, I didn’t know the people, and I didn’t know what was going to happen. Thank God I had the greatest family in the world who stuck with me and we made it work.6

Green had reached a point in his career at which he yearned for more than what was appropriate to attempt with high school students. Green’s career as a public school music educator was one of passion and devotion, and the music of David Maslanka was the only catalyst intense enough to cause him to change his career trajectory. The effect that

Maslanka’s music had on Green is not unique, as several of Green’s students experienced their own transformations, to various degrees, after exposure to Maslanka’s music, including one student from the University of Connecticut who wrote to Green to express the progression he experienced while playing Maslanka’s Third Symphony:

5 Gary Green, rehearsal with Frost Wind Ensemble, Fall 2018.

6 Green, interview, October 28, 2020, and Gary Green, interview by author, March 16, 2021.

In a telephone interview from November 11, 2001, Maslanka remarked on Green’s transformative experience with the composer’s music:

MASLANKA (interview from 2001): . . . when Gary Green first heard A Child’s Garden of Dreams as a high school band director, [he] realized that he wanted to be with an ensemble where he could perform a work like that. This was the motivation, which took him from his high school teaching job to his position as Director of Bands at UConn.8

Similarly, in an interview with Brent Alston in 2004, Maslanka briefly references this connection again:

7 Kevin Salley to Gary Green, No date.

8 David Maslanka, interview in possession of Gary Green, November 11, 2001.

MASLANKA (interview, Alston): As the music unfolded in his life it compelled him to move from being a high school band teacher to dealing deeply with large musical issues through the wind medium. Music did not instantly change him or make him a perfect person, but it prompted him to move into the struggle of his own life.9

While hearing Maslanka’s A Child’s Garden of Dreams on tape was exceptionally meaningful to Green, hearing his music live was another experience entirely. Maslanka’s

Symphony No. 2 was premiered by Northwestern University at CBDNA National on

February 28, 1987 in Evanston, Illinois.10 The Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble were combined to create a massive ensemble of over 120 performers. Green attended this performance and was awestruck, once again, by the music of Maslanka.

GREEN: David had only written three wind ensemble pieces [by this time]. Concerto for Piano and Winds, A Child’s Garden of Dreams, and Symphony No. 2. He was very young. I remember hearing the performance of the Second Symphony by John Paynter and Northwestern at CBDNA National in Evanston, and I remember the effect that that symphony had on that audience. David’s piece was just before intermission, and during intermission he was walking around. I saw him and I knew who he was, but I didn’t approach him. There are [sections] of the Second Symphony that I love.11 I was early in my years at Connecticut when I heard this with Northwestern. I remember watching David walk around and it was like he was [in a trance]. He was just in the moment and he didn’t really know who he was. It was surreal. Here was a guy that was an important force in what we were trying to say. And here he was trying to figure out what he wanted to say, and how he was going to say it.

9 Brenton Franklin Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three: A relational treatise on commissioning, composition, and performance” (DMA essay, University of Miami, 2004), 165.

10 “Symphony No. 2,” David Maslanka Official Website, Maslanka Press, accessed February 2, 2021, https://davidmaslanka.com/works/symphony-no-2.

11 In conversation, Green expressed multiple times how the first movement of the Second Symphony “is David - is his essence.”

I knew David before he was David Maslanka.12 He was becoming David Maslanka. . . He was still this artist that had written A Child’s Garden of Dreams, which the world was intrigued by. And then he wrote the Second Symphony. He was still this young, aspiring composer. I was afraid to talk to him. I didn’t say one word to him. I was nervous and intimidated, but I wanted to be a part of it, so I just watched him.13

Maslanka was an emerging composer in the music world at this time. With a small number of exciting and important new works for wind ensemble, Maslanka was beginning to gain recognition and his acclaim was coming quickly. In 2021, in reflection,

Green expressed that Maslanka had not yet fully developed into the person and composer that he would become in the years that followed these initial works. To Green,

Maslanka’s Fourth Symphony is the piece that made him who he is. However, at the time of the premiere performance of his Second Symphony in 1987, Green and others in the wind band community knew that Maslanka was special.

The impact that Maslanka’s music had on Gary Green from the very start is incontrovertible. Maslanka’s music inspired a career change for Green. Their professional relationship sparked in Green a career-long commitment to commissioning new works, the results of which continue to benefit the wind band medium. Additionally, their friendship inspired personal exploration, growth, and change within Green, as expressed throughout this document.

12 Green remarks that, in his opinion, “Symphony No. 4 is actually the piece that made him who he is” from a recognition standpoint, as it was a universal success.

13 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021.

CHAPTER 3

A CHILD’S GARDEN OF DREAMS: DAVID MASLANKA’S FIRST VISIT TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT WITH CONDUCTOR GARY GREEN

While Gary Green was intimidated and somewhat fearful of connecting with

David Maslanka, a coincidence enabled a quick connection between the two men when

Green was teaching at the University of Connecticut.

GREEN: That’s where I met David Maslanka. I met David via . . . Dorothy Payne. She was the Chair [of the Music Department at the University of Connecticut]. Dorothy was wise beyond anybody that I had known up to that point. She had immersed herself in the university environment and she was helping me acclimate.14

Dorothy Payne was an exceedingly important figure in Green’s career, and he attributes his professional relationship and personal friendship with David Maslanka to her. In an informal conversation in Payne’s office during Green’s seventh academic year at the

University of Connecticut15, Payne asked Green what music he was programming for an upcoming concert. When he mentioned David Maslanka’s name, she asked if Green would like to have the composer come to campus. Green was surprised and intrigued by this unexpected offer.16

GREEN: [Dorothy’s] husband was David Maslanka’s roommate at Michigan State University, and that’s how I was able to meet David and how he came to work with us on A Child’s Garden of Dreams. All the time between leaving University High School in Washington State and

14 Gary Green, interview by author, October 28, 2020.

15 Gary Green speculates that this conversation may have taken place in 1983 or 1984.

16 Gary Green, rehearsal with Frost Wind Ensemble, Fall 2018.

14 15

[my first few years at UConn were] preparation for that first rehearsal on the piece that scared me to death.17

Maslanka offered his perspective on this first invitation in an interview with Brent Alston in February 2004:

MASLANKA (interview, Alston): I was living in New York City. He [Green] had been involving himself with the Child’s Garden of Dreams piece. It was a piece that he had become acquainted with when he was a high school teacher in Spokane. When he got to Connecticut, he worked up his band to where he thought he could do the piece and then he gave me a phone call. I went up to Connecticut and worked with him on that first occasion. I can recall the visit. It was a getting-acquainted kind of thing. He is a very earnest man. He was, I think, scared because he asked me to come, a person he didn’t know, but whose music he respected greatly. He wanted to do the right thing. We got to working and discovered a very easy working relationship. We became friends and I remember the work.18

Green was simultaneously thrilled and frightened by this monumental opportunity. He described the elation as feeling like he was “floating down the hall” until the reality set in and grounded him.19 Maslanka’s visit would result in him becoming an important figure in Green’s life and in the lives of his students, especially for the next three years, Green’s final years at the University of Connecticut, during which they performed A Child’s

Garden of Dreams, the Second Symphony, and, of course, the premiere of the Third

Symphony.20

17 Gary Green, interview by author, October 28, 2020.

18 Brenton Franklin Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three: A relational treatise on commissioning, composition, and performance” (DMA essay, University of Miami, 2004), 140-141.

19 Gary Green, rehearsal with Frost Wind Ensemble, Fall 2018.

20 Gary Green, interview by author, October 28, 2020.

REHEARSAL PROCESS

Do not impose your restrictions on my music.21 - David Maslanka

The rehearsal process on this first collaboration provides insight into the priorities of Green and Maslanka, as well as their new professional relationship and friendship. A

Child’s Garden of Dreams proved to be a challenge for Green’s ensemble, which consisted of undergraduate students only, but he was determined to make the piece as technically proficient as possible.

GREEN: The music was magical, but I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to have it as technically precise as it could possibly be. It was really hard for my students, as they were all undergrads. We had done some good [repertoire], and they were great kids. They wanted to play, and they could play, but it was very difficult for them to comprehend this music and the reasoning behind it. It was like that the whole time. There are a lot of notes in that piece.22

Green so desperately wanted to achieve a great performance of this piece with the composer present, and he became overwhelmed as this reality began to manifest. When I asked Green about Maslanka’s reaction to hearing the piece rehearsed, he shared with me a story that has become a piece of band lore surrounding David Maslanka.

DIMEGLIO: How did you feel about your first performance of A Child’s Garden of Dreams? Was Maslanka happy with it?

GREEN: When we did the first two movements, he loved it and he was really happy. But the third movement is fast. Quarter note at 176, all 16th

21 Gary Green, “Program Notes,” University of Miami Wind Ensemble, (March 27, 2003), 3.

22 Gary Green, interview by author, October 28, 2020.

notes. We were going a little slower. He stopped me after a couple of measures, just outrighted stopped me. And I’m thinking, “I'm the band director, you can’t stop me!” and he said, “It’s too slow.”

Their conversation continued as follows, as documented in the program notes of a performance by the Frost Wind Ensemble from March 27, 2003:

MASLANKA: You are playing it too slow. It is marked at 176.

GREEN: We can’t play it that fast. However we can play it cleanly at 140.

MASLANKA: It must be 176!

GREEN (with fear): If we do, we will miss a lot of notes.

MASLANKA (with confidence): So be it, we will sweep up the missed notes after the performance.

GREEN: You better bring a bushel basket with you. We will need it.

MASLANKA: Better to miss notes than the meaning of the music. Please do not impose your restrictions on my music!23

Green continued during the interview:

GREEN: I knew that it was 176, but I didn’t realize that it was 176 and that through this tempo, this animal was going to reduce this little girl to nothing, and how that would feel.24 I had small children at the time, and I don’t think I wanted to think about that. But that’s what the music was. I knew then that everything was in the score. Everything was something more than just what it said in the score. We have symbols and things that we look at, but that's not the music. That’s not the poetry.25

23 Gary Green, “Program Notes,” University of Miami Wind Ensemble, (March 27, 2003), 3.

24 This is a reference to the subject of the third movement of A Child’s Garden of Dreams, a dream with the following description provided in the score: A horde of small animals frightens the dreamer. The animals increase to a tremendous size, and one of them devours the little girl.

25 Gary Green, interview by author, October 28, 2020

Maslanka’s perspective on this anecdote comes from an interview from February of

2004:

MASLANKA (interview, Alston): I remember the story he keeps bringing up about the third movement of the piece. He has a particular slant on that story. Well I don’t speak in those terms and I think he was probably hearing a louder voice than I was using.26

Regardless of the volume or voice with which Maslanka expressed his concern regarding tempo, the meaning behind his words certainly stuck with Gary Green and have influenced every subsequent musical performance. Through that experience, Green learned that, for Maslanka, “it wasn’t just a matter of tempo - it was a matter of feeling for him. It always was.”27 Chapter 5 of this document explores the importance of tempo in Maslanka’s music more thoroughly.

Preparing this music was no easy feat for Green and his students. In an interview on September 23, 2020, Green went so far as to say that in all the times he worked with

David “it was never easy. Not once.”28 The process was also difficult for his young students at the University of Connecticut, who were preparing music that was likely too difficult for them, in the presence of the composer who Green saw as a “strict disciplinarian” at the time.29

26 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 141.

27 Gary Green, interview by author, September 23, 2020.

28 Gary Green, interview by author, September 23, 2020.

29 Gary Green, interview by author, September 23, 2020.

was with us on Child’s Garden. When David came, and we had gone through that pain of trying to get this music to do what it was supposed to do, with his guidance and understanding, there was a big change in all of us, especially me. It was a profound change. I’ve always loved music and I’ve always wanted to be a good musician and teacher, but that changed me into something more. Something more than what I was before.

DIMEGLIO: Were your students resistant to the music, or were they just confused?

GREEN: They were totally confused. “Why is this music so long?” And I didn’t know enough to explain to them what little I knew about that music. I was nervous about exposing myself to that and to them. Their ability to really understand was limited by my ability to show or tell them what the music really was.

DIMEGLIO: Was Maslanka understanding of their confusion?

The intensity and emotion of each of their musical encounters was so strong that Green felt, often, that he needed to recover by separating himself from the composer. Chapter five of this document delves deeper into Green’s need to separate from Maslanka after each of their occasions working together. In reflection, Green concedes that this relationship was necessary to his growth as a musician and conductor. Green’s tendency to focus too intently on technique left the true essence of the music undiscovered, and this imbalance was solved, in part, by Maslanka’s influence.

30 Gary Green, interview by author, October 28, 2020.

GREEN: I often wonder what it would have been like to be in the room when Stravinsky presented The Rite of Spring to people for the first time. Or Mahler. What would they have thought? They must have thought that the guy was completely insane! And maybe he was. So, it wasn’t unlike that. I was so used to teaching things technically, but it was the meaning behind it and the experience that came with the “doing” that made the difference in those students and in me.31

In a letter dated December 30, 1987, Maslanka thanked Green for the opportunity to work together, and displayed his positive reflections on their collaboration:

MASLANKA (letter to Green): My visit to UCONN was a special time for me. It was a pleasure to work with you and your players and to see the wonderful work that you are doing. Please thank your players for me once again. They brought the piece to life and touched me with the power of their playing and with their dedication. I hope that we will work together regularly in the years to come.32

The importance of this first encounter working together cannot be overstated. Green achieved his goal of bringing A Child’s Garden of Dreams to life with the composer present, but the future endeavors sparked by this interaction, not the least important of which is the commissioning of the Third Symphony, mark significant milestones in

Green’s life and in Maslanka and Green’s contributions to the wind band medium.

31 Gary Green, interview by author, October 28, 2020.

32 David Maslanka to Gary Green. December 30, 1987. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

CHAPTER 4

THE COMMISSIONING OF SYMPHONY NO. 3

Commissioning is a grand adventure, a great leap of faith. It is hard to imagine buying anything of comparable expense that you can’t look at, test drive, touch, taste, or smell before you commit to it. Like composing, commissioning, in my opinion, is neither arbitrary nor accidental. There is a coming together of the needs (known and unknown) of the commissioning party, the needs and abilities (especially the ability to be intuitively open to what wants to happen) of the composer, and the impulses coming from the other side. Commissioning and composing become a kind of deep prayer that something good, powerful, and useful will come into the world.33 - David Maslanka

After Maslanka’s visit to the University of Connecticut to work with Gary Green and the University of Connecticut Symphonic Wind Ensemble on A Child’s Garden of

Dreams, Green felt the need to step away from Maslanka. Their work together had been so intense and hyper-focused that it resulted in the need for Green to create some space between himself and the composer in order to rest and recover from the emotional experience. However, just a few weeks after their first experience working together,

Green found himself at a performance of Maslanka’s A Child’s Garden of Dreams, with the composer himself also in attendance. Despite his best efforts to maintain distance, and in an unpremeditated manner, Green inadvertently solidified a commitment to another project with the composer moving forward.

GREEN: [Sometime after David attended our rehearsals and performance], he went to the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, maybe 30 or 40 miles from Storrs, Connecticut, where the University of Connecticut is [located]. Prof. Stan DeRusha at Hartt was one of the finest conductors I’ve ever seen in my life, of any genre. He was so brilliantly musical and so elegant. He was doing a concert and he was performing the Dvorak Serenade and A Child’s Garden of Dreams, which was a startling combination. I decided to go and hear it. I had just gone through this

33 David Maslanka, “David Maslanka,” in Composers on Composing for Band, Volume Two, ed. Mark Camphouse (Chicago, Illinois: GIA Publications, 2004), 206-207.

21 22

experience with David on A Child’s Garden, and to my surprise he was in attendance at this performance. I wasn’t expecting to see him there, so I sat in the back [of the hall] because I didn’t want to [bother him] anymore. There was a feeling of insecurity and discomfort while in the presence of this master. I had been through the agony of trying to realize who he was and what he was doing [musically and emotionally]. I was changed by it and I was a different person because of that experience. [The concert at Hartt] wasn’t very long after, maybe a week or two, since this transpired. We sat through the first half - Dvorak - and David was sitting in the front and I was sitting in the back hoping he didn’t see me. At intermission he saw me. He came back to where I was and said, “Let’s move up and sit together.” So, I did, and sitting with David during this performance of a piece that we had just done was . . . visceral, it was alive, and musically and emotionally exciting. After the piece was over, people were talking with David and Stan, and for some reason, I’m not exactly sure why, I said, “You wouldn’t be interested in writing a piece for us, would you?” and he said, “Of course.” I don’t know why I said it. I didn’t have any money. I had no budget, it was ridiculous how little money I had, and I didn’t know how we were going to pay for it if he said yes, but he did. So that began the process. Then it took about a year of work to find the money. I wrote a grant [to the research foundation of the University of Connecticut]. I’m not a writer at all, but I researched, I went to see everyone on campus about how to write a grant. [The cost of the commission] was $13,500, and that was in 1989. The grant came to be. They actually gave us the money to do that, and it had never happened before. Dorothy34 was in shock, everybody was in shock, and it has never been done since [to my knowledge]. [Funds were provided] through the university to pay for that piece from David, and that’s how [we financed the project].35

While recounting this story, Green expressed that the choice to ask Maslanka about this commission at this moment was fortuitous and, while unplanned, was crucial to Green personally and professionally.

DIMEGLIO: What caused this change in you, to go from avoiding him at a performance to then asking him to do the commission?

34 Dorothy Payne, Head of the Department of Music, University of Connecticut (at this time)

35 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021.

GREEN: I don’t know. I think David addressed it [somewhat] in a letter where he [stated] that I had a need for something that would come through him. He was the dreamer, I was the organizer and the doer. But if I would not have seen him that night, in that concert, then there’s a good chance it wouldn’t have happened. . . that was the beginning. That was the beginning of my really naive time of working with a composer of that level. I had no idea what I was getting into.36

The first mention of this commissioning project in written correspondence was on May

23, 1988, in a letter from Maslanka to Green:

MASLANKA (letter to Green): Any action on your commission proposal? I know how busy you are and these things take time, but I am ITCHING to write a new wind work and I want to get my priorities lined up for the next 18 months or so. I am busy until January 1989. After that there are a number of proposals but no firm commitments. I would like very much to work with you on a major project.37

After their verbal agreement, Green had to secure the commission funds from the

University of Connecticut. The following excerpts are from documents displaying the deliberation of the Department of Music and the resident Research Foundation, including various accounts of justification for this commission, not the least important of which is the recognition of the commission and study of a new work as academic scholarship.

While some members of the review panel questioned whether or not a commission constituted “scholarly work,” others relied on the reputation of Maslanka’s existing compositions for winds (A Child’s Garden of Dreams and Symphony No. 2), as well as

Green’s notoriety as a conductor, to justify the approval of this request. Also included in

36 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021.

37 David Maslanka to Gary Green. May 23, 1988. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

24 these excerpts in a letter of thanks from University of Connecticut Music Department

Chairperson Dorothy Payne to Director of Research Thomas G. Giolas.

Excerpt from “Review #1”:

Excerpt from “Review 2”:

38 University of Connecticut Research Foundation, Panel Deliberation, May 23, 1990.

The following letter from David Maslanka to Dorothy Payne, the Chair of the Music

Department of the University of Connecticut, expressing gratitude for the success of the commission project is of great importance. As Maslanka says, while he is the composer of the piece, it is a result of Gary Green not only in regard to his efforts to have the piece commissioned, but in the way that the piece reflects his character. This demonstrates that, to Maslanka, the commissioning and composing process is a collaborative endeavor that reflects on both the composer and the commissioning party (Green).

39 Dorothy Payne to Tom Giolas. February 8, 1991.

While Maslanka’s Third Symphony is the recognizable and direct result of this commissioning endeavor, the future implications of this project are just as significant, as

Gary Green’s career, after this point, centered largely around commissioning new works for the wind band medium. During his tenure at the University of Miami, Green was involved in over 50 commissioning projects as the commissioning ensemble or as a consortium member, including Christopher Rouse’s Wolf Rounds, David Maslanka’s

40 David Maslanka to Dorothy Payne, no date.

Concerto for Trombone and Wind Ensemble, Frank Ticheli’s Blue Shades, Michael

Colgrass’ Urban Requiem, David Maslanka’s Song Book for Flute and Wind Ensemble.41

The following sections of this paper will explore some meditation practices and beliefs of David Maslanka, as well as their impact on his music and those around him, including Gary Green. This narrative surrounding the creation of Maslanka’s Third

Symphony provides a glimpse into the spiritual forces that Maslanka credits for much of his compositional achievements and life experiences.

41 Douglas Lawrence Phillips, “The University of Miami Frost Wind Ensemble 1993-2012: Repertoire, Commissions, and Premieres” (Doctoral essay, University of Miami, 2012) 14-18.

CHAPTER 5

MASLANKA’S MEDITATION PRACTICE AND COMPOSITIONAL PROCESS

This whole practice is not religion, though the personal mystical experience is at the root of all formal religion. The difference is that between following the rules of a given religious practice and having your own vision.42 - David Maslanka

Before addressing David Maslanka’s intense dedication to the practice of meditation, it is paramount to consider his past experience regarding religion. As a child,

Maslanka’s family raised him as a Jehovah’s Witness, the downfall of which severely affected him through adolescence and beyond. The Christian symbolism in Maslanka’s music may imply that he was a Christian into his adulthood, but in actuality his religious exploration moves past the confines of Catholic or Protestant Christianity and contains elements of Buddhism, Shamanism, and Mysticism.

Religion of various forms was mentioned time and time again by David Maslanka in his letters and interviews, however it was discussed in parallel with non-religious spirituality. Often, religion was only mentioned in order for Maslanka to display how his meditative practices were spiritual, but they were not associated with religion.

Additionally, Maslanka may have made religious references in order to make his spiritual explorations more normalized to those he was speaking to. While an in-depth discussion of Maslanka’s religious affiliations is not the main focus of this work, some considerations regarding Maslanka’s religious trajectory are important to understanding his embracing of meditation.

42 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 23, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

28 29

This brief paragraph from Barbara Grizzuti Harrison’s Visions of Glory: A

History and a Memory of Jehovah’s Witnesses gives us an intimate look into Maslanka’s childhood religious experiences, and subsequent isolation, that likely influenced his spiritual experimentation in adulthood.

David Maslanka, a young composer who was raised as a Witness, tells me that his childhood “was like a dark, airless chamber illuminated by rainbow-colored fantasies. My mother was a ‘suspect’ Witness,” he says; “the other Witnesses thought she was off center, flirting with spiritualism. So they wouldn’t allow their kids to play with me. I blamed my mother and I pitied her; and I felt that evil forces were working within me, too. I lived in almost absolute isolation. I used to pray someone would invite me to sit next to him at meetings; no one ever did. I felt despised. When I was 11, my mother was excommunicated because of dabbling with the occult; and, since I had burned my bridges by refusing to have worldly friends, there was nobody at all I could talk to, nobody at all.” David still finds it hard, so scarring was that brief and bitter experience, to talk freely: in his intensely passionate music, great blocks of glorious colored sound alternate with great blocks of dark, Rousseauvian silence. His music reminds me of ruined Mayan temples thrusting out of the jungle density and stillness, stone upon stone rising from dark decay, sheer will conquering a ripe darkness illuminated with rainbow flashes of blinding light.43

Gary Green is aware of Maslanka’s religious past and was able to provide some clarity on this subject.

GREEN: David’s parents were strict Jehovah’s Witnesses. His mother decided that she wasn’t going to do that anymore. David left the religion and was isolated because of it. [I believe] this is where a lot of his insecurities come from.44

DIMEGLIO: Is it true that he [Maslanka] didn’t consider himself religious? It was more spiritual?

43 Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, Visions of Glory: A History and a Memory of Jehovah’s Witnesses (New York, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), 94.

44 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021.

GREEN: Right, he didn’t, but I believe he was religious in his own way. He was a profoundly religious man, but he wouldn’t profess [this in a traditional way]. He would avoid it. I think because of the spirituality of his meditation, and the things that he would do that would cause him to be in closer contact with himself. I believe that in that regard he was deeply religious. He may have been Buddhist; at least I think he believed in that. He said he was not a Christian, but he was. He uses Christian references [in many places] in his music. His philosophies, his theories, even the words he uses. In A Child’s Garden of Dreams, in the fourth movement, he uses the word “epiphany” at a very important peak in the music. That was his second piece for band, but it revealed his heart. There are a lot of things in “Child’s Garden” that are telling of David.45

This account reveals the potential origin of Maslanka’s lingering trauma, which may have contributed to his insecurities, fears regarding acceptance, and comfort in the isolated nature of Montana. According to Green, in Maslanka’s adult life he did not outwardly subscribe to any one religion. Instead, his spiritual experiences were influenced by teachers of meditation, mystics, Shaman, and similar spiritual guides. While Christian imagery, in particular, can be found within his music and correspondence, this may have been his attempt to translate his meditative experiences into a language that is more easily understood.

A letter dated April 23, 1991 marks one of the first correspondences between

Maslanka and Green in which meditation is the main subject. The previous description of

Maslanka’s religious past comes into play almost immediately as religion is mentioned at the forefront of his explanation. This is not just a recounting of Maslanka’s own practice, but an attempt to instruct Green on meditation.

45 Gary Green, interview by author, October 28, 2020, and Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021.

MASLANKA (letter to Green): Some thoughts on meditation - I’m certainly not an expert, though I’ve had some years of experience and use it for all kinds of things. The more I do, the more I see there is to do. My methods are home-grown though they touch on a basic body of objective knowledge that experienced meditators and mystics agree to be true. This whole practice is not religion, though the personal mystical experience is at the root of all formal religion. The difference is that between following the rules of a given religious practice and having your own vision. There are Christian mystics, Buddhist mystics, Eskimo mystics. The imagery of each religion is powerful, and I find that my mystical experience has taken symbols from a number of sources (with a central body of Christian symbolism46) and caused these symbols to come alive with significant energy. For example, the Indian hunter, the buffalo and bear images that drive the 3rd movement of the Symphony.47

The specific references to meditation images, including the Indian hunter, the buffalo, and the bear, come from Maslanka’s meditation journal from his composing of the Third

Symphony. These images and their origin and meaning are discussed later in this chapter.

The references to Christianity and other religions are certainly not unique.

One of many examples of this comes from an interview from 2004, during which

Maslanka discussed images seen while meditating.

MASLANKA (interview, Alston): All these things come through whatever training you have in your mind. People who are for instance, fundamental Christians may not think these thoughts because they’re not allowed to. Catholics can’t think these thoughts because they are told not to. So, if you can get past that you can get down to things that are fundamentally human. The energy below the doctrinal divisions. Different kinds of music come from different cultures as you know perfectly well, and yet the fundamental impulse musical expression is not a culture issue. It becomes a cultural issue as soon as a human opens his mouth.48

46 Christian symbolism can be found throughout Maslanka’s composition, like his inclusion of the word “epiphany” in the fourth movement of A Child’s Garden of Dreams, or his frequent use of hymn tunes like Old Hundredth.

47 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 23, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

48 Brenton Franklin Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three: A relational treatise on commissioning, composition, and performance” (DMA essay, University of Miami, 2004), 158.

As displayed here, Maslanka’s discussions involving religion often involved a statement regarding the tendency of religious sects to prohibit spiritual explorations like meditation and deem them wrong. He stated that Christians and Catholics may struggle to see images during meditation because they have been taught to deny and avoid spiritual searching of this type. Additionally, his explanation displays a theory that in meditation, images present themselves in forms and characters with which we are already familiar, including religious images. His note encouraged Green to move past any preconceived disinclinations like these in order to allow himself to discover his fundamental human energy.

MASLANKA (letter to Green): In practical terms I would like to strip away some of the mystical haze that surrounds these ideas and give you some “nuts and bolts.” For me composing is the same kind of problem = after the idea hits, what are the nuts and bolts that put the things together? You are already in contact with deep psychic energy through your music making. You know when you “connect” with the kids, and when you “connect” with the music. You enter what I call a waking dream state. The power of 40 or 50 people is focused at a single point and all move together. Your performance of my Symphony No. 2 was like that. You recognize that you are very awake and very aware, but that you are part of a bigger . . . of power that is moving through you. Personal meditation is like that as well. At times it can be as ecstatic as powerful music-making, and at times it can be workaday. My private meditations that brought out the images of Symphony No. 3 were often powerful visions of how natural forces work. With them comes a giddy sense of simple joy at having a deep look at how things work.49

In these paragraphs, Maslanka mentioned intense emotional experiences that Green, like other conductors, had while creating music with a large ensemble. While conductors are most certainly “awake and aware” in this environment, the real-time creation of music

49 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 23, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

33 can be extremely powerful. A complete surrender to the music and immersion into it can cause an other-worldly experience, and this could be what Maslanka is relating to the meditative experience. For Green, this feeling at times was so intense that “all [he] could think about was David and [he] was totally engulfed in that sound.” Years later, he felt the need to step away from Maslanka’s music so that he “wouldn’t miss out on [his] whole life.”50 By relating meditation to Green’s profession (conducting), Maslanka attempted to assuage Green’s fear or discomfort with the topic of meditative practice.

Continuing through this letter from April 23, 1991, Maslanka suggests some specific meditation exercises to Green, as well as suggestions regarding how and where to try them. The complete letter, in Maslanka’s hand and in a typed transcript form, is provided in the appendix of this document.

MEDITATION INSTRUCTIONS

I can’t say how much, but you need to give it enough space each time you practice so that you can unload the cares of the day long enough to focus deeply on yourself.51 - David Maslanka

MASLANKA (letter to Green): Some specifics = There are levels of meditation from light to very deep - When you are awake and working at any problem and the answer “comes” - where does it come from? We credit “thinking” or “logic” and also “intuition.” These are all contacts with a central force within. Daydreaming is one form of light meditative state. We tend to dismiss daydreams as unimportant and a waste of time. 1) One beginning exercise is to allow your mind to wander, but keep track of it with one part of your brain. After a while, stop and write down quickly the sequence of what happened in your “wander.” You’ll notice significant themes that are important to you; things which you may not be aware of consciously.

50 Gary Green, interview by author, September 23, 2020.

51 Maslanka to Gary Green. April 23, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

2) Imagine a particular scene, for ex - pretend you are out in the woods. With eyes closed, look at your imagined scene in detail. Notice type and texture of trees, leaves, plants, earth. Then imagine an animal in this scene. Describe it to yourself in detail, especially any movements it makes. Have your animal say something to you. Remember what it says. Open your eyes and write down quickly all the things you remember from this exercise. 3) Going down into the subconscious and the “collective unconscious.” This is a deeper version of daydreaming and imagining scenes. This is the technique I use most often. Lie or sit in an undisturbed place. (Books will say to lie down in a dark room. I’m not comfortable with that and have found that sitting up in a straight chair in normal daylight is best for me.) Then imagine a wooded place. See a hole at the base of a tree, or a cave opening into the ground. You can also imagine yourself entering a tunnel. Allow yourself to enter and experience “going down.” Let it happen until you arrive at a recognizable place. This will often be a nature place such as a waterfall or the ocean, or a woods, but many different kinds of places can be found. Be in this place and simply notice the surroundings in detail. At this level there may be intrusions from your subconscious and people often see scary things like large insects or devouring animals or murderous people. If something scary comes up and you are unnerved, simply retreat the way you came and return to normal consciousness. Scary things, just like bad dreams, can be explored as well, and the messages that scary or upsetting images have to bring are often not in themselves scary, and are always useful. For instance, skeletons are usually associated with death, but in my dreams and meditations, the figure of death (a skull face with a long black robe and sometimes a soft black hat) means either a message from someone who has died, or impending change in my life. The bears that came to my dreams and ultimately influenced the 4th and 5th movements of The Symphony so strongly were at first scary and I tried to get away from them.52

Some important imagery is shared in this paragraph of Maslanka’s letter to Green. The mention of skeletons is important since, in a letter from one month after this (May 1991) which includes a detailed meditation journal, Maslanka refers to skeletons again, specifically in reference to Gary Green and his own transformation through “death” and starting again. Maslanka assures Green that this skeleton image is one of impending

52 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 23, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

35 change and not of literal death. The bear characters that Maslanka mentioned here are also revealed in the Symphony No. 3 meditation journal. The bears visit with Maslanka on his meditative journey and sing songs that become important melodies and themes in the Third Symphony.

MASLANKA cont.: The “going down” exercise may take some practice and patience but it should happen without too much trouble. Consistent practice is important. I can’t say how much, but you need to give it enough space each time you practice so that you can unload the cares of the day long enough to focus deeply on yourself. (3 or 4 times a week)53

The visualization Maslanka described as “going down” is of particular interest, as it is so consistent in these meditative exercises and is also mentioned in his meditation journals

DIMEGLIO: He gives a really clear glimpse into what meditation feels like for him. It’s more than dreaming, more than just imagination, like he’s going down a tunnel or a long hallway. He talks about how the images he finds once he gets there inspire the music, but I wonder if the process of the meditation and this downward pulling has ever been expressed through this music.

GREEN: Not that I know of, but it’s possible that it was there, and I just wasn’t aware of it. Perhaps it was portrayed in his own way. The process of diving deeper into a subject did manifest itself in his compositions. I think that he would use meditation as a motivation to begin his work. But then he would rely on his ability to sing songs to begin his compositional process, and then they would have to match his idea of what the meditation was.54

MASLANKA cont.: Finding a guide in your area might be useful . . . As in anything else, check out a potential teacher. Don’t think of them as overly special or perfect people just because they have their skill developed. Choosing a meditation guide is like choosing a trombone teacher.

53 Maslanka to Gary Green. April 23, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

54 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021, and Gary Green, interview by author, March 20, 2021.

Let me know how this all goes for you. Without being intrusive I’ll answer whatever questions I can. It is frankly wonderful to open to inner power in this way. It has changed my life enormously. It makes each individual more intense themselves, and connects them firmly with their deepest beliefs and values.55

The detailed instructions in his letter from April 23, 1991 are evidence of Maslanka’s own meditation techniques, which relate directly to his compositional process. Gary

Green believes that Maslanka relied on meditation entirely to work, and furthermore that he needed to find motivation deep within himself, through meditation, in order to be able to compose.56 Understanding Maslanka’s reliance on meditation, and the methods by which he executed this spiritual experience, allows for greater understanding of the depth and meaning contained in his music.

JOURNALING

The experience is just like moving to a new place. You have to learn all the new streets and patterns of the new place. After a while the landscape takes on special meaning for you even if it’s nothing special in itself.57 - David Maslanka

In the aforementioned meditation instructions, Maslanka encouraged the use of a journal during meditation, frequently instructing Green to pause meditating in order to write down what he saw, heard, and experienced. Maslanka mentions journaling often in his correspondence with Gary Green, as evidenced in these additional letter excerpts.

55 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 23, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

56 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021.

57 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 23, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

MASLANKA (letter to Green): It is also very important to keep a journal. After each meditation period write down what you experienced in as much detail as possible. In time you will see patterns emerging and this will give you confidence in the reality of the inner world that you have started to explore. The experience is just like moving to a new place. You have to learn all the new streets and patterns of the new place. After a while the landscape takes on special meaning for you even if it’s nothing special in itself. I have filled five notebooks with meditation imagery and still consistently write down all my meditation and dream experience.58

Do remember to write down your meditation experiences no matter how puzzling they may seem. You’ll see patterns after a while.59

Journaling was of great importance to Maslanka, especially during meditation, and exploring his journals can assist in the understanding of his meditative processes and the meditative imagery that guides his compositions. After completing the Third

Symphony, he shared part of his meditation journal with Gary Green. This three-page type-written journal is designated as being the result of meditation “for UCONN piece,” which is known to be Maslanka’s Symphony No. 3. This document includes entries from meditations which occurred on October 8, 1990, November 26, 1990, and April 1,

1991.60 The journal entries include descriptions of images, characters, and brief story lines inspired by Maslanka’s knowledge of Green’s life and heritage. These images and stories became the inspiration for the third symphony. David Maslanka sent the meditation journal to Gary Green on May 10, 1991, along with the fifth and final movement of Symphony No. 3 and a letter describing and explaining the journal.

58 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 23, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

59 David Maslanka to Gary Green. May 16, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

60 It is likely that other meditation sessions were a part of this meditation journal; however, only page 1 and 3 are in possession of Gary Green, and page 2 is missing.

MASLANKA (letter to Green): Dear Gary: Here’s the last movement of the symphony. It turned out to be longer than I first thought - about 11 minutes - total playing time for the piece is about 49 minutes. Which means, among other things, that it may not get a lot of performances. I can’t imagine what the rental fee is going to be. Maybe I should do like Grandma Moses = when she had commissions for 4 paintings she cut one big painting into pieces. I am overwhelmed by the size and intensity of the work, and that it should have appeared complete in such a short time. I’m sure it is for the best that you have more time to contemplate the whole thing.61

Maslanka started this letter by noting the length of the piece, which was recently finalized when he completed the fifth movement. The piece was significantly longer than either he or Green anticipated it to be. In his Doctoral Essay, Brent Alston quotes Gary Green who recounted that he asked Maslanka for a “twenty-minute work of moderate difficulty. We did not speak the word “symphony.””62 As casually mentioned by Maslanka in this letter, the work became a massive symphony nearing one hour in length.

DIMEGLIO: At the start of the letter, he mentions that the piece is longer than he planned.

GREEN: I got the piece one movement at a time. I’d go to the post office to pick them up. By the time I had been there 5 times I was worn out. . . I had asked for a piece of about 20 minutes of moderate difficulty, and I didn’t know what we were going to do. I was really frightened by it. I had great kids that I loved, but I was [fearful of hurting them] with this piece. Outside of the C major scale, you’re in trouble.63

DIMEGLIO: He also expresses the concern that it might not get many plays because of [the length]. He doesn’t strike me as the kind of person that would worry too much about his music being played. He seems like

61 David Maslanka to Gary Green. May 10, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

62 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 144.

63 Symphony No. 3 opens with a C major scale.

he’s content with what he writes and if it gets played it gets played. Am I misinterpreting [his] personality?

GREEN: He was sensitive to what people thought about his music. Right to the very end. The last thing I did with David was the premiere of a piece that he wrote for the Virginia All State band. He was in Virginia working with James Madison University, so he came to where the All- State band was to work with the group. He walked in [his first question was,] “Do we have a piece?” and I said, “We have more than that.” He was so relieved. It struck me how relieved he was that he had written something that someone would care to play [and listen to]. I think he was interested in what people thought. I do think that he was concerned about people playing his music and being motivated by it.

DIMEGLIO: He [also mentions] maybe splitting this up into different pieces. Was that ever a serious discussion?

GREEN: No. Once it came, that’s what it was and he wasn’t going to change it. The ending of that symphony is double reeds primarily - The song of quiet joy. It is breathtakingly stark. It reminded me of the music of Stravinsky, in its timbre and in the austere mannerisms of the music. The only motion in it is the tempo. There’s nothing that propels that music until the very end of the piece and the quietness of it. It’s the only propulsion that you have after all that time. But the whole last section of it with the double reeds is extremely difficult.64

In the second paragraph of his letter, Maslanka provided a glimpse into the essential role meditation played to his compositional process, remarking that the piece

“appeared” to him. This word choice is thought-provoking, as it is more common for a composer to speak about “creating” or “writing” a piece directly.

DIMEGLIO: I find it interesting that he says the piece “appeared” to him. Do you have any insight into what this meant to him?

GREEN: He told me that when he would sleep, he would dream that he saw in the sky a bright, shiny object. This object began to glow and to him, that was a reference to the world. It became a view from a cat’s eye, and it became the motivation for the music. I believe it was in the [second]

64 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021.

movement of the symphony. He would meditate, and then take his meditations and write. For example, this symbol of this eye became the germinating idea for a musical thought. And then he would begin to write thoughts.65

In an interview in 2004, Maslanka tried to simplify how meditating turned into composition:

MASLANKA (interview, Alston): I took the images that attracted me the most at that moment and stare at it and open my mind in that meditative way and tried to follow the force of that poetic material as far and as carefully and as closely as I could. I am still trying to figure out how the dream images turn into music . . . there is an energy which comes in, which is not music, but when it hits the brain, it hits the organization of the music in the brain, it translates into music, the same way the energy could become a book or a painting…66

GARY GREEN’S RELUCTANCE

We all, without fail, have this hidden area, but not many develop a systematic way of entering.67 - David Maslanka

Maslanka did not shy away from sharing his own meditation techniques and experiences, as can be seen in the number of letters in which he discussed his experiences. Green did not practice meditation or claim to understand it, which accounts for the tone with which Maslanka prefaces his meditative journal in his accompanying letter:

65 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021.

66 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 154.

67 David Maslanka to Gary Green. May 10, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

MASLANKA (letter to Green): I have also included some of the meditation material which guided the composing of this piece. It may be hard for you to identify with these images, yet I don’t want you to take them as weird or unusual. Unusual they may be, but for me they have sharp reality and are a part of my “normal.” I always think of meditation as “dreaming while awake.” In my notes I speak several times of “descending.” As my meditation begins, there is most often a clear sense of descending, usually down a tunnel or long hallway. This is a metaphor for travel inward to become aware of things that are normally part of the unconscious. Most of us rely on the occasional dream, or the accidental encounter with some mental phenomenon or other to gain access to this hidden area. We all, without fail, have this hidden area, but not many develop a systematic way of entering. I outlined some approaches for you in my letter on meditation.68

Once again, Maslanka described the feeling of traveling down a tunnel or “going down” into a meditative state. Maslanka wrote about this process at length in a letter dated April

23, 1991 (discussed earlier in this document), yet felt it important to reiterate these details again just a few weeks later.

MASLANKA cont.: In any case, when I am in a meditation the images are often clear and sharp, like being in a movie. I know that I am sitting in a chair, or walking, but my mind is able to let these images rise and to participate in them. Some would say that this is merely active imagination and has no external reality. My experience of it is that it is different from “imagination.” My connecting with the Christian archetypes of the cross and the figure of Christ go beyond my personal experience or imagination. The images of “bear” and “buffalo” came to me only when I was in this land of bear and buffalo. Old Grandfather and Grandmother are helpers who have helped me with deep emotional needs, and who have been guides to help me make contact with the energies that resulted in the symphony. There are a number of other animal and spirit helpers.69

These characters and images are mentioned throughout Maslanka’s meditation journal.

He mentioned them here in order to provide clarity and context for Green. As mentioned

68 David Maslanka to Gary Green. May 10, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

69 Ibid.

42 earlier in this chapter, the reference to Christian imagery is not intended to exemplify a belief in Christianity. The bear is a recurring image that is important to Maslanka as he transitions from meditation to composing. Additionally, the “Old Grandfather and

Grandmother” figures are of particular importance since, in the meditation journal, these personas are revealed to be of American Indian heritage and, therefore, the result of a serious and deep meditative discovery Maslanka made regarding Green. In the sections that follow, excerpts of Maslanka’s meditation journal are shared in an effort to understand his process and goals.

GARY GREEN’S BATON

With that baton I began to feel some sense of his life energy.70 - David Maslanka

MASLANKA: For me, composing begins by going into the meditation space, first to gain a sense of the energy of the people who have commissioned the music, specifically their need in asking for a piece, then to ask what wants to happen in the music. What I receive is a series of what I would call dream images that have strong spiritual-emotional feelings.71

While composing his Third Symphony, Maslanka held, felt, and looked at Gary Green’s baton as a meditative source of inspiration. The baton served as a sort of relic, assisting

Maslanka in composing a piece for and inspired by Green despite the physical distance

70 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 26.

71 David Maslanka, “David Maslanka,” in Composers on Composing for Band, Volume Two, ed. Mark Camphouse (Chicago, Illinois: GIA Publications, 2004), 200.

43 between them. Maslanka felt that an important object like this could be a window into the soul and spirit of Green.

MASLANKA (meditation notes): using the baton for first time as focus for meditation…72

DIMEGLIO: Maslanka meditated on your baton while composing Symphony No. 3. Did you offer him the baton, or did he specifically ask for it?

GREEN: He came to the rehearsals and the performance [of the Second Symphony at UConn]. When it was time to write the Third Symphony, he wanted something of mine to take back to Montana with him from Connecticut. He looked around my office and I offered him things that were sitting on my desk. Things that I cared about, like a letter opener. He rejected all of them and said they weren’t enough. So, I offered him the baton that I had just used to conduct his Second Symphony, and he took it. That was what he used as meditation for the Third Symphony. He took that baton, and it was a long time before I began to get music.

DIMEGLIO: Do you know of any other occasions when Maslanka borrowed an item from someone while meditating to inspire a composition?

72 David Maslanka, “Meditation Notes” typed for Gary Green by David Maslanka, 1991.

73 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021.

This anecdote about the Lichtenwalters and, specifically, the use of Susan

Lichtenwalter’s hymnal as a meditation object similar to the use of Green’s baton, was also mentioned by Maslanka in an interview in 2004:

MASLANKA (interview, Alston): Ray Lichtenwalter . . . sent me a book [his wife] had used for 20 years. The hymnbook had the print of her palm on the spine. . . Through that book I received a huge amount of energy for [sic] her. My direct sense of connection to people can come through touching something they have touched or used with intent. So, everything that’s about you, everything that you touch that is about you personally will contain a print of your energy and will continue to do so long after you’re not there anymore.74 With that baton I began to feel some sense of his life energy.75

Later in the meditation notes, the baton is mentioned once again, however this time it sparks a direct thought about Green and an intriguing image in the form of a skeleton.

Using baton: What about Gary? I see a light source moving through a rocky water: like fire in purgatory: a skeleton in anguish.76

In the accompanying letter, Maslanka offered an explanation of this journal entry:

Some specific thoughts on the meditation notes = page 1 - meditation for 11/26/90: past lives of Gary Green = I don’t have a lot of information here. I saw the line of oriental descent which is pre-Indian, but I don’t know who you are in these terms. Then the image of the rocky waste and the skeleton in anguish: such images always surprise me, especially since your external aspect is so alive. Skeletons represent death which represent change, not extinction. I don’t see you dying, but rather in need of change and spiritual evolution, hence the skeletal holy men and the anguished

74 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 159-160.

75 Ibid, 26.

76 David Maslanka, “Meditation Notes” typed for Gary Green by David Maslanka, 1991.

skeleton. You have caused this whole experience of the symphony to come into being to help with this change.77

Images such as these, and meditation in general, were entirely new to Gary Green.

Maslanka’s ability to learn about Green through meditation, as well as the images conjured during his meditation, were frightening to Green.

GREEN: When he started telling me [what he had experienced], I didn’t want to hear it! At the end of the day my responsibility to students is to teach and to bring music forward. But to examine it that deeply inside of myself was something I had not done, and it really frightened me. These things in his letters were really difficult to deal with.78

DIMEGLIO: He mentions the skeleton here, and in a letter from just a few weeks earlier - April 23, 1991 - he tells you that the skeleton means change, not death or extinction.

GREEN: By the time he wrote this we had been talking about meditation and the idea of death and rebirth quite a bit. This, to me, was the most difficult part of all of the whole experience. . . It was so targeted. Nobody wants to face the idea that there might be something in them that is so incorrect that it needs a complete overhaul. Nobody wants to face that healthwise, or spiritually, or fundamentally, but he was forcing me into that in a way.79

MASLANKA (meditation notes): The buffalo represents the life of the earth. Christ represents the life of the earth. Sacrifice of buffalo is sacrifice of Christ. We kill and eat the things of the earth: every eating a communion with the forces of the earth: all exists in the grief of killing, joy of feeding. The buffalo hunt brings the hunter to the edge of his existence. Exhilaration of being alive and at the very edge of life and death.80

77 David Maslanka to Gary Green. May 10, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

78 Gary Green, interview by author, September 23, 2020.

79 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021.

80 David Maslanka, “Meditation Notes” typed for Gary Green by David Maslanka, 1991.

GREEN: By the time we got to this letter we had talked about this a lot. It’s the third movement that this relates to. The idea of the need for killing and the joy of feeding is a key to the centralized idea of the whole symphony. But the idea of death and rebirth or reinvention is consistent to the entire symphony. And the fourth movement was very much like that. By the time we got to that letter in 1991 I had accepted it by then. I was at peace with myself for the first time in a long time, about who I was and the learning process. Learning not being knowledge necessarily, although it certainly is an intellectual thing, but learning is a lifelong accumulation of who you are as a human being combined with how you accept and bond with other people. That was all part of it.81

Through his relationship with David Maslanka, Gary Green learned much about himself and what elements of his ancestry and past contributed to the person he was becoming.

Maslanka assisted Green in coming to terms with who he was and in growing more comfortable with his inner self, which contributed greatly to his musicianship and emotional awareness.

DISCOVERY THROUGH MEDITATION

I’ve discovered through the meditative process that it was possible to touch beyond myself to another person, that is Gary in this case, to a set of forces and needs that were in his spirit, his psychology and so this combination produced this music.82 - David Maslanka

Maslanka’s desire, attempt, and success at using meditation to see the “inner” Gary

Green frightened Green. The two men had only known each other for two years, and the soul-searching that took place was something completely new and somewhat invasive to

81 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021.

82 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 173.

Green. However, through his uncertainty and fear, especially at the discovery of his

American Indian heritage, Green remained open to Maslanka’s methods and beliefs.

During a 2004 interview with Brent Alston, further insight into Maslanka’s perspective is provided:

MASLANKA (interview, Alston): I’ve discovered through the meditative process that it was possible to touch beyond myself to another person, that is Gary in this case, to a set of forces and needs that were in his spirit, his psychology and so this combination produced this music. You can look at the form, you can look at the key and you can look at all those things that are abstract musical support system that is used to embody this non- rational set of forces. You can do your best within the confines of your writing here to pick apart certain elements of it but you’ll never define in words what this music is.83

MASLANKA cont.: I do not make the presumption of knowing everything about a person or situation through my meditation. I never make that presumption. I did find out something important about Gary’s internal energy and the need that this piece of music had to address. Not a single issue, a bunch of stuff. I have no thought that this piece solves stuff. It doesn’t...it addresses a certain quality of energy that he needed, that he needed to find in himself. It is so interesting because the energy that he asked for that came through the symphony was something, which he could not have thought himself into or thought himself through. He’d be the first to admit it and tell you how burned he got by the whole experience. It required, forced him sooner than he was ready, to come to terms with some things and he’s still fighting the issues But, he’s close.84

83 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 173.

84 Ibid, 164.

VOICE OF THE EARTH

I have had this strong sensation of the earth here. I’ll speak of it as the “voice of the earth” and that came through in a big way in the Symphony...85 - David Maslanka

Refocusing to Maslanka’s meditation journal, one can see glimpses of his underlying insecurities and uncertainties, which Green connected to the important meditation held in Maslanka’s compositional process.

MASLANKA (meditation notes): a further thought arises: I am prepared, can do what is necessary. People rely on me to do the necessary thing. I am free to do it. Will invent a spectacular thing.86

DIMEGLIO: You’ve talked before of his insecurity and feelings of trauma from abandonment of not having many friends when his family left their religion. Do you think that when he’s meditating that it's partially motivational for him and reassuring himself that he can do this?

GREEN: Meditation was absolutely essential for him. He couldn’t do without it. He absolutely wasn’t able to write anything without some sort of motivation from deep within himself. I think he would retreat into those places in order to find himself. He would walk a lot and he would meditate. I think that is what caused him to be able to write. I don’t think he was able to write without it. David was very sensitive, and he just had real self-doubt a lot... A lot of that insecurity I think is caused from that inability to come to grips with who he is and why he is. I wondered sometimes when you’d have these beautiful themes that he would write and then out of this would come this gnarly, twisted kind of march, nasty. I think that was him coming to grips with who he was and his own emotions. I think he depended on meditation. He needed it.

85 Ibid, 143.

86 David Maslanka, “Meditation Notes” typed for Gary Green by David Maslanka, 1991.

Green went on to talk about the life change Maslanka experienced around the time of their first meeting. Maslanka’s move from New York City to Montana was a big energy shift and affected him greatly. Specifically, the proximity to nature and openness shaped his meditation and self-discovery.

GREEN: When I first met him, he and his wife Alison were living in New York. I had just moved from the pacific northwest to Connecticut, which was a culture shock. A place with mountains, fantastically beautiful, but also kind of scary because it’s so big. And then you go to a place like Connecticut or New York and there are people everywhere. So, he was leaving that metropolitan area and going to a place where there was nothing and I wondered how he was going to be able to handle that. His wife was totally ready to do that. But he loved it out there. He found things that he had never thought about before. Indians, and cowboys, and wide-open spaces. He thought about that a lot and he loved it.87

In an interview in 2004, Maslanka shared an aligned perspective:

MASLANKA (interview, Alston): ...the difference between New York City and here [Montana] is extreme. In New York, there is a necessity to be not only mentally alert when you are outside, but also mentally defended, because there is just so much energy, so many people and so much intensity. If you are open to it all, it just burns you. Here, the situation is almost the opposite. There is no real strong population pressure. There are fewer than a million people here in the whole state. It is very easy to leave here and be out in the middle of nothing...quite literally. That kind of openness to a very big landscape happened and I began to come out of myself in a particular way. I have had this strong sensation of the earth here. I’ll speak of it as the “voice of the earth” and that came through in a big way in the Symphony...88

While the landscape of Montana assisted Maslanka in his meditation, the openness was daunting. The congestion and overpopulation of New York City frightened Maslanka,

87 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021.

88 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 143.

50 however the stark contrast of Montana’s openness initiated a new feeling of trepidation in the composer when he relocated.

Despite the uncertainties, Maslanka embraced his new environment and utilized long walks through the Montana wilderness for his meditation practice. A letter dated

August 15, 1990, mentions an early realization by Maslanka that nature would be very beneficial to him:

MASLANKA (letter to Green): It seems that we will be closer to wilderness. We have done some very small walks in the closest national forest and it’s very beautiful and peaceful there. Having spent 16 years in the middle of NYC I’m looking for a time of absolute quiet so that I can hear nature and myself directly.89

PROGRAMMATIC CONSIDERATIONS

...this is not music about images, it is a musical version of those images...90 - David Maslanka

The meditation journal discussed in this chapter, and presented in its complete form in the appendix of this project, is an intriguing document that sheds light on

Maslanka’s deep, personal meditation and self-exploration. Since this journal is so clearly linked to the Third Symphony, it is tempting to use the document as a thematic guide to this music, which Brent Alston attempted as part of his analysis of the Third Symphony

89 David Maslanka to Gary Green. August 15, 1990. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

90 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 169.

51 in his Doctoral Essay in 2004. However, in an interview, the composer expressed his hesitance to connect any particular image to any particular musical thought.

MASLANKA (interview, Alston): I don’t necessarily want to apply a specific picture to a specific element in the music. My feeling for it is that it might be just as useful to simply report that these were the meditation influences that underline this movement in the music . . . and then to discuss the piece of music as a piece of music . . . when you try to become more specific than that you can make statements that are not necessarily true. The qualities of image and power that emerge in meditation allow the creation of a parallel musical statement which is itself, but it is not linked measure by measure to a description of the image. So, this is not music about images, it is a musical version of those images...91

Conductors seek to know and understand as much about works and composers as possible and strive for complete understanding and nuance whenever possible. This thought from Maslanka is concerning because it questions the exact methods by which many conductors operate. In response to these considerations, I asked Green about his thoughts on treating Maslanka’s music as programmatic and if he thinks the imagery shared in Maslanka’s journal justifies the analysis of his music being driven by a programmatic lense.

DIMEGLIO: Do you consider all of Maslanka’s music to be programmatic? It seems like all of his music was based on imagery, whether it came from a book, from him, or someone else. Do you consider it programmatic, and should we all approach it in that way?

GREEN: I think it depends on your definition of programmatic. I don’t think that it always follows a real story line, but I do think it’s always motivated and inspired by his feeling toward whomever is asking him to write. He wanted to know who that person was and what they were interested in. That was pretty consistent with all my dealing with him. So, if that’s the definition of programmatic then I suppose that it is.

91 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 169.

But it is not programmatic in a sense that his music is not always predictable, in that the symbols are sometimes disguised to the point that they are unrecognizable as a real image. Poetry doesn’t always have to be a flower. It can be something else. It conjures up an emotion or a response from the person that’s reading it or experiencing it. I suppose that it is programmatic, but I also think it’s poetic in that regard. David never wrote with a “hero” or storyline in mind. I don’t consider his music to be programmatic, although all of his music was influenced by the human condition.

DIMEGLIO: How important is it for conductors to be aware of [the meditative] images that inspired his writing? Were these images important to him to write [the piece], and now we should just play the music? Or should we also have a knowledge of these images so that we know how to approach it?

GREEN: To the extent that you can, you should know everything you can about every piece you’re going to conduct. That is absolutely essential for every [conductor], and each person can find their own vision and sense of meaning through hearing and experiencing his music. But [consider] Mahler . . . His thoughts and feelings are right there for the world to see . . . Mahler was very descriptive in his scores. There are volumes written about the meaning of the words that he wrote in those scores. I think that David has a specific idea, so if a person can find out more about why music is the way it is . . . not all music is this way. Some of it’s programmatic to the point that this is black and this is white, but this music is far more in depth. It’s never simple, it’s never easy to understand, but it’s always motivated by human condition.92

An interview from 2001 allows an understanding of Maslanka’s own perspective on this subject, as Dr. Robert Ambrose posed the question to the composer himself. Their discussion is in regard to Maslanka’s Second Symphony, and Maslanka uses the second movement Deep River to explain what is and is not programmatic about his music:

AMBROSE: Well there’s such an element of a programmatic nature to your writing and often when we think of programmatic music, we think, “This is definitively what the composer had in mind.” But I get a different sense from the symbolism and the programmatic nature of what you do.

92 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021, and Gary Green, interview by author, 20 March, 2021.

MASLANKA: Well even though there are pictures on it, even though you have the Deep River song and you have a description of the river and the movement itself has this . . . cataclysmic water quality, even though you can say in the first movement, you’ve got a tidal wave and that it’s chaotic and destructive, that’s a focusing point. A person can take that and say “Oh, that I can understand,” but the reality for them is not that. They have never experienced [it] actually . . . These are metaphors for an unnamed, unspoken, sense of self and of soul.93

The imagery conjured by Maslanka during his meditation and revealed through his letters and meditation journals may lead conductors to try to understand and interpret his music through a programmatic lens; however, Maslanka is documented as advising against this, causing concern. Maslanka does offer a potential solution, however, by advising that conductors approach musical experiences as conductors from a different perspective. In

2013, while being interviewed by Kate Sutton, Maslanka said, “You talk about describing my piece and describing band music . . . but you need to begin to understand your direct relationship to your own life, so this allows for the powerfully deep connection to what you’re doing as opposed to the general surface description of what you’re doing.”94

Clearly, according to Maslanka, meditation and inward exploration are essential for any musician wishing to connect deeply to their music-making.

When asked by Sutton about what it means to him to have others write about his work, he responded, in part, “There is a warm sense of appreciation that you have interest

. . . if I have a hope here, it is that your entering the thinking process about this is also entering the feeling process, is also entering the opening process in yourself, and the

93 Robert Joseph Ambrose, “An Analytical Study of David Maslanka’s Symphony No. 2” (DMA essay, Northwestern University, 2001) 338. 94 Kate L. Sutton, “David Maslanka and the Natural World: Three Studies of Music for Wind Ensemble” (Thesis, Florida State University, 2014) 83.

54 exploring process of how you work as a human being.”95 This can be read to mean that

Maslanka’s compositional goal was centered on the participant (musician) and the observer (listener) experiencing an emotional and “opening” response, inspiring them to find something new inside themselves. Perhaps Maslanka intended his music to conjure meditative experiences and, therefore, benefit humankind. Without delving into musical analysis, the minimalist and repetitive nature of Maslanka’s music, combined with massive orchestration and harmonic content propelled by the elongated building of tension, is certainly capable of eliciting a meditative response from conductors, performers, and audiences.

In his contributing chapter of Composers on Composing for Band, Maslanka wrote:

Music must affect the composer forcefully, and the music he or she creates must communicate an energy forcefully to someone else. Much has been made of the idea that the composer should not try to dictate feeling to a listener, that we are all separate beings, and one person cannot possibly know the experience of another or have the same response to a piece of music. I disagree with these ideas altogether. Like that of spoken language, the evolution of musical language has been a communal venture for as long as humans have inhabited this planet. The perception of music rests on thousands of years of shared feelings, and people are built pretty much like one another. The hard wiring is the same. Ways of perceiving and learning are comparable, and perception of music will be comparable.96

95 Sutton, “David Maslanka and the Natural World,” 93.

96 David Maslanka, “David Maslanka,” in Composers on Composing for Band, Volume Two, ed. Mark Camphouse (Chicago, Illinois: GIA Publications, 2004), 208.

Finally, in a letter dated April 8, 1991, Maslanka shares his sentiment regarding the non- programmatic tendencies of his music in one poetic sentence: [It’s] not that [the music] illustrates a story, but rather is a musical translation of the lives of tension.97

97 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 8, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

CHAPTER 6

MEDITATIVE INFLUENCE

AMERICAN INDIAN HERITAGE REVEALED

In this kind of meditation contact, a critical issue about a person's life will emerge, a focal issue that they may not even know. In Gary’s case it had to do with his deeper background, the fact that his great-grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian.98 - David Maslanka

One of the most meaningful and transformative experiences Gary Green had during the commissioning of Maslanka’s Third Symphony occurred when Green’s own ancestry was discovered and addressed by Maslanka. Throughout his youth, Green had intentionally hidden that his ancestors were indigenous American Indians, a choice that stemmed from a childhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where racism was prevalent.

GREEN: When I was a child, I lived in Oklahoma in a little town just outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was the home of many racial riots and racial problems. There were deep-seated feelings about integration and segregation in Oklahoma, the same as there were in the deep south. I can clearly remember going shopping downtown with my mother and there would be water fountains, one marked “white” and one marked “colored.” It’s hard to believe. There was a large population of American Indians in Oklahoma: Choctaw, Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Seminole. It turns out that my great-great-grandmother was full blood Cherokee Indian. I didn’t want people to know that I was Indian. I went out of my way to make sure that nobody knew that. Your life takes you a lot of different ways. It takes you a long time to grow up, actually. I don’t know how, but David found out that I have Indian heritage. He took that baton, and he found out through meditation.99

98 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 26-27.

99 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021.

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In a letter dated April 8, 1991, just before he completed the Third Symphony, Maslanka wrote to Green with some brief details about the piece, including a reference to the meditation notes explored earlier in this chapter. This letter also confirms Green’s statements regarding the American Indian influence on this piece.

MASLANKA (letter to Green): Before long I’ll make up my meditation notes for you so that you can get a feel for what pushed this piece along.100 I’ll also return your baton. I think it would be appropriate to conduct the piece with the stick that I used to start the meditation process. It gave me some insight into your anglo-indian background and led me along the Indian path. The first movement deals directly with the conflict of Indian and white - not that it illustrates a story, but rather is a musical translation of the lives of tension. There is the pity that the Indian has been mostly destroyed, yet the knowledge that the Indian gift to the world is still being made and is growing stronger. The Symphony has to do in part with the emergence of that first. More later.101

At the end of that month, Maslanka sent another letter to Green which amounted to more than six pages, all focused on meditation. This complete letter is provided in the appendix of this document. Pulled from that letter is this paragraph regarding American Indian images which came to Maslanka while meditating on Green’s baton.

MASLANKA (letter to Green): Distinguishing between stuff from your subconscious (which is personal and which people accept as real without much trouble) and stuff from the “collective unconscious” (which is the psychic experience of the human race at large and over eons and which people find harder to accept) is sometimes not easy. Images that are clearly outside your own life experience will begin to come through. This is where I have found my spirit helpers and where the major symbols of life and death take on great power for me. For instance I have two Indian helpers whom I call Old Grandmother and Old Grandfather. I can find them almost at will in my meditations and they help me to

100 This is a reference to the meditation notes shared throughout Chapter 5 of this document, and also include in Appendix C.

101 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 8, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

see emotional things that trouble me. Why these powers should be presented to me as Indians I don’t know. But I came across them in New York City and they are still with me here in Montana. For some reason the connection with Indian psychic force is very strong in me. This explains in part my connection to you.102

As expressed here, Maslanka did not know why his meditative “guides” were in the form of people of American Indian descent and did not know why this “Indian psychic force” was so strong within him. Green was similarly shocked and confused, as Maslanka’s discovery of Green’s American Indian ancestry stunned Green. Green struggled to understand how Maslanka made this discovery, and he was also faced with the subsequent musical aspects of the Third Symphony that were clear derivations of his own discovered ancestry.

GREEN: The symphony came to me in five pieces. The first movement he sent me was the second movement, which is the slow movement and really quite beautiful. Just prior to the halfway mark of the second movement is a baritone saxophone solo, in the upper register (sings the melody), and I recognized that right away as being Indian.103 I was upset about it, really upset. I almost wrote him and told him I’m not doing this. This is the crux of the symphony, and probably is the thing that should drive [our] thinking about this symphony. It has to do with that baton. I said, “How do you know these things?” And he told me he wasn’t sure how he knew, he just knew. While I was reticent, I still had this piece that was from him. I loved him and I didn’t want to let him down, but I was conflicted with regard to his meditation process because I wasn’t sure that I wanted to go through the agony of dying so that I could be reborn. But I had to face all those things.

GREEN: He [Maslanka] was surrounded by Indian culture in Montana. Black Elk Speaks,104 etc. Further, in the first movement he talks about death and the need to die so that you can be reborn. That was his idea of me needing to find out who I really was and come to grips with it and say

102 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 23, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

103 David Maslanka. Symphony No. 3, Movement II Measure 92. New York: Carl Fischer, 1991/2007.

104 Black Elk Speaks is a book by John G. Neihardt that Maslanka recommended to Green in a letter dated May 10, 1991, calling it a “famous and important book.” This text was very meaningful to Maslanka and greatly influenced his meditative practices.

ok that’s who I am. And he was right. It was a struggle. There were a lot of things in it that frightened me, that I didn’t want to face, but that I did face because of him. I am eternally grateful for the lessons I learned, not only musical, but who I am as a human.105

In a 2004 interview with Brent Alston, Maslanka offered the following:

MASLANKA (interview, Alston): With that baton I began to feel some sense of his life energy. In this kind of meditation contact, a critical issue about a person's life will emerge, a focal issue that they may not even know. In Gary’s case it had to do with his deeper background, the fact that his great-grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian. And that was until this came up something that he was embarrassed about and tried to get past and leave behind. This whole process was something that I saw and felt; it was about that conflict of energy. Subsequent to that, he got into it and realized what was going on and began to open up again in a way that he had denied before.106

THE IMPORTANCE OF MEDITATION

First attempts at meditation are like first attempts at playing a new instrument. You can read about playing an instrument but nothing happens ‘til you actually play.107 - David Maslanka

As evidenced in his correspondence with Green, in which the focus was so often centered on meditation, there is no doubt that Maslanka held a firm belief in the importance of meditation. As his close friend, Maslanka wanted earnestly for Green to explore meditation, as he believed it would greatly benefit him personally and as a musician.

However, he often acknowledged Green’s reluctance and clearly stated that meditation

105 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021.

106 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 26-27.

107 David Maslanka to Gary Green. May 16, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

60 was not necessary in order for Green to be a complete or good person. In reference to

Maslanka’s meditation-fueled letter from May 10, 1991, excerpts of which have been included in previous chapters, Green stated:

GREEN: He was trying to teach me to meditate. Poor guy.108

DIMEGLIO: . . . Maslanka made multiple attempts to teach you how to meditate. Did you ever try it?

GREEN: No, I was reluctant. I thought I had to in order to understand where he was, and it probably would have helped me. But if I had entered into meditation as he was doing, or as he was trying to help me, I would have thought of it differently than he did because I’m a different person. The goal was to find out what he was doing, so I abandoned that to just listen to him and have him teach me what these symbols were in this music. So no, meditation was not part of that. Although, I think meditation is a good thing and that it’s beneficial. But I just couldn’t do it at the same creative level.109

While the meditation journal discussed here was sent to Green on May 10, 1991, another letter dated just six days later (May 16, 1991) includes yet another nudge from Maslanka regarding meditative practice, and clear encouragement for Green to try meditation with a guide rather than simply reading about the experience or learning from Maslanka’s own meditation. It is of importance to note that this letter accompanied the final score of

Symphony No. 3, however Maslanka spent the majority of his correspondence on a meditation opportunity for Green.

Dear Gary: Here is a clean copy of the Symphony score. I can’t get it bound adequately here in Missoula. I’m hoping you can get a good cover with

108 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021.

109 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021.

oversize binding put on it in your area. Make sure you get the oversize binding. Normal size just isn’t any good for music scores. I would like the Marimba Concerto score back at your leisure. If you can, make yourself a copy. This piece was just sent to Carl Fischer so you’ll have to deal with them for performance materials. If Rosemary wants a copy of the Marimba part I can send her one. I have enclosed the newest mailer from The Foundation for Shamanic Studies. If you can, get to one of their Basic Workshops. I have marked the one that might be possible for you. It’s good to do this stuff face to face with an expert, although my first experiments and experiences were on my own. I want to emphasize that reading about meditation is ok but doing it is the critical business. First attempts at meditation are like first attempts at playing a new instrument. You can read about playing an instrument but nothing happens til you actually play. You won’t be an expert the first time you try it! I look forward to hearing from you as all these things progress. Do remember to write down your meditation experiences no matter how puzzling they may seem. You’ll see patterns after a while. All best, David110

While Green did not attempt meditation, and therefore cannot speak to the experience or result, he did learn from Maslanka’s meditative experiences, and sought to understand meditation, and Maslanka, through their correspondence. Of great importance is Green’s openness to Maslanka’s spiritual journey and acceptance of his practices and beliefs which provided a great deal of meaning and importance to his music.

GREEN: With him, once it was done, then the transformation - the transcendence of it - made all the rest of it seem like it never existed. The idea that there was anything special about anybody except that they’re human-being-energy on the face of the earth, and struggle like everyone does. All that was given to me because of those conversations and because of that music. Not very many people really understand that, and I suspect that many people wouldn’t understand it because they didn’t go through it. I wonder what it would have been like to have been present when Stravinsky was writing The Rite of Spring and to enter that creative space

110 David Maslanka to Gary Green. May 16, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

with Diagolev. What were those conversations like? And what did they talk about? It’s just overwhelming to consider. The Indian [themes] are inserted throughout the entire piece. The fourth movement is filled with them. You can see and feel the depth of spirit and meaning during those times and the immersion of the spirit, soul, and intellect all going into one place, into a tiny little space and crammed in there. How much can you take? I had to learn how to deal with it all.111

For Gary Green, meditation, acceptance of his American Indian heritage, and allowing himself to consider what it meant to open himself to “death” and rebirth in order to find himself culminated in the way he embraced Symphony No. 3.

GREEN: When I stopped being a high school band director and began teaching in Connecticut, I knew it was for a reason. This opportunity, Symphony No. 3, was out there waiting for me. I know it sounds funny but it’s true. In all my experience I had always loved music, phrasing, color, etc., but I was never able to really put a human connection behind it and in support of it. It’s like being a painter or a poet, someone who has a grasp of real humanity. David wrote Symphony No. 3 and started talking to me about the first movement. It starts with a C major scale. It’s pretty tonal but turns brutal within 4 or 5 minutes. After our work together and in our discussions, I knew that he had discovered that I was Cherokee Indian, and that was shocking, but he was also telling me through the music that this music was signifying my death, and I didn’t want to hear that. He was telling me that in order for me to move beyond where I am now, I have to give up my life. This is consistent with Indian teaching and spirituality. But I didn’t want to hear that, and it was very difficult for me to teach that music knowing that all the technical things that we struggled with had a far deeper meaning. I didn’t want to do it, but it was something I had to go through. Of course, it was all meant in a metaphysical manner with spiritual implications, but it remained so very real to me.112

111 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021.

112 Gary Green, interview by author, September 23, 2020.

In an interview in 2004, Maslanka spoke about his belief regarding the need to experience death, in a sense, in order to truly chance and recover.

MASLANKA (interview, Alston): . . . there is no real change without crisis. Nothing really happens unless you are going to die and then you make change because you have to. The change that comes about by being seriously ill, almost to the point of death, I think is a really fundamental change, and I look back on it now, and I know from reading and from other people that this coming close to death can have the effect of opening something particular in a person. I know that I was really quite close to it all in my early 30’s. Once I got through that and recovered, the opening had taken place. . . . I think what serious illness does is to help to strip away who you think you are. It strips away the ego to the point where another thing can come forward. Another part of the person or another part of your soul . . . can show itself. I think it is hard to talk about fate in relation to this, but I think that people who become artists and who become good ones have such experiences. That was for me the turning point. The fact that I had been so emotionally ill and through alcohol I came very close to killing myself. Coming out of that, I was a different person. The thing that opened in me is this idea of seeing a larger power than my own mind and being able to be in contact with it in whatever way through what I call the meditative process. It was a reaching out from the conscious mind to those places which were not conscious. It has been a process ever since. By the time I started the Symphony for Gary, I had already done a fair amount of work in that process. I was able to look to some depth into what Gary was, what the need for the piece was and to also to hear in some depth a voice of the land here that wanted to speak. That’s where I started the piece with Gary by doing the meditative process and asking to see things. So I did a number of meditations. I came up with a fairly strong sense of the power that was in Gary and some of the issues that he held in him. Particularly his Native American heritage, that seemed to want to come forward.113

113 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 143-144.

CHAPTER 7

SYMPHONY NO. 3 REFLECTIONS

LETTERS ACCOMPANYING THE MOVEMENTS OF SYMPHONY NO. 3

He was steadfast to his sound world. He knew what he wanted and that’s what he would write for.114 - Gary Green

The Third Symphony was delivered to Gary Green in five parts, one movement at a time. Each movement arrived in score form and was accompanied by a note from

Maslanka. Although brief, these notes are of great importance. While there is no record of a note to accompany the first movement, this note sent with the second movement, dated March 18, 1991, gives a glimpse into the timeline of Maslanka’s compositional process, as the composer planned to complete movement three just two weeks after the completion of movement two. Letters dated April 8, 1991 and April 15, 1991 show

Maslanka’s progress further. By April 15, 1991, he had completed his meditation process and mailed Green’s baton back to him, while also estimating that movement four would be mailed just one week later. Green received the entire score on May 16, 1991.115

Additionally, a taste of Maslanka’s personality can be gleaned from his tone in his other remarks.

114 Gary Green, interview by author, March 16, 2021.

115 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021.

64 65

March 18, 1991 Here is the second movement. The third will probably come in about two weeks. I still have to finish composing it and it’s a hefty movement in terms of number of score pages. The 4th and 5th movements are composed and are slower in tempo, so not so many pages of score. I can begin to see glimmers of daylight ahead!116

April 8, 1991 Here’s III. The happy thing for copying is that the recap is almost an exact repeat of the exposition. Mm 221-321 (pp 110-132) are exactly the same as mm 8-108. If you arrange your copying properly you can xerox instead of recopying the recap.117

April 15, 1991 Here’s page 106. Also the baton. Hope that fourth movement is in the mail by 4/22. It’s not as dense as the third, so copying should be easier.118

Maslanka references part copying in these notes because Gary Green offered to copy all parts for the Third Symphony by hand. This was a massive undertaking but was taken on by Green because there were no funds available for part copying.119 Maslanka felt most comfortable writing his scores by hand and was resistant to digital notation as well as the playback component which he believed distracted the compositional process.

GREEN: [At the premiere] the Symphony was being performed from my handwritten parts, which were not very clear. You can imagine trying to play from that – awful! I worked really hard . . . and dedicated myself to him, and it just didn’t work out. It took 8 months, working every day, to finish that set of parts. I simply was not a great calligrapher, and he was

116 David Maslanka to Gary Green. March 18, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

117 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 8, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

118 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 15, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

119 Matthew Maslanka, David’s son, later produced a set of digital parts using Green’s written parts for reference. There was a consortium of conductors that paid for the digitization.

unhappy that those parts were not better because people had to play from them, and they weren’t going to be as tolerant as my students.120

In the following note, included in a letter dated June 2, 1991, after the completion of the symphony, Maslanka mentioned an error in the score, specifically in movement four, measures 237-249. It should be noted that in the current printing of Symphony No.

3, these measures are on page 191 of the score and not, as Maslanka stated, on page 183.

In the current printing, the remnants of a sharp sign (#) remain on several of the clarinet

Es, where Maslanka erased this error. The remaining pencil marks are clear enough to convince a conductor to consider the E-sharp; however, Maslanka’s letter makes it very clear that this is an error, and all Es should be played as E-natural in this section.

I have discovered a small but glaring error in the 4th movement. P. 183, m. 237-m. 249. Every time “E” appears in each of the clarinet parts, it should be E-natural and not E#. The chord is a sustained C#-minor chord from m. 235 through m. 249.121

In a very brief and undated note, Maslanka asked Green for his opinion regarding the trumpet instrumentation for the symphony. This seemingly inconsequential note helps reveal the collaboration between Green and Maslanka. There was a mutual trust between the two men that resulted in a respectful working relationship.

MASLANKA (letter to Green): Here it is! Look at 1st trumpet part and decide what instrument is appropriate. Bb? Maybe not. C? D?122

120 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021, and Gary Green, interview by author, March 22, 2021.

121 David Maslanka to Gary Green. June 2, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

122 David Maslanka to Gary Green. No date. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

GREEN: The ranges were excessive, and I think he was trying to accommodate what might be an easier experience for the player to play the part. But then there were times when we would talk about timbre [and] what kind of a trumpet sound [he was] trying to achieve. . . He would ask those questions and the honest truth is that a lot of times we would substitute trumpets if it was easier for the students to play. Instead of playing on a C trumpet we’d play on Eb, or whatever we had to do to get the part right.

DIMEGLIO: This is one of the rare letters that had such a “nuts and bolts” question. Did those conversations with him happen more over the phone, or were there not a lot of them?

GREEN: We would have conversations about difficulty. If you’ve ever experienced one of his Eb clarinet parts on any of his pieces, we had a lot of conversations about that. But he was pretty steadfast to his sound world. He knew what he wanted and that’s what he would write for.123

MUSICAL IMPLICATIONS BASED ON THE COMPOSER’S REVIEWS OF PERFORMANCES OF SYMPHONY NO. 3

We will sweep up the missed notes after the performance. Better to miss the notes than the meaning of the music.124 - David Maslanka

In a letter dated April 27, 1993, Maslanka wrote to Green about a performance of

Symphony No. 3 which he heard via recorded tape. The letter is provided here in full, as it provides insight into musical aspects that were important to Maslanka. Green’s elaborations in response provide further understanding and detail.

123 Gary Green, interview by author, March 16, 2021.

124 Gary Green, “Program Notes,” University of Miami Wind Ensemble, (March 27, 2003), 3.

Dear Gary: Good to talk with you yesterday - my thoughts are with you as you make the transition to Miami. All the feelings are deep and hard, but you can draw real strength from the departure process - and this is an evolution, not a divorce. Here is Tim Salzman’s tape of [Symphony] No. 3 (ie, a dub of a dub, but the music is there.) This performance was at University of Calgary, his third public performance of the piece, and three days after our work session in Kalispell. I love the intention of Tim and his players in this performance. They understand what they are aiming for though there are dozens of things still to clean and polish. But the line and energy are alive and well. If there is one consistent fault, it is that Tim is too hasty with faster tempos. The first movement is on the fast side. The very opening - being able to count out a full 5/4 bar - But then they hold the movement together well at what amounts to a headlong tempo. Second movement is well-made. It breathes properly. But the coda starts too fast and gives the game away before it’s played. Third movement is a touch too fast, yet stands up very well, all things considered. Tempo pushes too fast in the recap. Tim prefers to beat half notes rather than quarters, and this results in pushed tempo and a slight back in internal tension. I like a lot his treatment of the fugue, especially when it gets to the offbeat brass. These finally sound fierce and aggravated enough. Fourth movement shape is good, needs lots of polish, more strength from soloists; faster things push too fast. Again the game is given away too quickly when things get pushed. Fifth movement is remarkably firm in pace, line, and shape. He had a weak euphonium soloist, so divided the final solo between Horn and Euphonium. Also on tape is Duncanville performance of Golden Light. Thanks again for the Euphonium solo tape. Matthew is impressed. He can get overwhelmed. As an unbiased doting parent, I can say that Matt has a fine natural talent and could be a brilliant player! I am working not to push him too fast or allow others to push him too fast. All for now. David125

A decade after this performance review, Maslanka sent a short note to Green about another performance of Symphony No. 3.

125 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 27, 1993. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

There are balance and player issues, but this presentation is insightful and musical. The layout and intensity of the fourth and fifth movements especially pleases me. As you well know (!) These are the movements where exhaustion sets in.126

TEMPO

Tempo: this is, along with rhythm, the most important aspect of David’s music to play accurately. No other element more directly affects the character of the piece.127 - Matthew Maslanka

In the letter from April 27, 1993, Maslanka frequently critiques the tempo of the performance. His meticulous and unwavering demand for the exact right tempo is documented in his letters which often serve as casual performance reviews and is confirmed in Green’s accounts of their work together. In a section on suggestions for score study in “Composers on Composing for Band,” Maslanka began his comments by instructing conductors that they should “begin study with a metronome and use the metronome until you have internalized the pulse rates for the whole piece. Understanding the rate at which the composer intends the music to unfold is the groundwork for opening into full power.”128

DIMEGLIO: Is tempo something that really affected him?

GREEN: He was often really strange about things like that. He had a clear and specific idea of what he wanted. He knew what he wanted generated

126 David Maslanka to Gary Green. July 6, 2003. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

127 Matthew Maslanka, “Performing the Music of David Maslanka: Guidelines for Success,” davidmaslanka.com.

128 David Maslanka, “David Maslanka,” in Composers on Composing for Band, Volume Two, ed. Mark Camphouse (Chicago, Illinois: GIA Publications, 2004), 204.

emotionally from his music. And he would change his mind about tempo, often, as long as the musical intent remained. When we were at Connecticut doing A Child’s Garden of Dreams, he thought it was too slow; when we did it with UM [University of Miami] at CBDNA National, in rehearsal, he thought it was too fast and it was exactly the tempo he indicated. I think a lot of that had to do with the space he was in and how he was feeling at the moment. Tim is a fine, fine musician.129 Terrific. So, these must have been things David was hearing on the tape and just reacting to. I don’t know what Tim’s reaction to them was. I’ve never talked to him about it.

DIMEGLIO: Do you think [Maslanka] equated tempo with emotion, in general?

Tempo is a critical component of Maslanka’s music. As explained by Green,

Maslanka’s compositional goal was to elicit an emotional response which relied heavily on the visceral intensity achieved through executing the desired tempo. In an article titled

“Performing the Music of David Maslanka: Guidelines for Success” written by David

Maslanka’s son Matthew Maslanka, tempo is indicated as the most important aspect of his music.

MATTHEW MASLANKA: Tempo: this is, along with rhythm, the most important aspect of David’s music to play accurately. No other element more directly affects the character of the piece.

129 This is a response to Maslanka’s letter dated April 27, 1993, in which he gives an informal review of a performance led by Tim Salzman.

130 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021.

By all means, practice at slower tempos for accuracy or work on ensemble, but come performance time, 180 is 180. Slow down only when it’s marked: he was very specific about when and how much to slow down. . . our natural tendencies to pull back slightly at the end of phrases are often at odds with what he has written.131

Similarly, according to Gary Green, “Maslanka did not like rubato. Just play.”

In a now infamous rehearsal with Green and Maslanka at the University of

Connecticut, Maslanka responded to the third movement of A Child’s Garden of

Dreams being rehearsed slower than marked by saying, “We will sweep up the missed notes after the performance. Better to miss the notes than the meaning of the music. Please do not impose your restrictions on my music!”132

Lauren Denney Wright, a former doctoral student at the University of Miami, worked with Maslanka on a performance of his piece Give Us This Day. In her Doctoral

Essay, she includes a transcript of a rehearsal, during which Maslanka is particularly adamant about tempo, even asking Wright, “Do you have a metronome handy?” and then addressing the ensemble to say, “You are capable of playing this at that speed so there is no reason to drop back. Really important to have that mental concept that this is the tempo of this music and lesser is ok, but it is not really what the music is.” Even after the ensemble moves past this section, Maslanka continues to interject throughout the rehearsal to address tempo throughout the piece.133

131 Matthew Maslanka, “Performing the Music of David Maslanka: Guidelines for Success,” davidmaslanka.com.

132 Gary Green, “Program Notes,” University of Miami Wind Ensemble, (March 27, 2003), 3.

133 Lauren Denney Wright, “A Conductor’s Insight Into Performance and Interpretive Issues in Give Us This Day by David Maslanka” (Doctoral essay, University of Miami, 2010) 86.

C MAJOR SCALE

He stopped me over and over until that scale was metered exactly how he wanted it to be. It was maddening.134 - Gary Green

David Maslanka’s Symphony No. 3 opens with a C major scale played by all of the wind instruments, plus double bass, ascending and descending, one measure per note, for the first 16 measures. This seemingly simple gesture, easily recognized by any musician, is anything but simple when considering the polarizing and passionate reactions it elicits. Maslanka did not write this scale to be a meaningless warmup, and, in fact, was very specific about how it should be played. It is important to note that within this 16-measure scale Maslanka includes two bars in 5/4. One extra beat is provided in measure 7 on the ascending “ti” and in measure 14 on the descending “re,” which could be attributed to Maslanka’s affinity and curiosity for “certain ways of using the half step...they seem to have a particular fascination.”135

This scale is mentioned in the letter dated April 27, 1993, which offers a brief glimpse into the importance of the scale.

MASLANKA (letter to Green): The first movement is on the fast side. The very opening - being able to count out a full 5/4 bar - But then they hold the movement together well at what amounts to a headlong tempo.136

134 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021.

135 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 146.

136 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 27, 1993. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

This opening scale is also mentioned in a letter from a few months earlier, dated

January 12, 1993.

MASLANKA (letter to Green): The Symphony was broadcast here in Missoula on KUFM last Saturday. The commentary was offhand and perfunctory but the piece sounds just fine on the radio. It was placed next to the last works of Sibelius, a composer whom I’ve always liked - And I am pleased to say our piece compares very favorably with those of the Master. His 9th Symphony137 (also in C) starts with a scale as well - His is pure minor, however, and the whole effect is very different of course.138

Green interpreted these excerpts as he expanded on just how important the timing and pacing of this scale really were to Maslanka. He recounted his own experience rehearsing the scale, calling Maslanka’s insistence on a consistent tempo “maddening,” while also explaining his own negative predisposition to the inclusion of the scale itself:

GREEN: I read something in here that shocked me, and I didn’t realize it until I read it again - he said that one of the Sibelius symphonies begins with the C minor [scale]. One of the things that I did not care for about the Symphony was that C major scale at the beginning. And the reason why I didn’t care for it was because it was too bandy to me. I had been a high school band director for over 20 years, and when you warm up a band you do chorales and scales. It wasn’t just meaningless - you were teaching concept and tone and balance and blend - but it was something that you did at the beginning of rehearsal. It could be mindless, or it could be real. I was a high school band director for a long, long time, and a big piece of me is still a high school band director. But the thing that I grew from was the need to know more about music with people that knew how to play. So, as I grew away from a high school environment, I longed for people that could understand how to play their instruments and make a great tone and we didn’t need to do a Bb major scale or the F concert or whatever. In our universe there was a connotation to that C major scale that didn’t appeal to me for that reason. As a matter of fact, some well-known conductors did not and do not play that piece [Maslanka’s Third Symphony] because of their distaste for that C major scale. It was also something that I didn’t want to have to

137 This is a mistake by Maslanka. The Sibelius symphony he intends to mention is the Seventh Symphony.

138 David Maslanka to Gary Green. January 12, 1993. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

deal with. So, when I conducted through the C major scale, he didn’t like my tempo through those whole notes. In this letter (April 27, 1993) he refers to the 5/4 bar [measure 7] which, he says, was too hasty. That’s exactly what he’s talking about. The tempo there is not a real kind of thing that you would think of like in A Child’s Garden of Dreams or even the Symphony, but it refers to an ability to maintain a structured time beginning to end on that scale, and boy he was adamant about it. He stopped me over and over until that scale was metered exactly how he wanted it to be. It was maddening. But for him, it had real structure and it had to be that way. And he was specific about that 5/4 bar. That 5/4 bar is on the “ti” before it goes to “do” and then it goes into 4/4 time again.139

When looking at the score or hearing it performed, one can easily imagine that

Maslanka’s Third Symphony could start just as naturally in measure 17, omitting the C major scale as well as the culminating “ad lib.” arpeggios held in a fermata in measure

16. Mr. Green gave his thoughts on this, as well as what makes this scale so significant, why it is included, and if the piece could or should begin without it.

DIMEGLIO: What do you think is the significance of that scale? The piece could easily start without it.

GREEN: It could, but that would be completely unacceptable in my mind. It is David Maslanka, and it is a person who has taught me so much. It’s difficult for me to put myself in a place where I would say that I would, in any way, question him. But there’s that piece of me that rejects it. I’ll tell you where [the scale] came from. Malcolm Rowell, who was the Band Director at the University of Massachusetts - and, I might add, a phenomenal man and a great band director - would warm up his band with a scale every rehearsal, and David would be there listening to it. He heard it and he thought, “Well, I’ll just start my symphony with a C major scale.” So that’s the simple fact of where that thing came from. I’ve heard every [speculation, like] “it’s a simple gesture of a journey through an hour-long symphony that culminates in the fifth movement,” but the plain truth is that it came from a warmup in Malcolm Rowell’s band room, and that's what David told me. This strengthened my idea that I didn’t want to do it. I listened to [the Third Symphony] not too long ago because I just wanted to revisit it, but it’s that scale. When it gets to the harmonized adlib. [measure 16] I

139 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021.

don’t mind that so much. And then of course the journey that begins thereafter is phenomenal. That is virtually a scale again, but transformed a million times over. Many of David’s “song” ideas have come from various experiences in his travel. For example, the motif in the third movement of A Child’s Garden of Dreams - the drum section (sings) - came from a basketball game with John Paynter at Northwestern. The drums in the pep band were playing (sings percussive motif) and David said, “I think that would make a good motif,” so he took it. Honestly, after this many years of hearing the Third Symphony so often, I don’t mind the scale at all.140

This opening C major scale was anything but a throwaway for Maslanka. Reflecting on his colleague, Rowell, Maslanka said in 2004, “His warmup would be to do a scale up and down and then do the chord. I thought it was beautiful. It stuck in my mind and I started hearing that as a real musical idea.”141 Regardless of whether or not the piece could function naturally without the scale, the scale which Maslanka wrote and clearly believed in most certainly should not be omitted.

Similarly, the key of C in general held great importance to Maslanka. “I have to say that I have a particular drawing thing which pulls me toward C for certain kinds of feelings...they are large and powerful statements of the awareness of a divine energy…”142 This statement further supports Green’s insistence that this C scale is of great importance to this piece and was thoughtfully and intentionally placed at the start of this symphony, regardless of the initial inspiration.

140 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021.

141 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 146.

142 Kate L. Sutton, “David Maslanka and the Natural World: Three Studies of Music for Wind Ensemble” (Thesis, Florida State University, 2014) 90.

In an interview in 2001, Maslanka called this opening C major scale a

gesture [that] is a starting point that underlies the huge experience of that whole piece. . . I have found that the simple idea, when it shows up powerfully, will show up with a glow around it that will say, “This is something bigger than you know. . . I have had the sensitivity now to recognize when these ideas show up, and when they do have this potential.143

This scale has been considered by other writers, including Brenton Alston who, in his

Doctoral Essay, asserts that “The scale interestingly parallels with Maslanka’s approach to composition in that he is giving the ensemble a way to focus and settle into a creative space before they move into the main body of the Symphony.”144 Alston’s theory is intriguing. Furthermore, as described in Chapter 5 of this document, Maslanka’s compositional process involved an initial internal exploration through meditation that enabled him to focus and center himself before composing. This scale could be, as insinuated by Alston, a tangible and audible version of that same centering and focusing before the ensemble attends to this massive piece.

143 Robert Joseph Ambrose, “An Analytical Study of David Maslanka’s Symphony No. 2” (DMA essay, Northwestern University, 2001) 339.

144 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 35.

A CONDUCTOR’S INTERPRETATION

Don’t interpret, just play it.145 - Gary Green

Though Green and Maslanka had a close friendship, the relationship of composer and conductor was not altered as a result. During the compositional process of the Third

Symphony, and even into the rehearsal process, Green expressed his thoughts or concerns about some aspects of the work. However, Maslanka remained decisive about his composition and adamant that it remain as written.

DIMEGLIO: When you were in the process of this project with him, did you verbalize your distaste for starting the piece this way [with the C major scale]?

GREEN: I did, but he wrote it, and that’s the way it was. He rarely would change anything about his music once it’s on the page. Once, we were doing the symphony, and he had written the first clarinet part and it wasn’t even on the horn. It was below [the range of the instrument] and there was no fingering for it. [A student] went to David and said, “This isn’t on my horn” and David said, “You have to find a way to play it.” Of course we changed it, but he was pretty adamant. Don’t interpret it, just play it. He was a bit like Brahms in that respect. However, curiously, when you listen to recordings of it, they’re all different and they all have a different feeling to them. They inspire a different understanding in your emotional space as a listener - an active listener, not a passive listener. Any serious recording of Bach or Beethoven by great orchestras will be different and they will sound different to you. That’s what happened to David’s [music] and that’s because the musicians and the conductor hear it in a way they’re going to do it. Eric Whitacre’s like that. Once the composition is finished, it’s finished. A few years ago, Eric and I did a workshop in Texas on Lux Aurumque, which he arranged for me and the Texas All State Band to premiere. We were together in a room full of Texas band directors, each of us conducting Lux Aurumque, and his version was significantly different

145 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021.

from mine. The experience was awesome and very telling. After the session was over, Eric and I had a long discussion about what happened and how and why it happened. It was incredible. David was specific about things he wanted but then he would [make changes]. If he didn’t like the way something was going on, maybe in the hall or maybe the quality of the player, he would make adjustments so that the music came to be what it was going to be. The last piece I did with David was The Seeker with the Virginia All-State Band. I think it was just a little over a year before he died [2017]. And the pianist could not play the part that David wrote. David tried and tried to get him to play it and it wasn’t going to happen, so he rewrote the part right there in front of him, so that [he] could play it. So, he was specific about what he wanted, but it was at the moment of recreation, not necessarily the moment of creation - his act of writing the piece - but in the moment of the performance. That recreation of that piece on that day at that exact moment. He wanted things to be the way he had put them down. Having said that, I’ll say it again, he would change it.

DIMEGLIO: But not based on the inability of a group, or the opinion of the conductor, but just based on how he felt in that space?

GREEN: That’s right. That high school band experience [Virginia All- State] we had two days to put together a premier of a piece by a major composer [Maslanka], so he worked quickly and with purpose to have them realize the meaning of the work. The part on the page now is exactly what he wrote. You would never see the part that was played [by the piano in the premiere]. If you have a score and you listen to that performance, you would hear it differently. But the music stays exactly the way he wrote it.146

Maslanka’s determination to retain his music as originally written shows conviction in his composing, as well as determination in prohibiting the imposing of performance restrictions on his music. However, in moments of collaboration with live groups and conductors, Maslanka’s commitment to molding his music to the moment allowed for a unique performance each time.

146 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021.

In a 2001 interview with Dr. Robert Ambrose, Maslanka spoke regarding revising his compositions, saying, “I have always let things sit...pieces come into being at their time when the conception happens . . . and they become themselves embodying that energy and also whatever flaws exist . . . There are the things that every time I hear them I think, ugh. But I’m content to let things be. I’m much more interested in what’s happening at the moment.”147 This statement confirms

Green’s assertion that Maslanka was always working, and making decisions, in the moment.

Maslanka approached every performance as if it was a new life for the piece or, as

Green puts it, “a moment of recreation.” According to an interview in 2004, it was typical for Maslanka to prepare for a performance of his work through meditative imagining.

MASLANKA (interview, Alston): What I do when I visualize an ensemble is to have an imaginary auditorium space in which this ensemble is playing. Now, if I’ve been to the auditorium, yeah I can remember that. But I come back to it as if it were a dream space and go and watch them playing the music that I’m making. Watch the music; hear the music happening in the space. Also, I can sense the power, glow from the space. There’s also meditation, images of seeing a performance happening. This is specifically working with the performance of a piece that is already written. I want to have a sense of the performance space and see the thing happening and see how it’s going to be. That sounds a little strange but, what it does do is give me a sense of the energy flow that’s going on and a sense of confidence that, yes, it’s working. But in composing I almost always have a sense of working in the space that is going to be filled musically. My sense of drama in music is very much related to what it feels like to hear this music.148

147 Robert Joseph Ambrose, “An Analytical Study of David Maslanka’s Symphony No. 2” (DMA essay, Northwestern University, 2001) 303.

148 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 162-163.

This process served as a visualization for Maslanka, as he used his familiarity with a performance hall or an ensemble to mentally and aurally prepare for his upcoming work with a group. This pre-audiation of a performance must have greatly influenced how

Maslanka approached working with an ensemble, and sheds light on why each performance was treated as its own encapsulated lifecycle of the piece.

While Maslanka rarely conducted, this concept of preparation through auralization relates to score study common practice as a conductor. He even mentioned visualization in a statement about score study saying, “Visualizations can be useful.

Visualizations help you contact and bring to consciousness an underlying energy that is related to the music being studied.”149 Once again, Maslanka’s insistence on the importance of meditation and visualization provides a new perspective for score preparation for conductors.

THE COMPOSER’S PRESENCE

Technique provides clarity - the spirit provides inspiration.150 - Gary Green

Maslanka wanted his music to be brought to life through the intersection of correct reading and intense feeling. However, he did not often speak in favor of conductors

149 David Maslanka, “David Maslanka,” in Composers on Composing for Band, Volume Two, ed. Mark Camphouse (Chicago, Illinois: GIA Publications, 2004), 204.

150 Gary Green, “Foreword,” in Composers on Composing for Band, Volume Two, ed. by Mark Camphouse (Chicago, Illinois: GIA Publications, 2004), x.

81 interpreting his music and when asked to discuss the underlying meaning of his music, he would deflect and, instead, discuss what made the music correct.

MASLANKA (letter to Green): Some people are “inner” oriented, some “outer.” You and I make a necessary team because I am an “inner doer” and you are an “outer doer.” I could do your organizing and presenting job only with difficulty. I have a hard time with the external aspects of career. Your role in the production of this symphony has been intimate and crucial. For years you have had the growing internal need for this experience, so you have found the way to make contact with an official dreamer (me) who could shape the thing that you needed for your own spiritual evolution. Most of your internal work will be done without words, but you will open up and remake the connection to your Indian heritage and out of this will come the power to bring forward into the dominant white culture some needed aspects of the Indian spiritual power. This power has not died. It is waiting for channels through which to flow.151

DIMEGLIO: He talks about some people being inner-oriented, like him, and you being outer-oriented. He says he has had a hard time with the external aspects of his career, implying that maybe you’ve had some trouble with the “looking inward” aspects.

GREEN: That was his opinion. It’s a difficult thing to talk about because you have to have experienced it. For example, in his great book about Gustav Mahler, Bruno Walter wrote that he was a companion and champion of Mahler’s music. However, Walter also says that there were long periods of time when he would have nothing to do with Mahler because Mahler wouldn’t allow him to be himself. He wouldn’t allow him to feel his sense of being in a musical way. Mahler felt he was above all, and he would not allow Bruno Walter to have his own musical thoughts. David was a little bit like that. He would express himself - like his idea that it couldn’t be a good performance without him there was a very real thing to him. But it isn’t true. If that’s true, then there will never be another really good performance of any of David Maslanka’s music because he can’t be there. And of course there will be. There will be great, moving performances, because the gift has been given. So, whether with me or anyone, David was the key figure, as it should be. But he didn’t ever quite understand that the person that was working with him could actually offer anything. I think he softened on that a little bit, but early on not very much. He considered himself - his gift, the idea of who he was - to be the

151 David Maslanka to Gary Green. May 10, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

composer, and it was our responsibility to find his voice. He did conduct the Second Symphony once at UMass. He thought it to be an athletic thing, not a musical thing. But that’s the way he perceived it. He was a great friend and a great person to learn a lot from.152

Green’s anecdote expressing Maslanka’s belief that there could not be a good performance without Maslanka present is a reminder that the composer’s intentions should be at the forefront when preparing a score and performing his music. Maslanka’s presence at a rehearsal would ensure that the markings on the page were adhered to, and that liberties, especially regarding tempo, would not be taken. Therefore, conductors should read Maslanka’s scores as literally as possible, as to ensure that a unique interpretation will not divert the performance.

Maslanka’s son, Matthew, stated that “the most basic rule is: trust what’s on the page. David was meticulous in his attention to detail and meant every single marking he made. His writing is overwhelmingly prescriptive: there is very little room for personal interpretation of most of his music. . . stick to the page.”153

As a part of her Doctoral Musical Arts Project, Lane Weaver interviewed David

Maslanka and questioned him about how conductors should interpret his music, specifically related to his meditation walks and other experiences.

MASLANKA (interview, Weaver): . . . every time people select to play any music of mine, it’s a big adventure. . . The answer is first off not in philosophy, not in lots of talk about this, but in doing what’s on the page. That seems kind of a simplistic answer, but it’s fundamental. I had an email from a person who is about to conduct my Symphony No. 4 wanting to engage in kind of a philosophical discussion about the meanings of aspects of the Symphony. And I’m ok, fine. And I can respond in that

152 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021.

153 Matthew Maslanka, “Performing the Music of David Maslanka: Guidelines for Success,” davidmaslanka.com.

way, but I said the fundamental is notes, rhythms, and tempo...and dynamics. The big four... My job is to actually ask people to do what is there . . . as a conductor there is always limited time . . . No. Stop. Stop and listen. And listen deeply...And then they hear it and the thing comes to life because it is what it’s supposed to be, as opposed to something that they were doing which the conductor accepted because he was too busy in his own mind to think any deeper into it. The task is to bring people who are performing to the real quality of every specific instant. You start there and you spend the time that you have doing that. Yes, there’s reason to do whole gestures and whole movements and all that, too, but considerable amount of time spent in that specific “right here, right now” task. What that does is to give ownership to the players, because they’ve heard the real sound happen. And that ownership is the transition point. It’s the foundation for interpretation. It is the foundation for the spiritual energy that flows through. If you’re prepared as a conductor to experiment with the full range of dynamic markings and to experiment with colors, with actual sounds and balances, to experiment with sound related silence; then you become an observing consciousness as the full power of the music appears, and you are not attempting to direct it or tell it what to do.154

It is interesting that a composer who was so dedicated to the exploration of the inner-self asked conductors to live “on the page” when it came to his music. In his forward to

Composers on Composing for Band, Green provided some insight into how and why

David operated this way when working with conductors and ensembles.

GREEN: We must pay close attention to the musical details that are so important to the success of any performance. These details include pitch, technique, pulse, dynamics, line, and other matters of musical preparation. It becomes clear that if we accomplish those details, we are then ready to step effortlessly into the realm of the spirit. It is that selfless step that we must take in order to pay respect to the composer. Technique provides clarity - the spirit provides inspiration.155

154 Lane Weaver, “David Maslanka’s Symphony No. 7: An examination of analytical, emotional, and spiritual connections through a “Maslakian” approach” (Musical arts project, University of Kentucky, 2011) 161-163.

155 Gary Green, “Foreword,” in Composers on Composing for Band, Volume Two, ed. by Mark Camphouse (Chicago, Illinois: GIA Publications, 2004), x.

While Maslanka may not have been one to accept alterations made by a conductor or consider suggestions about revisions, he did learn from every rehearsal experience and allowed his experiences to shape his future work.

In my early work, I took my best guess and often wrote too much on the page. There is a nervousness about leaving blank spaces. My best ongoing instruction in orchestration is to hear pieces taken apart in rehearsals. I hear just the brass, just the winds, or even smaller parts from a texture, and understand that that sound would have been perfectly good all by itself. The more I have composed. The sparer my orchestration has become.156

156 David Maslanka, “David Maslanka,” in Composers on Composing for Band, Volume Two, ed. Mark Camphouse (Chicago, Illinois: GIA Publications, 2004), 203.

CHAPTER 8

THE LIFE OF SYMPHONY NO. 3

Holding on to the piece too long can make you sick. Neither you nor I will ever forget this music, or the time we had in producing it, but all the excitement of it has to be passed through the system - given back to God, as it were. Otherwise it overloads and causes burn-out. There is the possibility for a serious crash.157 - David Maslanka

Green and Maslanka had a long and complex relationship. Some of their most meaningful interactions have been documented in earlier chapters, including their first time working together (A Child’s Garden of Dreams at the University of Connecticut in

1987) and the commissioning of Symphony No. 3 for the University of Connecticut Wind

Ensemble in 1991. They also collaborated on several occasions while Green was Director of Bands at the University of Miami, including a performance at the Collegiate Band

Directors National Association conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota.158 After each of these events, Gary Green experienced a period of emotional exhaustion, during which he attempted to distance himself from Maslanka.

In a letter dated January 14, 1991, Maslanka shared some reflections upon listening to the premiere recording of his Third Symphony at the University of

Connecticut. He allowed himself to remain enthralled with Symphony No. 3 while simultaneously giving Green advice about moving on from the piece.

MASLANKA (letter to Green): The Symphony and the performance hold up well after numerous hearings. Couldn’t stop myself! The music doesn’t pound in my head quite so fiercely now, and I have managed to get a good start on the new piece for string orchestra. It will be a much lighter piece

157 David Maslanka to Gary Green. January 14, 1992. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

158 This performance included works by Brian Balmages, Michael Colgrass, and David Maslanka.

85 86

than The Symphony, in part because of limited rehearsal time. The players are professionals and will have their parts learned before they get together, but there will be only four rehearsals for the whole program - Thurs, Fri, Sat, and concert Saturday night (May 9). I hear echoes of The Symphony in this new piece but what the heck. Beethoven’s Seven Bagatelles sound a whole lot like his piano sonatas.159 A serious thought = I know that you are deeply involved with The Symphony - making the CD and then thinking about writing on the piece - I suppose all this will work itself through and that you will move smoothly onto other things. Holding on to the piece too long can make you sick. Neither you nor I will ever forget this music, or the time we had in producing it, but all the excitement of it has to be passed through the system - given back to God, as it were. Otherwise it overloads and causes burn-out. There is the possibility for a serious crash.160

A letter dated April 17, 1992 documents some of Maslanka’s reflections after working with Green on the premiere of Symphony No. 3 and after some time had passed.

Excerpts from this letter are offered here, with accompanying comments from Gary

Green.

MASLANKA (letter to Green): Dear Gary: I start this letter with a bunch of mixed emotions. It was a great pleasure to see you last week, and to do the kind of work we did with Steve’s band. On coming home I have crashed pretty hard. Inevitable, but difficult on everybody here. Am suddenly confronted with some heavy demands from the house: lawn repair, tree planting, new fences and endless details...forgot the garden. I have no creative energy for these things at the moment, but spring is here and I have no choice. It is hard giving out so much energy in music making. I couldn’t do it any other way, but sometimes I wish there was a way to sidestep the pain and the depression. Any clues?161

DIMEGLIO: He talks about how tired he is.

159 The identity of the string work mentioned here is unknown. Gary Green suggests it may not have come to fruition.

160 David Maslanka to Gary Green. January 14, 1992. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

161 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 17, 1992. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

GREEN: I would talk to David on the phone, and he would be so tired that you could barely hear him. His voice was so soft. He sounded just completely depleted, like he didn't have anything left. That’s the way it was with David. He was either down or up. Never a cheerleader at all, but when he was down, he was really down. He would get to a point where he couldn’t even get out of bed. His wife Alison would tell him this means you’re getting closer to a time when you need to write. He would get really tired and then when he would get at his lowest would be when he would begin to work.

DIMEGLIO: I would assume that the writing process was exhausting for him as well.

GREEN: It was, but once he was in it then it was something he was going to do, and he was challenged by it. When he would end it, he was exhausted again.162

It seems that for Maslanka, the commitment to compose was enough to fuel him through exhaustion to the completion of a piece. He explained to Brent Alston:

MASLANKA (interview, Alston): It’s a turn of mind. A certain earnestness. An unwillingness to do less than is required...There is something in me which, once it gets started on a musical composition, requires it to be the thing that it is supposed to be. It’s my work to find out what that is and to not let go until it is that.163

The April 17, 1992 letter continues:

MASLANKA (letter to Green): Working with Steve and his kids in rehearsal was a wonderful time of insight and sharing. There are times, when rehearsals reach their greatest depth and intensity, that it may seem like not much is happening: communications are brief and quietly spoken, and great and close attention is paid to the inner workings of the music.164

162 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021.

163 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 148.

164 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 17, 1992. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

GREEN: Here he talks about Steve Steele from Illinois State University, who commissioned the majority of David’s symphonies, concerti, and chamber music, either by himself or through consortium.165

MASLANKA cont.: I loved watching you work with the Grainger. It’s a great piece, and those players moved with you body and soul. Something special has happened to your conducting. You were always in control in the past, but now your work is from the center and filled with passion and compassion. Yesterday on impulse I listened to the first movement of our recording. Today the rest of it. I hadn’t listened in a while, and Steve’s very good performance was still in my ears. One more time I was knocked out by the piece and by your work. It is simply stunning. I appreciate very keenly what you accomplished in making this recording, and it helped me better to understand your moodiness and preoccupation of last week. Even though I feel very abashed saying it, The Symphony really is a grand thing, and worth our time and attention. It is hard to get past it, and as you said, what is there to do if you do get past it? We really are out on an edge, and not too many people may want to join us out there.166

DIMEGLIO: He’s reflecting so much on the piece and says how he relistens and “it is a great piece, it was worth all the time and effort.” Was it common for him to listen and reflect after the fact?

GREEN: Yes, every time. It’s self-doubt during the entire process. Knowing what he wanted but not confident that it was going to happen. And then a realization that everything was as it should be. He would bring things to the music that no one else could. The thing about David was that he was writing for winds, but he really had a keen desire to write more for orchestra. I was becoming more and more involved in music of all kinds. I was less interested in what music was out there for us to do in band, but more interested in what music was waiting to be discovered regardless of ensemble medium. David was very interested in the orchestra, but he was destined to write for winds and percussion which is fine because the music is so real.167

165 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021.

166 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 17, 1992. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

167 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021.

The “self-doubt” mentioned by Green is evident in Maslanka’s own words in an interview from 2001:

MASLANKA (interview, Ambrose): Just this feeling of despairing, of “I don’t know what this is, I don’t know how to make it work, I don’t know what’s going on here. I’m ready to take a match to the whole thing and rip it up or do something desperate to it.” This is part of my discovery process in composing and for my whole life. Things wanted to happen that I didn’t know anything about and I was somehow an open enough channel for that to take place.168

And again, in an interview three years later:

MASLANKA (interview, Alston): When I moved to Montana I began to be aware that composing made me fundamentally nervous. I think any creative act makes people “upset” because it’s something you don’t know anything about. There are no rules and you don’t know what’s going to happen. I began starting off my daily routine by playing some music, Bach, keyboard pieces. I found that that calmed me down, straightened me out and helped me make a transition from being upset to thinking musically.169

Many who are familiar with Maslanka and his music are aware of his daily routine of beginning the day by playing Bach at the piano. It is the goal of this regimen, however, that is of most importance. As explained above, the daily playing of Bach was not to study his music or practice keyboard skills, but to relieve nerves and achieve a sense of peace in order to begin composing for the day. Maslanka was always striving for a sense of inner-peace and calm awareness to allow the music inside of him to manifest in his compositions.

168 Robert Joseph Ambrose, “An Analytical Study of David Maslanka’s Symphony No. 2” (DMA essay, Northwestern University, 2001) 309.

169 Alston, “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three,” 160-161.

From the April 17, 1992 letter:

MASLANKA (letter to Green): I will help you as much as I can with writing the paper. I know you have asked for everything I can say about the piece, but I can also see what a burden it is to sort all this out. It is a creative project parallel to The Symphony and the same sense of fuddle and depression that I felt in organizing the music now comes over you as you look at the pile of words and try to find a center.170

DIMEGLIO: Were you working on publishing something about the Symphony?

GREEN: I was going to write a paper about it because I was so in love with it. I was in it. There was nothing else I could see or consider. I had blinders on. I didn’t realize there was another composer in the world, I didn’t realize there was another human being in the world other than David Maslanka. I had all these grandiose [ideas] that I was going to write a big paper about it because I was so in love with it. But then reality took over and I became too busy. I was traveling all the time, so I never wrote it.171

MASLANKA (letter to Green): About getting past The Symphony = it seems to have precipitated something of a creative crisis in your life. If you can stand it, I think the idea of “creative waiting” is important. Things are developing internally for you and it will take a while til the direction is clear. Another thought is to do an intensive literature search. Places like The American Music Center and The American Composers Alliance (both in NYC) have extensive score and recording libraries of American music. AMC represents 25,000 composers living and dead. There may well be significant wind literature buried there. You can also put out a “call for scores” through The AMC newsletter. Another thought: There was a space of about 10 years for Richard Wagner (ca 45-55) when he didn’t write any music. He was preoccupied with the philosophical and mythological basis for the big works that then came. Can you imagine a ten year hiatus in the middle of a major creative life?172

170 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 17, 1992. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

171 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021.

172 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 17, 1992. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

GREEN: When you finish a piece and you long to have it again, those times will come again. You will feel attached to performances and it will be difficult to let it go. It is a time when you are the most vulnerable and you are learning the most. You cherish that and you want to stay in that. I think David would gather his feelings about our conversations together and he would recognize that in me was this sort of darkness that I was afraid to let go. I would work and work and then have to let it go so I would explain to him how I felt and then he would rewrite it in a letter such as this. I don’t think he’s so much of a prophet as just remembering our conversations prior to this.173

MASLANKA (letter to Green): Another thought = I can’t stand the idea that you might wind up hating (or at least resenting) the Symphony and/or me because you can’t digest or get past us. I value and need you too much as a friend. I have lots of acquaintances and not very many friends. This is important.174

DIMEGLIO: Was he concerned that you didn’t like how the Symphony turned out?

GREEN: He’s going through a lot of stuff here. The Symphony was so big. The group that I premiered this with was all undergrads [at the University of Connecticut]. We all struggled: me, David, and the ensemble. The ensemble had to struggle trying to understand the piece, play it, get through my part-writing175 and my rehearsals, and Maslanka. It was a massive struggle. One of learning and of opening doors, but he might have been referring to the size and difficulty of the score and he was worried that I wouldn’t be happy about it. It’s important to me to note something about the desire and drive of the students at the University of Connecticut. Their response to the difficulty of this experience was inspiring to witness.176

173 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021.

174 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 17, 1992. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

175 Gary Green provided handwritten parts for his ensemble for the premiere, an example of which is provided in the appendix of this document.

176 Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021, and Gary Green, interview by author, March 22, 2021.

MASLANKA (letter to Green): I wanted to share a few book thoughts with you. First is another recommendation to find “Iron John” by Robert Bly. This should still be in bookstores, probably paperback by now. It was a NY Times best seller for over a year. This is a very rich exploration in plain language of what it is to be male in this age. More importantly, what it is to come into full possession of mature power. Talk to me about it once you have read it. The enclosed pages are from “My Search for Absolutes” by Paul Tillich. I mentioned him last week. Tillich is (was) a very highly regarded philosopher and Theologian. His book is about the grounds of human life and awareness of spirit. Some passages reminded me strongly of where you are and I have marked them. Tillich was Rollo May’s Teacher. There are hundreds of books in the “New Age” category, and it takes hunting and sorting to get to the solid core - that is, where the connection is made to the roots of thought and feeling - Books I have liked include Jung = “Man and his Symbols,” “Memories Dreams and Reflections,” Sylvano Arieti = “Creativity,” Sir James George Frazer “the Golden Bough” (This is a classic in myth study), various works of Joseph Campbell. Heinrich Zimmer “The King and The Corpse” (This is from the 40’s.) Zimmer was Campbell’s teacher. That’s all for now. I will write again with more thoughts on the Symphony. I have a real need for you to bear with me til the Symphony and your writing are launched in the world. I will bear with you. Best, David

Easter Sunday 4-19 Am feeling better and we have gotten at some of the groundskeeping chores. Yesterday and today we planted 65 Ponderosa Prime seedlings. We’ll have our own little grove in 200 years!177

Green surmised that Maslanka was experiencing heightened emotions at the time this letter was written, while also recognizing that Green was enduring some similar feelings.

Maslanka’s advice to Green is presented through recommendations of books and articles on meditation, self-reflection, and philosophy, and while Green did not read or consider these resources to aid in his emotional healing, this letter displays the importance these resources held to Maslanka himself.

177 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 17, 1992. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

Years later, Green had taken a new position as Director of Bands at the University of Miami, and over time Maslanka visited to collaborate on rehearsals and performances of A Child’s Garden of Dreams and Symphony No. 3. Once again, after their work together, Green was in need of some time away from Maslanka and his music.

GREEN: The Third Symphony was the beginning of the time in my life when composition was becoming more and more important. [When I] had gone to Miami, David had been there and we had performed A Child’s Garden of Dreams. We performed Symphony No. 3 not long after that. But it was evident to me, especially after that early time at Miami, that my heart was totally involved in David’s music and him. The music is so real to me. Nothing has ever touched me like that. I was so wrapped up in it that I was afraid that my life was going to go without knowing what else was out there. So I moved away from him.178 For a couple of years I really didn’t talk to him much. I thought about it him often, but I tried to learn other things. There was so much more out there to learn and discover, so I felt like I needed to move away from David in order to do that, so I did, and it was tough.179

DIMEGLIO: Was he offended by that?

GREEN: Yes, I believe it hurt him. He was very unhappy with me about it. The reason I left teaching high school was because I felt like there were things I just didn’t know. I had never listened to Mahler - I’m not sure I even knew who he was. But I knew there was so much out there. There were experiences that I needed to have. As I began to experience these things, I didn’t want to stop learning once I started.180 Recently, we lost one of the world’s greatest composers, Michael Colgrass. I think of him every day. The last piece he wrote for wind ensemble we performed at my last concert, so I’ve been thinking about him a lot. But nobody has shaped my thinking and my musical thought as much as David Maslanka.181

178 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021.

179 Gary Green, interview by author, October 28, 2020.

180 Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021.

181 Gary Green, interview by author, October 28, 2020.

The emotional intensity of working closely with Maslanka on his powerful and demanding pieces was draining to Green, causing him to distance himself for a time after each collaboration. However, the positive results of their work together far outweighed the negative. Specifically, Green credits Maslanka for influencing him to challenge himself when it came to commissioning projects, equipping Green with the confidence to work with Christopher Rouse, Michael Colgrass, Mason Bates, and other important composers.182

CONCLUSION

Symphony No. 3, which started as a request for a 15-20 minute piece of moderate difficulty, became a massive and monumental work. In program notes by the composer, the length of the piece is mentioned along with the impetus for its creation.

Symphony No. 3 was commissioned by the University of Connecticut Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Gary Green, Conductor. I was asked to write a “major” piece, yet not necessarily one as big as this. It is hard to say why a given music emerges at a given time. In my composing life there have been “signpost” pieces - large works that have erupted at fairly regular, though unpredictable, intervals. The impetus for this piece was in part my leaving university life a year ago and moving from New York City to the Rocky Mountains of western Montana. The mountains and the sky are a living presence. Animal and Indian spirits still echo strongly in this land, and these elements have found their way into my music.183

182 Gary Green, interview by author, March 16, 2021.

183 David Maslanka, “Program Notes,” Symphony Number 3, no date.

As documented in this essay, Green spoke about Maslanka’s insecurities regarding how his music would be received, including an initial fear surrounding the introduction of a new piece and what the reaction might be. Over a decade after the premiere of Symphony

No. 3, this insecurity regarding people’s feelings about his music appears again in one of

Maslanka’s letters regarding a recent performance of the Symphony.

I am particularly pleased to have [his] work at this time because the piece has pretty much been passed over by conductors. I think it is a grand piece (I know you do too) and something has to be done to set it on its feet. Do you have a thought to do No. 3 next year? I know it was one choice that you were considering. Steve Steele has already asked me to think about a recording project for 2004. We have several options, and I have asked him to think about No. 3. Nothing is decided yet. Maybe you and Steve could have a talk.184

It is clear that the Third Symphony was of great importance to Maslanka and that he believed in its quality and that it deserved to be played more than it had been. Indeed,

Green recognized the quality of this work as he took Maslanka’s suggestion and programmed Symphony No. 3 with the University of Miami Wind Ensemble the following year on November 16, 2004.185

One of the goals of this essay was to express the deeper meaning of

Maslanka’s music through his written correspondence in an effort to engage musicians and assist in the interpretation and appreciation of his music. Initially, consideration was given to utilizing a programmatic lens of analysis involving efforts to link the composer’s music directly to extra-musical narratives displayed

184 David Maslanka to Gary Green. July 6, 2003. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka.

185 Douglas Lawrence Phillips, “The University of Miami Frost Wind Ensemble 1993-2012: Repertoire, Commissions, and Premieres” (Doctoral essay, University of Miami, 2012) 194.

96 in his letters and journals. However, while analyzing Maslanka’s letters to Gary

Green, studying past interviews with the composer, and reviewing written documents from other scholars, a shift in perspective and method was initiated.

While there is great importance in knowing as many details as possible about a piece of music while studying the work for scholarship or performance, the existence of a specific inspiration for a work, whether it be a commissioning body, a narrative, nature, or another entity, does not necessarily serve as justification for interpreting that work from a programmatic perspective. This consideration regarding the interpretation of Maslanka’s music is explored in the fifth chapter of this document, however the importance of this revelation requires this statement to be reiterated.

A concluding thought: In discussions with Gary Green, it seems as though the reflection process after the preparation and performance of a piece can be just as transformative as the experience itself. In an email from April 22, 2014,

Maslanka remarked on the feeling after a performance:

There is indeed that empty feeling when ‘last times’ happen. Music is curious stuff. It doesn’t really exist until it is sounding, and then there is memory of it, and anticipation of the next time. Where there will be no next time there is a huge sense of loss. Our lives are mostly done (!), yet there is the memory of high accomplishment, and the joy of deep understanding. And happily there is more to come!186

186 David Maslanka to Gary Green. April 22, 2014. Email.

REFERENCES

ARTICLES

Burnett, Dayl. “New Maslanka Concerto Gets Premiere,” International Trombone Association Journal vol. 36, no. 4 (October 2008): 30-34 Maslanka, Matthew. “Performing the Music of David Maslanka: Guidelines for Success,” davidmaslanka.com.

BOOKS

Battisti, Frank L. The Winds of Change: The Evolution of the Contemporary American Wind Band/Ensemble and its Conductor. Galesville, MD: Meredith Music Publications, 2002. Green, Gary. “Foreword” In Composers on Composing for Band, Volume Two, edited by Mark Camphouse, ix-xi. Chicago, Illinois: GIA Publications, 2004. Hansen, Richard. The American Wind Band: A Cultural History. Chicago, Illinois: GIA Publications, 2005. Harrison, Barbara Grizzuti. Visions of Glory: A History and a Memory of Jehovah’s Witnesses. New York, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978. Jung, Carl Gustav. Man and His Symbols. New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1964. Maslanka, David. “David Maslanka.” In Composers on Composing for Band, Volume Two, edited by Mark Camphouse, 197-224. Chicago, Illinois: GIA Publications, 2004. Neihardt, John G. Black Elk Speaks. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1932.

DISSERTATIONS, THESES, AND OTHER SCHOLARLY DOCUMENTS

Alston, Brenton Franklin. “David Maslanka’s Symphony Number Three: A relational treatise on commissioning, composition, and performance.” DMA essay, University of Miami, 2004. Ambrose, Robert Joseph. “An Analytical Study of David Maslanka’s Symphony No. 2.” DMA essay, Northwestern University, 2001. Bolstad, Stephen Paul. “David Maslanka’s Symphony No. 4: A conductor’s analysis with performance considerations.” DMA essay, The University of Texas at Austin, 2002. McKenzie, Craig S. “A Timeline and History of the Band Program at the University of Miami.” Doctoral essay, University of Miami, 2019.

97 98

Phillips, Douglas Lawrence. “The University of Miami Frost Wind Ensemble 1993-2012: Repertoire, Commissions, and Premieres.” Doctoral essay, University of Miami, 2012. Sutton, Kate L. “David Maslanka and the Natural World: Three Studies of Music for Wind Ensemble.” Thesis, Florida State University, 2014. Wright, Lauren Denney. “A Conductor’s Insight Into Performance and Interpretive Issues in Give Us This Day by David Maslanka.” Doctoral essay, University of Miami, 2010. Weaver, Lane. “David Maslanka’s Symphony No. 7: An examination of analytical, emotional, and spiritual connections through a “Maslankian” approach.” Musical arts project, University of Kentucky, 2011.

LETTERS

Payne, Dorothy to Tom Giolas. February 8, 1991. Maslanka, David to Dorothy Payne. No date. Maslanka, David to Gary Green. December 30, 1987. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka. —. May 23, 1988. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka. —. August 15, 1990. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka. —. April 8, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka. —. April 15, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka. —. April 17, 1992. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka. —. April 22, 2014. Email. —. April 23, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka. —. April 27, 1993. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka. —. January 12, 1993. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka. —. January 14, 1992. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka. —. July 6, 2003. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka. —. June 2, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka. —. March 18, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka. —. May 10, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka. —. May 16, 1991. Transcript in the hand of David Maslanka. Salley, Kevin to Gary Green. No date.

RECORDINGS

David Maslanka, Symphony No. 3, with the Frost Wind Ensemble at the University of Miami, conducted by Gary Green, recorded in 2004, Mechanics Hall, Worcester, Massachusetts, 2007, compact disc.

David Maslanka, Symphony No. 3, with the University of Connecticut Symphonic Wind Ensemble, conducted by Gary Green, recorded in 1991, Carl Fischer Music Publishing, 1992, compact disc.

SCORES

Maslanka, David. A Child’s Garden of Dreams. New York: Carl Fischer, Inc., 1981/1988. —. Hosannas. New York: Maslanka Press, 2015. —. Symphony No. 2 for Symphonic Band or Wind Ensemble. New York: Carl Fischer, 1983/1988. —. Symphony No. 3 for Symphonic Wind Ensemble. New York: Carl Fischer, 1991/2007. —. Symphony No. 4. New York: Carl Fischer, 1994.

INTERVIEWS

Green, Gary. Interview by author, September 23, 2020. —. Interview by author, October 28, 2020. —. Interview by author, February 23, 2021. —. Interview by author, March 2, 2021. —. Interview by author, March 16, 2021.

OTHER SOURCES

Green, Gary. Program Notes, University of Miami Wind Ensemble. March 27, 2003. Green, Gary. Rehearsal with Frost Wind Ensemble, University of Miami. Fall 2018. Maslanka, David. “Meditation Notes” typed for Gary Green. 1991. Maslanka, David. Written interview in possession of Gary Green. November 11, 2001. “Symphony No. 2,” David Maslanka Official Website, Maslanka Press, accessed February 2, 2021, https://davidmaslanka.com/works/symphony-no-2. University of Connecticut Research Foundation, Panel Deliberation, May 23, 1990.

APPENDIX A

Appendix A1: Gary Green, interview by author, September 23, 2020

CHRISTINA DIMEGLIO: What are the most important elements to be documented? What means the most to you about his music and your relationship with him?

GARY GREEN: It’s a strange thing. When he first passed, it was hard to take. It was hard, but it was a reality that my being wanted to reject. I didn’t want it to be so. There’s a safety mechanism that goes into place and I refused to admit it. There comes a time when reality does happen. Each passing day now without him and without the ability to talk to him or see him is more intense and more difficult than it was those years ago, because it’s real. There’s no turning around. Everything that I experienced with him is an important item in my life. I don’t know exactly where you want to go. Do you have an idea of what you want from me as far as David’s concerned?

DIMEGLIO: I do, but my priority is to make sure that you feel as though everything - not just what you know about him and his music - but how you feel about it and what it means to you. My priority is that that comes through. We can definitely talk about the commissions, when he worked with you and anecdotes from rehearsals and performances. But I think that the more emotional side of things - these letters, spirituality - is so engaging and will help people to better interpret his music and appreciate his music.

GREEN: If there’s anything I believe in music, it is that it’s human first. There’s always the attitude of technique and getting it right, but there’s so much more beyond that that has to happen. For me it is about humanity and it is about David. I didn’t know about David until late in my high school teaching. It seemed impossible that I would ever meet him. The memory that’s strongest to me is meeting him for the very first time at the University of Connecticut and realizing that inside of him was a strict disciplinarian. He wanted things to be in tune, he wanted things to be correct, but overriding all of that, in spite of what he would tell you, was the human attitude of who he was. He was a guy that would tell you “Don’t interpret the music. Just let the music speak.” But then every time I would work on a piece with him, he would always change things in the way he approached that music at that time, to get the music to speak the way he wanted it to speak THEN. He was, indeed, interpreting his own music every time I saw him. If that’s the case, he had to have been doing the exact same thing with everybody that worked with him. I would watch him work with other people, even on the same piece that I had done with him, and he would tell them things totally different than what he had told me. The music was true to him, but what he was doing was trying to get the moment, the presence. He would do whatever he had to do to get that to happen.

100 101

In the third movement of Child’s Garden, he was always telling me it was too slow. But then we played it at National CBDNA, and he said it was too fast. It wasn’t just a matter of tempo - it was a matter of feeling for him. It always was.

DIMEGLIO: In one of our future meetings maybe we could talk about how that plays into the commissioning side of your relationship with him as opposed to the rehearsals and performance work.

GREEN: I had minor commissions prior to David, but they were little overtures and things like that. David was the first composer I commissioned where, when he agreed, I knew I was on a path of self-[doubt] I didn’t know what was going to happen at all. Let me show you something. [Green holds a photo to the camera] This is Maslanka’s desk with the score to Symphony No. 3, right after he finished it. You can see the rocks next to the score. I asked him what those rocks were for and he said, “those are just things I talk to occasionally about my music.” That is the day that the complete score was done. That desk is still there.

DIMEGLIO: I’d like to have a complete discussion about Symphony No. 3, including the commissioning of it. A lot of the letters in which he discusses meditation and spirituality, and then you exploring meditation, can [contribute to] a full chapter of my writing.

GREEN: When he started telling me [what he had experienced in his meditation], I didn’t want to hear it! At the end of the day my responsibility to students is to teach and to bring music forward. But to examine it that deeply inside of myself was something I had not done, and it really frightened me. These things in his letters were really difficult to deal with. I will try my best to give you insight, but I think you’ll have to look inside yourself, too, to find how you feel. When I heard Circus Maximus in New York I was really upset because it wasn’t anything that I could understand and it offended me. So I flew to Washington, DC to hear the Marine Band with Slatkin do it. I liked it slightly more, but not a lot more. I really didn't care for it, but we’re talking about John Corigliano here, so how could I just say that this is not worth my time. So I decided to do it at Miami. So I asked John to come, and it was a monumental task. We couldn’t do it in Gusman [Maurice Gusman Hall] because it would blow Gusman up. We had to do it downtown in the Arsht Center, and there were all kinds of things [in the way]. It seemed like it wasn’t going to happen and that it would be impossible to do. But I will never forget the first time John Corigliano walked in my office at Miami. My heart felt like it would fall out of my body. I was trembling. I didn’t know what to say or how to say it. And that’s the same way it was when I saw David Maslanka, except there was a bigger unknown. All I could see was his face and his huge soul and heart. I didn’t know what to do, but that’s an experience that could only be described in poetic terms. It’s not something that you can say - well, I was scared - because that’s not what it was at all. It was the feeling of being in the presence of something far greater than yourself. Michael Colgrass was the same, and Chris Rouse. Every time he’d talk to me, I’d think “he’s

102 talking to a dummy here.” I didn’t know how to respond to him. So, I expect you’ve had experiences like that in your life already and I expect you’ll have more.

DIMEGLIO: Something that I struggle with as a conductor but also as a person is being analytical and technical and getting caught up in that too much sometimes. So when I was reading his letters to you, I partially felt like I needed to hear this too. This might be why I’m grasping onto this project so much. I also spoke with Matthew [Maslanka] about emotion versus analysis and how you and Maslanka complimented and challenged each other in that way.

GREEN: Early in your career, the thing that you bring to the table is the need to be correct, because that’s what we’ve been taught all of our lives. We have sheets that demand that we do things correctly. But we’re never given credit for how we feel. That’s probably a good thing because people would try to fake that I guess, but when you experience something that happens to you in terms of a feeling, you know it to be true or you know it not to be true. There was never one time, in all the times that I worked with David, that it was easy. Not once. It was always hard. I asked him why the jazz section in Symphony No. 4 had to be the way it was because I didn’t like it. I confronted him with it, and he wrote back to me with a four-page letter of why it couldn’t be anything but that. All the time I was saying “why is this doxology jazzed up?” I couldn’t understand it, and honestly, I still have a little bit of trouble with it. But I had to deal with those kinds of things with him, and he would pretty much be honest with me. He loved me very much and I loved him, and that was never a question. But sometimes it was a tough love. The quality of the confrontation in your life is what’s important, not just the confrontation. If you confront someone with something and it’s not a quality reason, then it goes to the side or becomes an argument with no resolution. But when the quality of the confrontation is strong, then you’ve got to think about it way beyond the moment. Every time with David it was a quality confrontation. He’d scare me to death, and he’d make me think.

DIMEGLIO: In addition to Symphony No. 3, what are the other pieces that you think we should focus on?

GREEN: Symphony No. 8, for sure. A Child’s Garden of Dreams will always be the touchstone. It’s a place we go as a community of scholars and creative people to find ourselves. But right behind it is Symphony No. 8, and that’s years later. The first movement of Symphony No. 2 - especially the introduction - reveals the essence of his soul and his spirit. It’s really important music. The Second Symphony is good. The last symphony is played a lot. It’s fast and repetitive and it’s playable (up until the last 8 bars). I always double the saxophones [to help the horns] and he never said anything about it. Symphony No 8 is a journey deep down into your soul, all the way until the last resolution. It’s an important piece.

DIMEGLIO: Any others?

103

GREEN: I don’t know all of them, and I didn’t play all of them. There was a time that I was so close to him and his music that I stopped playing it. I couldn’t think about anybody else. All I could think about was David and I was totally engulfed in that sound. I had to stop it so that I wouldn’t miss out on [the unknown] my whole life. I needed to find other music. I didn’t know what that meant, but I was frightened that things were going to go by me, and I wasn’t going to know that they were happening because I was so into this.

DIMEGLIO: Was this right after Symphony No. 3?

GREEN: It wasn’t long after. Maybe about a year after. I was yearning to know all I could about who was out there writing in any medium. Chris Rouse told me “I have no interest in writing for band.” And I said “I don’t have an interest in you writing for band. Just write!” There are some of [Maslanka’s] symphonies, like No. 5, that I don’t know at all. I know of it, I’ve heard it, but it never appealed to me. But his flute concerto is really important. Christine Nield Capote was the flute teacher at the University of Miami. Her husband, Manny, was principal cello in the Miami Philharmonic. David wrote a trombone piece for Tim Conner [trombone teacher at the University of Miami] and it had a cello part in it. There was a young lady named Ashely Garretson who was a student at Miami at the time and a great cellist. David wrote his Trombone Concerto for Tim and Ashley played cello. Manny had also played this cello part and he can tell you things about Maslanka that I can’t tell you. David and Christine had such a connection to each other and there may be correspondence there that I don’t know about. Christine also performed the flute concerto with me at Interlochen. There may be some information out there. There are other works. There’s a piece he wrote called Remember Me. It’s a small piece. You cannot overlook the Mass. It was a huge undertaking for him, and it had to be rewritten for the chorus. The University of Arizona did the premiere, and the University of Miami did the premiere of the new choral parts.

GREEN: Did I send you the letter that he sent to me before he sent me the score to Hosannas?

DIMEGLIO: I do have a letter from January of 2015 about Hosannas, that came with the score.

GREEN: Do you have his talk at the concert?

DIMEGLIO: Yes, it’s archived at the University of Miami.

GREEN: That’ll help some. Do you have anything from The Seeker? I’ll get you a score and I’ll see if I can find some material about the piece. We can get that from the guys in Virginia - Andrew Loft. I’ll get him to send you information about The Seeker.

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Back to that time at Interlochen. Kevin was there and so was Frank Ticheli. It might be good to run it by them.

DIMEGLIO: What year was Maslanka at Interlochen?

GREEN: I couldn’t tell you. My mind is a little like the world’s largest rubber band just wrapped around and around. That should be easy to find. I went up to Interlochen for about 10 years and I begged them to do chamber music as a serious medium of expression. I talked them into bringing in Maslanka and Christine and it was an amazing thing. I stayed in a cabin on the lake there at Interlochen, and after the concert, Frank Ticheli and his wife and children came to the cabin, with Christine and her husband Manny, and I can remember Frank’s children running up and down in the water by the cabin and how happy the kids were and how happy they sounded. Christine was a remarkable person. When we decided to program the flute concerto, I had no idea the agony that Christine had gone through. She was a beautiful person and a phenomenal player. Everybody knew that her standards were high. When Maslanka came to work with Christine on the Flute Concerto she could not play a note. Not even the first note would come out. Here’s an artist who could play anything! She is one of my heroes. The performance was transcendent.

DIMEGLIO: She performed the Flute Concerto at the University of Miami and at Interlochen?

GREEN: Yes. We recorded it at UM. At Interlochen the performance was in a small church. After the performance at Interlochen she told me that she wished I could play the flute so that I could experience what she had just gone through as the flautist rather than as the conductor. I wish I could, too. I remember very clearly David speaking with the ensemble at Interlochen as well.

DIMEGLIO: There’s so much here. I need to work out the organization, and I need to get my hands on the scores.

GREEN: Send me questions and I’ll get contact information for you. Anything I can do to help. If you think of specific things let me know. You would be inspired just to walk in the door of Maslanka’s studio. Just to see it. It’s humble - there’s nothing much to see - except he sat there and he worked there. And he talked to those rocks on his desk. They’re still there.

DIMEGLIO: Maybe in a few weeks we can meet and talk about Symphony No. 3. Once I get the scores in, I’ll spend a lot of time with them before we meet.

GREEN: Here’s a closing thought on Symphony No. 3. You referred to it early in our conversation. Having been a high school band director for most of my life, up until I went to Connecticut, and then for seven years at Connecticut, I was struggling to find. . . I knew I went to Connecticut for a reason. One was that this opportunity, Symphony No. 3,

105 was out there waiting for me. I know it sounds funny but it’s true. In all my experience I had always loved music, phrasing, color, etc., but I was never able to really put a human connection behind it and in support of it. It’s like being a painter or a poet, someone who has a grasp of real humanity. David wrote Symphony No. 3 and started talking to me about the first movement. It starts with a C major scale. It’s pretty tonal but turns brutal within 4 or 5 minutes. After our work together and in our discussions, I knew that he had discovered that I was Cherokee Indian, and that was shocking, but he was also telling me through the music that this music was signifying my death, and I didn’t want to hear that. He was telling me that in order for me to move beyond where I am now, I have to give up my life. This is consistent with Indian teaching and spirituality. But I didn’t want to hear that, and it was very difficult for me to teach that music knowing that all the technical things that we struggled with had a far deeper meaning. I didn’t want to do it, but it was something I had to go through. Of course it was all meant in a metaphysical manner with spiritual implications, but it remained so very real to me Did I ever tell you about a book called “Visions of Glory?” It’s by a woman named Harrison. David’s parents were strict Jehovah’s Witnesses. His mother decided that she wasn’t going to do that anymore. David left the religion and was isolated because of it. [I believe] this is where a lot of his insecurities come from. She mentions David Maslanka in her book “Visions of Glory.”

DIMEGLIO: I’ll work on getting a copy of that book. There are several books that he mentions in his letters to you that I’m going to get so I can dig through them. If they meant enough to him that he was writing about them to you while working on the Third Symphony, then I’d like to review them.

GREEN: There’s another book called “Black Elk Speaks.” Black Elk was an Indian chief and David got a lot of his inspiration about the work from that. All of his pieces are like that. You’ll learn a lot. The things you will ultimately learn from this are things you will take with you in your career.

DIMEGLIO: There’s a lot to do, but I think it will be great. Thank you so much.

GREEN: I can’t express to you how happy I am that you are doing this work. You will do great. I’ll send you another thing I read not too long ago. A quote from David.

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Appendix A2: Gary Green, interview by author, October 28, 2020

CHRISTINA DIMEGLIO: Since our last discussion I have read a bit of “Black Elk Speaks” and “Visions of Glory.” Is it true that he [Maslanka] didn’t consider himself religious? It was more spiritual?

GARY GREEN: Right, he didn’t, but I believe he was religious in his own way. He was a profoundly religious man, but he wouldn’t profess [this in a traditional way]. He would avoid it. I think because of the spirituality of his meditation, and the things that he would do that would cause him to be in closer contact with himself. I believe that in that regard he was deeply religious. He may have been Buddhist; at least I think he believed in that. He said he was not a Christian, but he was. He uses Christian references [in many places] in his music. His philosophies, his theories, even the words he uses. In A Child’s Garden of Dreams, in the fourth movement, he uses the word “epiphany” at a very important peak in the music. That was his second piece for band, but it revealed his heart. There are a lot of things in “Child’s Garden” that are telling of David.

DIMEGLIO: I’m interested in his spirituality and how he lived it. His daily routine of Bach chorales and meditating, and how that effected his composing.

GREEN: I’m going to let you borrow my scores. You’ll find in those scores notes from David and indications of tempo and things that he wanted at the time we performed them. They’re not David’s original scores, these are scores from David so they’re “first generation” and they’re priceless. I don’t know if you know it or not, but David wasn’t a painter, but he did like to work in pastel. Matthew gave me all of his pastels. I’ll send you one that I worked on and have ready for printing. They’re amazing. I have some photos that were sent to me by Tim Shade who took a bunch of things during my last year at University of Miami when we were working on Hosannas with David. There are even some video clips of David talking about his music. I even have the initial, first draft of Symphony No. 3 with all the sketches. It’s huge but I’ll get it to you. Will you have the opportunity to conduct any of his music before you graduate?

DIMEGLIO: Based on the way things are going, I don’t think so. We were planning to program the Fourth Symphony this year, but it might not be possible due to Covid-19 restrictions.

GREEN: There is as much to gain from coaching as there is from conducting, because your soul has to enter into an agreement with the music. Maybe you can program one of David’s woodwind quintets. They are good and they are deeply soulful and totally worth your time. They are fine pieces and don’t require large numbers. If you could get five really good players and immerse yourself in the score and go through the process of

107 knowing his spirit through your soul and your ears and your heart it would make your writing so much more meaningful.

DIMEGLIO: I did conduct Traveler in February 2020. It was a truncated rehearsal cycle. We only have six or eight rehearsals on it. I did get to have that experience and I keep thinking about what you said before: once you experienced working on his music, it’s all you wanted to do. An obsession with the feeling of creating his music.

GREEN: Matthew recently sent me a conversation David was having with the band director at Middle Tennessee State University. It brought up the fact that I had gone through Symphony No. 3, and I think I entered into another piece. There was a time not long after that that I just went away from it. For a couple of years I really didn’t talk to him much. I thought about it all the time, but I tried to do other things. Recently, we lost one of the world’s greatest composers, Michael Colgrass. I think of him every day. The last piece he wrote for wind ensemble we performed at my last concert, so I’ve been thinking about him a lot. But nobody has shaped my thinking and my musical thought as much as David Maslanka.

DIMEGLIO: Traveler was something on my “wish list.” When I had the chance, I was thrilled, and the experience was wonderful.

GREEN: You’re giving so much of yourself to this project. The experience for you now would make it even more intense and meaningful.

DIMEGLIO: Can you tell me more about this recorded conversation of David and the Band Director at Middle Tennessee State University?

GREEN: David is very clear in stating that I had immersed myself in his music as far as I would go. He talks about that and it’s very interesting.

DIMEGLIO: Today I have scores for Traveler, A Child’s Garden of Dreams, and Symphony No. 4. I have the text for “Black Elk Speaks” and I have all of Maslanka’s letters which I’ve cataloged.

GREEN: Do you have Symphony No. 8? In my opinion, beyond Child’s Garden, Symphony No. 8 is pretty much it.

DIMEGLIO: Let’s discuss A Child’s Garden of Dreams. I was lucky in my undergraduate study to play this at Temple University with Arthur Chodoroff conducting. Then, we also worked on it at the University of Miami in 2018 with Robert Carnochan. Thinking about playing this at 19 years old as a clarinetist, I just did not get it. I thought it was bizarre, dark, and uncomfortable. I understand now that this was intentional, but as a kid with no understanding of this it was hard for me to buy into it. Now, I appreciate it for the masterpiece that it is. I now know that the discomfort is meant to be an emotional reaction to the music that he has written.

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GREEN: This is the piece that changed me. I heard it when I was a high school band director. Depending on how this session goes, we will probably need to set up several meetings. These things are not easy to talk about. These things have deep meaning, for him and certainly for me. I was a high school band director, and I really had no ambition to teach at the collegiate level, at all. Zero. I was very happy. I had auditioned for university jobs prior to the time I went to Connecticut, and I was offered two or three of them but I [didn’t want to leave my high school position]. I just felt like my high school band was good and I was enjoying my life. College was kind of intriguing, but it wasn’t necessary. I didn’t feel like it was something that I really wanted to do, until, with my high school band, I programmed Sinfonietta by Ingolf Dahl. The Sinfonietta allows the ensemble to be clear in every turn of the score. The melody, and the form, and the scope of the piece are above most compositions, if not all. We had done Lincolnshire Posy, La Fiesta Mexicana, and the Hindemith Symphony in Bflat, and the Dahl was given to me as a recommendation. I got it and I quickly realized that I was out of my league. I had no idea about what he was trying to do, or why everybody wasn’t playing. Why didn’t it lend itself to the idea that if you balance everything like a pyramid that it was going to sound good, like a band? All that was coming at me hard and quick. I’ve never been someone that can learn quickly. It takes me a long time to ingest anything that ever manifests itself in any sort of clarity. My learning curve has always been very difficult and almost straight up. I’ve had to work hard to try to come to grips with why I’m doing something and what has brought me to that place. So, I did it with my high school band, but I approached the teaching of it like I would any other piece. Measure by measure, note by note until you can play it. But the piece was so much more than that. When I finished, I knew that I was in trouble. After football season was over, I decided that our fall rehearsal night would become Symphonic Band night. On Tuesdays from 6-7 we held sectionals and 7-9 we had full band. It was three hours. We were working on the Dahl and I remember conducting and I remember looking back at my first trombone player. He was looking at his watch and I said, “What are you doing, Lee, are you bored?” and he said, “Mr. Green it’s 11:00pm and I really need to go home.” I was horrified. What had happened was I had lost them. I was so deep into trying to understand what Ingolf Dahl was saying that I had forgotten that there were people doing that. The kids came in the next day and I said no music, no rehearsal, everybody sit on the floor. I sat in the middle and grovelled for an hour, apologizing, because I did love them. But I knew then that there was something inside of me that was trying to get out. I didn’t know what it was, but I’ve always been drawn to the edge. The closer I get to the unknown the more interesting and exciting it becomes. The more engaging it becomes About that time, a friend of mine - Bill Hochkeppel - who was the band director at Eastern Washington University, and his wife invited me and a couple other band directors over and we were [chatting and listening to music]. He put on a recording of Maslanka’s A Child’s Garden of Dreams. Bill was a graduate of Northwestern University, so he had access to a dub of the premiere recording with John Paynter. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know what was going on inside of me. Something happened inside of me that struck me

109 deeply. I had never heard sounds like that and I didn’t even know what instruments they were. But I was drawn to it. It was like a magnet. It wasn’t ever going to let me go It was A Child’s Garden of Dreams that caused me to feel the need to leave teaching high school [after 20 years] to go [teach] college, because I could not continue to do to kids what I had done with the Dahl. [I was] asking those kids to go far beyond their years emotionally and intellectually and as far as technique is concerned . . . I didn’t want to hurt my students. Leaving was necessary for me to play repertoire like this. I knew that I didn’t want to stay where I was because something in there was like a bug trying to crawl around and find its way out. That’s when I became interested in teaching at the university, and that’s when I went to Connecticut. I went 3000 miles away from Spokane, Washington to Storrs, Connecticut and didn’t know a single person and that’s precisely why I went. I didn’t know the culture, I didn’t know the people, and I didn’t know what was going to happen. Thank God I had the greatest family in the world who stuck with me and we made it work. That’s where I met David Maslanka. I met David via . . . Dorothy Payne. She was the Chair [of the Music Department at the University of Connecticut]. Dorothy was wise beyond anybody that I had known up to that point. She had immersed herself in the university environment and she was helping me acclimate. [Dorothy’s] husband was David Maslanka’s roommate at Michigan State University, and that’s how I was able to meet David and how he came to work with us on A Child’s Garden of Dreams. All the time between leaving University High School in Washington State and [my first few years at UConn were] preparation for that first rehearsal on the piece that scared me to death. The music was magical, but I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to have it as technically precise as it could possibly be. It was really hard for my students, as they were all undergrads. We had done some good [repertoire], and they were great kids. They wanted to play and they could play, but it was very difficult for them to comprehend this music and the reasoning behind it. It was like that the whole time. There are a lot of notes in that piece. But then David came and he became such an important figure in all of our lives for the remainder of my time there, the next three years. We did A Child’s Garden of Dreams, then the Second Symphony, and then after that we premiered the Third Symphony.

DIMEGLIO: What year did you start at the University of Connecticut?

GREEN: It would have been 1983 or 1984.

DIMEGLIO: And during which year there did you program A Child’s Garden of Dreams?

GREEN: I was there for ten years and it was in my seventh year.

DIMEGLIO: When he first visited to work on A Child’s Garden of Dreams, did you see a change in how your students reacted to the music as soon as he was there and speaking about it?

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GREEN: Students who are in your ensemble, who you are responsible for teaching and guiding, will ingest your enthusiasm and who you are. They will take that into themselves. Even though it may be really difficult, as it was with us on Child’s Garden. When David came, and we had gone through that pain of trying to get this music to do what it was supposed to do, with his guidance and understanding, there was a big change in all of us, especially me. It was a profound change. I’ve always loved music and I’ve always wanted to be a good musician and teacher, but that changed me into something more. Something more than what I was before.

DIMEGLIO: Were your students resistant to the music, or were they just confused?

DIMEGLIO: Was David understanding of their confusion?

GREEN: I don’t think I’ve ever done a piece of David’s, including Give Us This Day, that I don’t think makes sometimes unreachable demands on a player. It could be endurance, all the notes, range, excessive dynamics in either direction - not one piece of his does not demand complete surrender. But, I struggled with it, which is one of the reasons why I removed myself from him for a while [after our performance]. I just felt like it was too much. I often wonder what it would have been like to be in the room when Stravinsky presented The Rite of Spring to people for the first time. Or Mahler. What would they have thought? They must have thought that the guy was completely insane! And maybe he was. So it wasn’t unlike that. I was so used to teaching things technically, but it was the meaning behind it and the experience that came with the “doing” that made the difference in those students and in me. When you performed Child’s Garden did you have a chance to do it with David?

DIMEGLIO: Sadly, no.

GREEN: That would have been interesting to hear your comments about that.

DIMEGLIO: Like I said, I think I was resistant to it, internally. I felt it also with the Schwanter - ...and the mountains rising nowhere. I just didn’t understand it. I think about it a lot as an educator. I taught high school for seven years and I tried to find a balance of discussing the music with my students so that they would “buy into it.” There’s a fine line of knowing enough to understand and appreciate the music, but I didn’t want to talk so much that I’d begin to lecture them about why they should love a certain piece. I felt that way with the audiences as well. If we were going to perform something for them that was even a little bit nontraditional, I felt the need to explain why it was still important and worthy of performance.

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GREEN: Gratification often doesn’t happen until much later in your relationship with people and with music. It’s a slow, long process, but it will manifest in who you are and how you go about your life. When I was at the University of Miami, the Orchestra director Tom Sleeper let me conduct the orchestra. I was able to conduct The Rite of Spring, the Dvorak Cello Concerto, and Mahler’s First Symphony. I was doing this music after a century of its existence and acceptance. I don’t know if very many people understand Mahler, or Stravinsky, or Brahms. I know more about Mahler and Stravinsky because I conducted them and I immersed myself in their music and their life, but if you ask me about Brahms I wouldn’t know, because I didn’t conduct it. Arnold Schoenberg was a student of Mahler. After Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, in the late 1890s, Arnold Schoenberg said to Mahler, “If this is the direction that music is going, I don’t understand it and I don’t want to be a part of it.”

DIMEGLIO: This was a reaction to Mahler’s music?

GREEN: A reaction to his Second Symphony. Pretty hard to believe. I wouldn’t be so pretentious to say that I ever understand anything I worked on with Maslanka, Colgrass, or Rouse. But, what we do with the time we have becomes critical. What do you want to know and why do you want to know it? What will you do so that you might have a chance to learn? This is why I wanted to know the music of Maslanka. I struggled with the music. David and I had some pretty confrontational times. There are some references to that in his letters. But he didn’t care. He said “I write, you perform.” I remember a clarinet player, and there was a note that wasn’t even on the instrument. And the clarinet player said to David “This note’s not on the instrument” and he said “Well I’m not going to change it. Find a way to make it work.” That was so far away from the educator in me. A Child’s Garden of Dreams is a substantive, important piece, period. Not “for band,” just period! It belongs in the world. That’s why I know that this coronavirus is not going to last forever and is not going to hold us back, because there is music out there that needs to be performed. As a youngster thirty years ago, hearing Child’s Garden, I knew there was something going on inside of me. It was like hearing Mahler Symphony No. 5 for the first time.

DIMEGLIO: When A Child’s Garden of Dreams was premiered, was it well-received?

GREEN: Yes, it was well-received. Beyond that I don’t have many details. I have a recording of John Paynter’s premiere recording. He paid for Child’s Garden out of his own pocket. It wasn’t a big sum, but this was a long time ago.

DIMEGLIO: How did you feel about your first performance of A Child’s Garden of Dreams. Was Maslanka happy with it?

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GREEN: Here’s this thing that I wanted to do so desperately. And then I was confronted with it, and here was the composer, which I didn’t know would happen until it happened, late in the process. When we did the first two movements he loved it and he was really happy. But the third movement is fast. Quarter note at 176, all 16th notes. We were going a little slower. He stopped me after a couple of measures, just outrighted stopped me. And I’m thinking, “I'm the band director, you can’t stop me!” and he said, “It’s too slow. When I told him we were going as fast as we could he said “It’s marked 180 and you’re going about 120.” I said “We’re going exactly 120 so we don’t miss a bunch of notes,” and he said “Don’t impose your restrictions and limitations on my music,” and that’s when I knew that tempo meant something other than a technical idea. I knew that it was 176, but I didn’t realize that it was 176 and that through this tempo, this animal was going to reduce this little girl to nothing, and how that would feel. I had small children at the time, and I don’t think I wanted to think about that. But that’s what the music was. I knew then that everything was in the score. Everything was something more than just what it said in the score. We have symbols and things that we look at, but that's not the music. That’s not the poetry. David taught me that. In the library on campus, there is a facsimile to Mahler’s Second Symphony. In this piece there’s a gigantic chorus, but the chorus sits there for about an hour without moving or singing. And then, after all that, on the score, it says piannissississimo. All that really means is “soft,” but if you look at the score, Mahler writes pppp. The letters get darker and bolder as he gets to the fourth letter. That’s something more than “just soft.” There’s something profound in that quietness that Mahler wanted everybody to understand.

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Appendix A3: Gary Green, interview by author, February 23, 2021

CHRISTINA DIMEGLIO: I was hoping that today we could discuss the letters that pertain to Symphony No. 3. I have some questions about how these things relate to the piece and how they relate to him and the different conversations that you had.

GARY GREEN: I read through these [letters] this morning and some of the things - I remember reading them and I remember experiencing all of this, but it was so long ago and it’s not fresh in my memory, so perhaps as we talk things will become clearer.

DIMEGLIO: Sure. And if there’s no clear-cut factual answers [that’s ok]. This is more about getting your perspective on everything. In a few of your letters from 1997-98 he references a chamber commission for UM. There was conversation about payment. It was originally going to be $17,000 and it ended up being $25,000.

GREEN: That must have just fallen apart because...I sort of recall that but I don’t recall anything specific. It must have, just because of the money or the timing, it must have fallen apart. There’s nothing in the letters that refer to that?

DIMEGLIO: No, it’s just a conversation with the Dean about payment, and with Maslanka explaining why there was the change in cost. I assumed it fizzled out.

GREEN: It must have. I think you’re aware of all the commissions I was in on. We did talk about chamber stuff because… There was a time when I felt like that - and I think David felt like it too - that his music was so big! And so grandiose that there was no room in it for quiet, real quiet, over an extended period of time. That would mean less forces and less density. So I remember very clearly talking about that over a long period of time. And that could have been something referring to that, we were trying to make something happen but it obviously didn’t work out.

DIMEGLIO: In a letter from April 27, 1993 he is giving a pretty detailed review of a performance from Tim Salzman of the Third Symphony. He is harping a lot on tempo, and I know the whole story about “don’t let your shortcomings effect my tempo.” I just wanted to know if that was typical of any performance he heard. Is tempo something that really effected him?

GREEN: He was often really strange about things like that. He had a clear and specific idea of what he wanted. He knew what he wanted generated emotionally from his music. And he would change his mind about tempo, often, as long as the musical intent remained. When we were at Connecticut doing A Child’s Garden of Dreams he thought it was too slow; when we did it with UM [University of Miami] at CBDNA National, in rehearsal, he thought it was too fast and it was exactly the tempo he indicated. I think a lot of that had to do with the space he was in and how he was feeling at the moment. Tim is a fine, fine musician. Terrific. So these must have been things David was hearing on

114 the tape and just reacting to. I don’t know what Tim’s reaction to them was. I’ve never talked to him about it.

DIMEGLIO: Do you think [Maslanka] equated tempo with emotion, in general?

GREEN: Oh gosh. I think it had to do with what he was trying to say with his music, which I do think indicated a degree of emotion. I mean, how can you think otherwise when you hear his music? That’s what comes out, and that’s what he wanted in rehearsal. When you’d rehearse with him his eyes would water and he would get really red. He wouldn’t weep, but they would be misty and his face would be drawn when he would rehearse his own music, every time, without fail. So, tempo does have an effect on all of his concepts. I read something in here that shocked me, and I didn’t realize it until I read it again - he said that one of the Sibelius symphonies begins with the C minor [scale]. One of the things that I did not care for about the Symphony was that C major scale at the beginning. And the reason why I didn’t care for it was because it was too bandy to me. I had been a high school band director for over 20 years, and when you warm up a band you do chorales and scales. It wasn’t just meaningless - you were teaching concept and tone and balance and blend - but it was something that you did at the beginning of rehearsal. It could be mindless or it could be real. I was a high school band director for a long, long time, and a big piece of me is still a high school band director. But the thing that I grew from was the need to know more about music with people that knew how to play. So as I grew away from a high school environment, I longed for people that could understand how to play their instruments and make a great tone and we didn’t need to do a Bb major scale or the F concert or whatever. In our universe there was a connotation to that C major scale that didn’t appeal to me for that reason. As a matter of fact, some well-known conductors did not and do not play that piece [Maslanka’s Third Symphony] because of their distaste for that C major scale. It was also something that I didn’t want to have to deal with. So when I conducted through the C major scale he didn’t like my tempo through those whole notes. In this letter (April 27, 1993) he refers to the 5/4 bar [measure 7] which, he says, was too hasty. That’s exactly what he’s talking about. The tempo there is not a real kind of thing that you would think of like in A Child’s Garden of Dreams or even the Symphony, but it refers to an ability to maintain a structured time beginning to end on that scale, and boy he was adamant about it. He stopped me over and over until that scale was metered exactly how he wanted it to be. It was maddening. But for him, it had real structure and it had to be that way. And he was specific about that 5/4 bar. That 5/4 bar is on the “ti” before it goes to “do” and then it goes into 4/4 time again

GREEN: The tempo is marked at 96, isn’t it?

DIMEGLIO: The tempo is marked as 84-90, so he gives a range.

GREEN: I think we settled on...I can’t remember. Whatever the tempo was is what he wanted. I think we went closer to the 90 than 84. Do you have the [University of

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Connecticut] recording? That’s the one you should listen to. This was the first recording and he was there, so that’s the one I would refer to.

DIMEGLIO: Ok, thank you. What do you think is the significance of that scale? The piece could easily start without it.

GREEN: It could, but that would be completely unacceptable in my mind. It is David Maslanka and it is a person who has taught me so much. It’s difficult for me to put myself in a place where I would say that I would, in any way, question him. But, there’s that piece of me that rejects it. I’ll tell you where [the scale] came from. Malcolm Rowell, who was the Band Director at the University of Massachusetts - and, I might add, a phenomenal man and a great band director - would warm up his band with a scale every rehearsal, and David would be there listening to it. He heard it and he thought, “Well, I’ll just start my symphony with a C major scale.” So that’s the simple fact of where that thing came from. I’ve heard every [speculation, like] “it’s a simple gesture of a journey through an hour- long symphony that culminates in the fifth movement,” but the plain truth is that it came from a warm up in Malcolm Rowell’s band room, and that's what David told me. This strengthened my idea that I didn’t want to do it. I listened to [the Third Symphony] not too long ago because I just wanted to revisit it, but it’s that scale. When it gets to the harmonized adlib. [measure 16] I don’t mind that so much. And then of course the journey that begins thereafter is phenomenal. That is virtually a scale again, but transformed a million times over. Many of David’s “song” ideas have come from various experiences in his travel. For example, the motif in the third movement of A Child’s Garden of Dreams - the drum section (sings) - came from a basketball game with John Paynter at Northwestern. The drums in the pep band were playing (sings percussive motif) and David said, “I think that would make a good motif,” so he took it. Honestly, after this many years of hearing the Third Symphony so often, I don’t mind the scale at all.

DIMEGLIO: When you were in the process of this project with him, did you verbalize your distaste for starting the piece this way?

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That’s what happened to David’s [music] and that’s because the musicians and the conductor hear it in a way they’re going to do it. Eric Whitacre’s like that. Once the composition is finished, it’s finished. A few years ago, Eric and I did a workshop in Texas on Lux Aurumque, which he arranged for me and the Texas All State Band to premiere. We were together in a room full of Texas band directors, each of us conducting Lux Aurumque, and his version was significantly different from mine. The experience was awesome and very telling. After the session was over, Eric and I had a long discussion about what happened and how and why it happened. It was incredible. David was specific about things he wanted but then he would [make changes]. If he didn’t like the way something was going on, maybe in the hall or maybe the quality of the player, he would make adjustments so that the music came to be what it was going to be. The last piece I did with David was The Seeker with the Virginia All-State Band. I think it was just a little over a year before he died. And the pianist could not play the part that David wrote. David tried and tried to get him to play it and it wasn’t going to happen, so he rewrote the part right there in front of him, so that the kid could play it. So he was specific about what he wanted, but it was at the moment of recreation, not necessarily the moment of creation - his act of writing the piece - but in the moment of the performance. That recreation of that piece on that day at that exact moment. He wanted things to be, pretty much, the way he had put them down. Having said that, I’ll say it again, he’d change it. I’ve seen him do it with the same group in the same rehearsal series.

DIMEGLIO: But not based on the inability of a group, or the opinion of the conductor, but just based on how he felt in that space?

GREEN: That’s right. That high school band experience (Virginia All-State) - We had two days to put together a premier of a piece by a major composer, and so he’s on everybody to get it done. The part on the page now is exactly what he wrote. You would never see the part that was played [in the premier]. If you have a score and you listen to that performance you would hear it differently. But the music stays exactly the way he wrote it.

DIMEGLIO: In another letter from 1993 when he is talking about the symphony he says “our piece.” I thought this was endearing that he sees it not as his piece but as a product of you and him.

GREEN: Well, you went through that letter he wrote in 1992 about where the piece comes from. That’s a long letter. David had only written three wind ensemble pieces [by this time]. Concerto for Piano and Winds, A Child’s Garden of Dreams, and Symphony No. 2. He was very young. I remember hearing the performance of the Second Symphony by John Paynter and Northwestern at CBDNA National in Evanston, and I remember the effect that that symphony had on that audience. David’s piece was just before intermission, and during intermission he was walking around. I saw him and I knew who he was, but I didn’t approach him.

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[aside] I worked with an adult band in Fairfax, Virginia, and they had band directors from all over come in. We did Give Us This Day and David as in town with Matthew. I have these pictures of that rehearsal that I’d like to show you.

DIMEGLIO: In that same letter from 1993 he also references being a “famous dead composer.”

GREEN: I knew David before he was David Maslanka.He was becoming David Maslanka. . . He was still this artist that had written A Child’s Garden of Dreams, which the world was intrigued by. And then he wrote the Second Symphony. He was still this young, aspiring composer. I was afraid to talk to him. I didn’t say one word to him. I was nervous and intimidated but I wanted to be a part of it, so I just watched him. There are [sections] of the Second Symphony that I love. I was early in my years at Connecticut when I heard this with Northwestern. I remember watching David walk around and it was like he was [in a trance]. He was just in the moment and he didn’t really know who he was. It was surreal. Here was a guy that was an important force in what we were trying to say. And here he was trying to figure out what he wanted to say, and how he was going to say it. But I wanted to be a part of it. I was afraid to talk to him. I didn’t say one word to him. I was scared to death. So I just watched him. I think Symphony #4 is the piece that actually made him who he is. At this point in time the symphony was being played from my parts. You can imagine trying to play from that. Awful. And I worked really hard to get that. I dedicated myself to him, and it just didn’t work out. He was unhappy that those parts were not better, because people had to play it and they weren’t going to be as tolerant. The second performance of Symphony #3 was with Jerry Junkin in Texas. He was preparing it at the same time that we were, and Jerry had a set of those parts. I had given them to David and David has sent them. Jerry did it the weekend after we did. In his own way, [David] was saying “I don’t like how these parts came out and I’ll be dead before they’re any better.” I don’t think it’s serious. He was angry that I didn’t do a better job with his parts. David always struggled. He was happy to write wind pieces, and that was his destiny. I don’t look at them as wind pieces, I look at them as pieces of art. They either have merit or they don’t, and in this case they do. He always wanted to write for orchestra. He thought that was something that he should be able to do, because that’s where the real action seems to be. It’s not true, but when you live in a world that wants to categorize things, then it seems so. In the forward to the score of Hosannas, he talks about me retiring - our age - getting older - and the inevitability of the final days. But when he wrote that [in 2015], neither one of us had ever considered anything about death, not really. Getting older you know it, but you don’t consider it. And he didn’t want to write Symphony #9 because of Beethoven and Mahler. He would talk about it. He felt like he was trapped in that. He was always aware of the possibility of death and the idea that it was coming, but he rarely would think about it in terms of his work. When he was working, he was totally alive. The shock to me was when he sent out that email saying that he wasn’t going to live forever. It wasn’t even real.

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So that comment [about being a famous dead composer] was an offhand remark. It wasn’t something that he was even considering at the time. He was upset because I didn’t do a better job with his parts. [laughs]

DIMEGLIO: Let’s move on to the longer letter, from April 17, 1992. In this letter he does express feeling pain, depression, I think he’s talking about finishing a work and then going back home and not having the energy to do the work around the house that needs to be done. What place might he have been in at this point? This was so long ago.

GREEN: I remember this letter. Many times we would have conversations about things like this and there were letters documenting it. It’s hard for me to know exactly what went on inside of him because I could never understand that. I could never understand what a true artist could truly feel. I’ve read about it. Have you read any books on Mahler? “Gustav Mahler: A Life in Crisis.” Read that when you have a minute. It is applicable to what you’re thinking of with this. Did you ever read the letter that Beethoven wrote when he knew he was going deaf? He wrote this at the knowledge that he was losing his hearing. You should look this up and read it.

DIMEGLIO: I did read a lot about Mahler this fall because we are preparing Um Mitternacht. I was learning about how his productivity would increase in the summer when he would retreat to these secluded places. That immediate connection to then how David would work in his secluded office in nature struck me.

GREEN: Do you know who commissions Um Mitternacht? Nobody. Nobody commissioned any of his work. Not one piece! Mahler would work as a conductor in operas and in orchestras during the season so that in summertime he could write. And he wrote because of the love of the writing, not because of the money. When that music comes out it comes out because he’s talking to himself. That music is so real. Those little bits and insights of people can help you steady yourself. John Corigliano came to the university I don’t know how many years ago. We played Circus Maximus and I invited Jon to come in. We had a big forum in Fillmore Hall with John and all the composers. One of the kids in the audience asked Corigliano if it was fun to compose [pause, rolls eyes]. John looked at the student and paused. I thought he wasn’t going to answer him. Then he said “It is NOT fun to compose. It is fun to finish.” And everybody snickered. Everybody laughed but John never cracked a smile. He looked at all of use, my heart was pounding. He said “first you have to have the hope that you have one idea that anybody will care anything about listening to.” That’s arguably one of the greatest composers to ever walk the face of the Earth admitting that he’s fragile, that he’s human. It was the same thing with David. When he would finish he would hope that he could start again, and just have an idea that would be meaningful to somebody for any reason at all. He would get sick. He would call and I could barely hear him because he was so weak. Matthew has a recording of his mother and David. You can hear the strength of her voice compared to his, and you can hear how tired he was and how frightened he was.

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Because of the timing of Symphony No. 3 and because of David just beginning to ascend as a source of energy in composition, I befriended him. I was lucky enough to become his friend over a long period of time. Our work together was intense and substantive. There were times where I just simply didn’t want anymore because it was too much. But he was always frightened that he wasn’t going to be able to say what he wanted to say. He’s referring to that insecurity. He was human and frail.

DIMEGLIO: He was married once previously. Do you know when he went through divorce or when he got remarried?

GREEN: No. It wasn’t long before they moved to Montana. Probably two years prior to Symphony No. 3. He was in New York at the time.

DIMEGLIO: I wasn’t sure if this letter was from around the time when he was divorced, but it must have been well after. On the fourth page of this letter, toward the end, he mentions: “I can’t stand the idea that you might wind up hating or at least resenting the symphony or me because you can’t digest or get past us. I value and need you too much as a friend. I have lots of acquaintances and not very many friends. This is important.

GREEN: We must have already done the symphony together by the time he wrote this.

DIMEGLIO: Well, he wrote this in 1992.

GREEN: He did work with Steve Steele at the time, so it was after. He’s going through a lot of stuff here. I have to read this again.

DIMEGLIO: Do you want to revisit this letter next week so you can spend some time with it?

GREEN: He’s going through a lot of stuff here. The Symphony was so big. The group that I premiered this with was all undergrads [at the University of Connecticut]. We all struggled: me, David, and the ensemble. The ensemble had to struggle trying to understand the piece, play it, get through my part-writing and my rehearsals, and Maslanka. It was a massive struggle. One of learning and of opening doors, but he might have been referring to the size and difficulty of the score and he was worried that I wouldn’t be happy about it. It’s important to me to note something about the desire and drive of the students at the University of Connecticut. Their response to the difficulty of this experience was inspiring to witness. I’d like to spend more time with this letter so I can read this more carefully.

DIMEGLIO: Maybe we can talk about this one again next week. There are a couple other shorter letters. January 14 of 1992. In this letter he mentions a writing project that you were doing with Symphony No. 3. Is this something that you had to do for the University of Connecticut to justify the commission?

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GREEN: I was going to write a paper about it because I was so in love with it. I was IN IT. There was nothing else I could see or consider. I had blinders on. I didn’t realize there was another composer in the world, I didn’t realize there was another human being in the world other than David Maslanka. I had all these grandiose [ideas] that I was going to write a big paper about it because I was so in love with it. But then reality took over and I became too busy. I was travelling all the time. So I never wrote it.

DIMEGLIO: Also in this letter he references a string piece in the first paragraph. Which piece is he referencing?

GREEN: I have no idea. He did write an orchestral symphony which I think is No. 7.

DIMEGLIO: So if this is in 1992, published in 1992 is Music for String Orchestra, published in 1993 there’s a Montana Music for Violin and Viola, Montana Music Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano.

GREEN: I don’t know those. I don’t know much about those and I’m not sure he talked to me about them. He must have mentioned it because it has echos of the symphony. By the way, on the University of Connecticut Symphony No. 3 premiere CD, did you listen to Cornfield in July by Bill Penn? It’s really cool. You should listen to it some time. When that CD went out, the reaction was not to the Third Symphony, it was to Cornfield in July. Everybody played it. It’s a chamber piece and it’s really good. It is open, you can hear everything, you can see through it.

DIMEGLIO: Moving on to April 8, 1991. I know that he meditated on your baton. Did you offer the baton or did he specifically ask for that item?

GREEN: He came to UConn and we did his second symphony. I did the first and last movements, I didn’t do the second movement. The second movement is minimalist. It was written and completed right after the Challenger astronaut disaster, where all those astronauts were killed. And so he felt like he needed to add something to it, so he wrote a 5-minute improvisation on Deep River for saxophones, and that’s the way that second movement started. And while I was struck with the tragedy of The Challenger disaster, I didn’t see where it really belonged as an add-in to a symphony, and so I didn’t do the second movement. In my mind, the introduction to the first movement of the Second Symphony IS IT. He came to the rehearsals and the performance [of the second symphony at UConn], and this was after we had done A Child’s Garden. He took the baton because he wanted something of mine to take back to Montana with him from Connecticut. He looked around my office and I offered him things that were sitting on my desk. Things that I cared about, like a letter opener. He rejected all of them and said they weren’t enough. So, I offered him the baton that I had just used to conduct his Second Symphony, and he took it. That was what he used as meditation for the Third Symphony. He took that baton, and it was a long time before I began to get music.

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The symphony came to me in five pieces. He sent it to me movement by movement. The first movement he sent me was the second movement, which is the slow movement and really quite beautiful. Just prior to the halfway mark of the second movement is a baritone saxophone solo, in the upper register (sings the melody). And I recognized that right away as being Indian. I was upset about it, really upset. I almost wrote him and told him I’m not doing this. This is the crux of the symphony, and probably is the thing that should drive [our] thinking about this symphony. It has to do with that baton. When I was a child, I lived in Oklahoma in a little town just outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was the home of many racial riots and racial problems. There were deep-seated feelings about integration and segregation in Oklahoma, the same as there were in the deep south. I can clearly remember going shopping downtown with my mother and there would be water fountains, one marked “white” and one marked “colored.” It’s hard to believe. There was a large population of American Indians in Oklahoma: Choctaw, Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Seminole. It turns out that my great-great-grandmother was full blood Cherokee Indian. I didn’t want people to know that I was Indian. I went out of my way to make sure that nobody knew that. Your life takes you a lot of different ways. It takes you a long time to grow up, actually. I don’t know how, but David found out that I have Indian heritage. He took that baton, and he found out through meditation He [Maslanka] was surrounded by Indian culture in Montana. Black Elk Speaks, etc. Further, in the first movement he talks about death and the need to die so that you can be reborn. That was his idea of me needing to find out who I really was and come to grips with it and say ok that’s who I am. And he was right. It was a struggle. There were a lot of things in it that frightened me, that I didn’t want to face, but that I did face because of him. I am eternally grateful for the lessons I learned, not only musical, but who I am as a human.

DIMEGLIO: How did those conversations go? Were you comfortable telling him that you were resistant to the idea of including the Native American theme?

GREEN: I said, “How do you know these things?”And he told me he wasn’t sure how he knew, he just knew. While I was reticent, I still had this piece that was from him. I loved him and I didn’t want to let him down, but I was conflicted with regard to his meditation process because I wasn’t sure that I wanted to go through the agony of dying so that I could be reborn. But I had to face all those things. With him, once it was done, then the transformation - the transcendence of it - made all the rest of it seem like it never existed. The idea that there was anything special about anybody except that they’re human-being-energy on the face of the earth, and struggle like everyone does. All that was given to me because of those conversations and because of that music. Not very many people really understand that, and I suspect that many people wouldn’t understand it because they didn’t go through it I wonder what it would have been like to have been present when Stravinsky was writing The Rite of Spring and to enter that creative space with Diagolev. What were

122 those conversations like? And what did they talk about? It’s just overwhelming to consider. The Indian [themes] are inserted throughout the entire piece. The fourth movement is filled with them. You can see and feel the depth of spirit and meaning during those times and the immersion of the spirit, soul, and intellect all going into one place, into a tiny little space and crammed in there. How much can you take? I had to learn how to deal with it all.

DIMEGLIO: While the two of you had a friendship, it was a fairly new friendship.

GREEN: At that point, yes. Read the forward to Hosannas. It’ll give you insight. Our work together is gigantic when you consider the amount of work that we did together. We would have dinners together, and there was always something about the struggle to find something in the world that isn’t either obvious or something in the world that contains true meaning for us. We’d talk about a lot of things. Sometimes it was easy and sometimes it wasn’t easy. And it was always difficult because the last thing I ever wanted to do would be to hurt him in anyway, because I remember his eyes after we did that second movement of A Child’s Garden of Dreams. The third movement, that first time. That was my goal, never to hurt him.”

DIMEGLIO: Do you know of any other occasions when Maslanka borrowed an item from someone while meditating to inspire a composition?

GREEN: I know of one and I’m sure there are more. [His piece] In Memoriam [was] commissioned by the students from the University of Texas at Arlington when Ray Lichtenwalter’s wife died. She was an organist at her church and she had certain hymns that she loved to play. Ray gave David the hymnal that his wife would use to play, and David took the hymnal and wrote In Memoriam from that. I’m sure there are more There is a piece for Winds, Cello, and Flute written for Christine Nield, who was the flute teacher at Miami. And that came after a performance of the flute concerto with Christine. David loved Christine.

DIMEGLIO: He often references how Symphony No. 3 “appeared” to him, rather than talking about working on it or writing it. He says “It appeared to me” or “it came to me.” He spent this time meditating, but would he physically compose while meditating, or would he meditate and then awaken and write?

GREEN: Do you have a letter with illustrations?

DIMEGLIO: Yes, but it’s for Symphony No. 4.

GREEN: That one regarding Symphony No. 4 is his response to me when I told him I didn’t like the jazz section. There’s another, for Symphony No. 3. I’ll try to find it. He told me that when he would sleep, he would dream that he saw in the sky a bright, shiny object. This object began to glow and to him, that was a reference to the

123 world. It became a view from a cat’s eye and it became the motivation for the music. I believe it was in the [second] movement of the symphony. He would meditate, and then take his meditations and write. For example this symbol of this eye became the germinating idea for a musical thought. And then he would begin to write thoughts. I gave you a big, framed page of thematic material for the Third Symphony. A lot of [music] he would sketch, put it on a piece of paper and then put it away until he was ready to use the material. But it all came from something that he meditated on. Nothing was ever put on paper that didn’t have something behind it that motivated it.

DIMEGLIO: There is one other huge letter, from May 10, 1991.

GREEN: He was trying to teach me to meditate. Poor guy. He says he was not a Christian, but he was. He uses Christian references all over the place. He was buddhist, atleast he believed in that. But he also talks about [Christian references] all the time. In A Child’s Garden of Dreams the word “epiphany” occurs in the fourth movement. That’s pretty strong. When we were talking about Give Us This Day - The Song of the Golden Light was in that, but it was sung by a bear.

DIMEGLIO: In his meditation journal from 1990 he does talk about the bear. Let’s wrap up here, and we can continue our discussion on Symphony No. 3 next time.

GREEN: You have a score used in the preparation of the recording of Symphony No. 3, but it is not the original score. I have the original score here in my home.

DIMEGLIO: Part of the importance of the work that I want to do is to give conductors a better glimpse into how to properly interpret this music. We both have the score, so next week if there’s anything in particular regarding tempo, dynamics, etc. that can help conductors…

GREEN: I will, but as you think about this, those are the types of things that I hate! Because they limit the imagination. There is no imagination connected to a tempo. An appropriate tempo that follows the logic and the reason of the composer is what matters. I will talk to you about things that I know to be important. But, I don’t want to write how to interpret each measure of the piece.

DIMEGLIO: Maybe if we approach from a place of Maslanka’s inspiration. Less logistical process and more about meaning.

GREEN: You’re taking on a major task for which I am grateful and for which I know David would be grateful as well. The more that we can offer this music as a meaningful contribution to life and humanity and to things that matter, the more meaningful it will be to the listener, and it’s even greater than that. What we’re doing is trying to celebrate beauty in the world, in whatever form it takes. Beauty has a lot of different attitudes and

124 color. It has to be something that is spoken from the soul and from the heart. Intellectually, of course. If it’s not in tune, it’s not ok. It still has to be in tune.

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Appendix A4: Gary Green, interview by author, March 2, 2021

CHRISTINA DIMEGLIO: You previously mentioned a story about how you asked him to write the Third Symphony.

GARY GREEN: We did talk about seeing David at the CBDNA (Collegiate Band Directors National Association) National Conference at Northwestern when they premiered the Second Symphony. And of course before that was A Child’s Garden of Dreams and before that there was a Piano Concerto that was premiered at Eastman, which Frederick Fennel conducted. It never really got any play beyond that performance. There were a couple performances, but nothing like many of his other pieces. So I saw David, but I didn’t talk to him at that CBDNA. I was intimidated by him. I was intimidated by everything. But to see him there and to feel the power of that music, I was pretty much overwhelmed. I remember that concert, which I think is significant. John Paynter conducted the Northwestern Band. He did a premiere from someone that I can’t remember, but then he finished the first half with Maslanka’s Second Symphony. He used all the players in the Wind Ensemble and all the players in the Northwestern Symphony Band, so there were about 120 players on the stage for the Second Symphony. There was intermission, and then a piece by Persichetti for Chorus and Wind Ensemble - I believe Celebrations. He finished that concert with Et Expecto Resurrectum by Messiean, which is a gigantic piece. The band director at the University of Minnesota, Frank Bencriscutto, was there. You may have seen his name, as he did the transcription of Bernstein’s Profanation. Frank and I were on the elevator together and literally his whole body was shaking because the concert was so powerful and so big that people didn’t know what to think. It was just overwhelming. I was working at the University of Connecticut at the time. It was early in my career at UConn. I was there for 10 years, so when I saw David for the first time and heard his music live it would have been probably two or three years into my tenure at Connecticut. I think I left Connecticut in 1993, and the symphony was premiered in 1991. I was interested in David and had been. He was my motivation for leaving high school to go teach college, so I decided that whatever might happen, I was going to do his piece. [Some time after David attended our rehearsals and performance], he went to the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, maybe 30 or 40 miles from Storrs, Connecticut, where the University of Connecticut is [located]. Prof. Stan DeRusha at Hartt was one of the finest conductors I’ve ever seen in my life, of any genre. He was so brilliantly musical and so elegant. He was doing a concert and he was performing the Dvorak Serenade and A Child’s Garden of Dreams, which was a startling combination. I decided to go and hear it. I had just gone through this experience with David on A Child’s Garden, and to my surprise he was in attendance at this performance. I wasn’t expecting to see him there, so I sat in the back [of the hall] because I didn’t want to [bother him] anymore. There was a feeling of insecurity and discomfort while in the presence of this master. I had been through the agony of trying to realize who he was and what he was doing [musically and emotionally]. I was changed by it and I was a different person because of that experience. [The concert at Hartt] wasn’t very long after, maybe a week

126 or two, since this transpired. We sat through the first half - Dvorak - and David was sitting in the front and I was sitting in the back hoping he didn’t see me. At intermission he saw me. So he came back to where I was and said, “Let’s move up and sit together.” So I did, and sitting with David during this performance of a piece that we had just done was . . . visceral, it was alive, and musically and emotionally exciting. After the piece was over, people were talking with David and Stan, and for some reason, I’m not exactly sure why, I said, “You wouldn’t be interested in writing a piece for us, would you?” and he said, “Of course.” I don’t know why I said it. I didn’t have any money. I had no budget, it was ridiculous how little money I had and I didn’t know how we were going to pay for it if he said yes, but he did. So that began the process. Then it took about a year of work to find the money. I wrote a grant [to the research foundation of the University of Connecticut]. I’m not a writer at all, but I researched, I went to see everyone on campus about how to write a grant. [The cost of the commission] was $13,500, and that was in 1989. The grant came to be. They actually gave us the money to do that, and it had never happened before. Dorothy was in shock, everybody was in shock, and it has never been done since [to my knowledge]. [Funds were provided] through the university to pay for that piece from David, and that’s how [we financed the project]

DIMEGLIO: Was this the Koussevitzky Foundation grant?

GREEN: Koussevitzky was a thing in New York. David knew about that and he was trying to help me find a way to get the money. He suggested that I contact the Koussevtizky Foundation, so I did. But they weren’t interested. There should be materials from the University of Connecticut granting that money for that work.

DIMEGLIO: What caused this change in you, to go from avoiding him at a performance to then asking him to do the commission?

DIMEGLIO: Shifting gears here, let’s discuss his correspondence discussing meditation, specifically the meditation journal he sent you from his work on the Third Symphony. Do you consider all of Maslanka’s music to be programmatic? It seems like all of his music was based on imagery, whether it came from a book, from him, or someone else. Do you consider it programmatic and should we all approach it in that way?

127 and what they were interested in. That was pretty consistent with all my dealing with him. So if that’s the definition of programmatic then I suppose that it is. But it is not programmatic in a sense that his music is not always predictable, in that the symbols are sometimes disguised to the point that they are unrecognizable as a real image. Poetry doesn’t always have to be a flower. It can be something else. It conjures up an emotion or a response from the person that’s reading it or experiencing it. I suppose that it is programmatic but I also think it’s poetic in that regard. David never wrote with a “hero” or storyline in mind. I don’t consider his music to be programmatic, although all of his music was influenced by the human condition.

GREEN: To the extent that you can, you should know everything you can about every piece you’re going to conduct. That is absolutely essential for every [conductor], and each person can find their own vision and sense of meaning through hearing and experiencing his music. But, [consider] Mahler. I always go to Mahler, because in my mind Mahler exhibits in music of contemporary status - there’s always Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart, all those are incredibly wonderful composers and I love them - but I have a special affinity toward Mahler, because his thoughts and feelings are right there for the world to see. Mahler was very descriptive in his scores. There are volumes written about the meaning of the words that he wrote in those scores. I think that David has a specific idea, so if a person can find out more about why music is the way it is . . . not all music is this way. Some of it’s programmatic to the point that this is black and this is white, but this music is far more in depth. It’s never simple, it’s never easy to understand, but it’s always motivated by human condition.

DIMEGLIO: That’s the reaction I had to his letters as well. These images that come to him are so intimately connected to the music that he wrote. We all need to know about it. On the first page of his meditation journal, he says “I am prepared, can do what is necessary. People rely on me to do the necessary thing. I am free to do it. Will invent a spectacular thing.” You’ve talked before of his insecurity and feelings of trauma from abandonment of not having many friends when his family left their religion. Do you think that when he’s meditating that its partially motivational for him and reassuring himself that he can do this.

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A lot of that insecurity I think is caused from that inability to come to grips with who he is and why he is. I wondered sometimes when you’d have these beautiful themes that he would write and then out of this would come this gnarly, twisted kinda march, nasty. I think that was him coming to grips with who he was and his own emotions. I think he depended on meditation. He needed it. When I first met him, he and his wife Alison were living in New York. I had just moved from the pacific northwest to Connecticut, which was a culture shock. A place with mountains, fantastically beautiful, but also kind of scary because it’s so big. And then you go to a place like Connecticut or New York and there are people everywhere. So he was leaving that metropolitan area and going to a place where there was nothing and I wondered how he was going to be able to handle that. His wife was totally ready to do that. But he loved it out there. He found things that he had never thought about before. Indians, and cowboys, and wide open spaces. He thought about that a lot and he loved it.

DIMEGLIO: The rest of this meditation page is pretty clear, including the bear song and where that happens in the music.

GREEN: Did you find that song in the score?

DIMEGLIO: Yes. He writes here “The she-bear sings about the golden light. [This “song” starts at m.142 of 4th movement.]” I believe it’s in the saxophone and clarinets.

GREEN: Yes, I know which one [sings theme]. This is the song of the golden light.

DIMEGLIO: At the bottom of the page, he says “The bear’s song starts at measure 77 of the 5th movement. So this is another bear song. “The bear appears again in a meditation and gives the essence of the fifth movement.” For this bear song, I assume he’s talking about the melody in the alto saxophone, trombone, and euphonium.

GREEN: Yes, that’s right.

DIMEGLIO: He mentions the skeleton here, in his letter and meditation, and in another letter from just a few weeks earlier - April 23, 1991 - he tells you that the skeleton means change, not death or extinction.

DIMEGLIO: It looks like he sent this with the last movement.

GREEN: Yes he did. I got the whole score on May 16, six days after this letter. The premiere was on Thursday, November 21, 1991.

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By the time we got to this letter we had talked about this a lot. It’s the third movement that this relates to. The idea of the need for killing and the joy of feeding is a key to the centralized idea of the whole symphony. But the idea of death and rebirth or reinvention is consistent to the entire symphony. And the fourth movement was very much like that. By the time we got to that letter in 1991 I had accepted it by then. I was at peace with myself for the first time in a long time, about who I was and the learning process. Learning not being knowledge necessarily, although it certainly is an intellectual thing, but learning is a lifelong accumulation of who you are as a human being combined with how you accept and bond with other people. That was all part of it.

DIMEGLIO: You’ve said that Maslanka made multiple attempts to teach you how to meditate. Did you try it?

DIMEGLIO: It almost feels like he was studying the meditation process, not just experiencing it, like he wanted to know what was causing these thoughts and visions while he meditated.

GREEN: Yes.

DIMEGLIO: Going back to the beginning of the letter from May 10, 1991, he mentions that the piece is longer than he planned. He also expresses the concern that it might not get many plays because of [the length]. He doesn’t strike me as the kind of person that would worry too much about his music being played. He seems like he’s content with what he writes and if it gets played it gets played. Am I misinterpreting [his] personality?

GREEN: He was sensitive to what people thought about his music. Right to the very end. The last thing I did with David was the premiere of a piece that he wrote for the Virginia All State band. He was in Virginia working with James Madison University, so he came to where the All State band was to work with the group. He walked in [his first question was,] “Do we have a piece?” and I said, “We have more than that.” He was so relieved. It struck me how relieved he was that he had written something that someone would care to play [and listen to]. I think he was interested in what people thought. I do think that he was concerned about people playing his music and being motivated by it. He traveled a lot in his life. Everybody had him out to do his music around the world. He was loved by many, hundreds of thousands of people, that were motivated and moved by his music. So I do think that he cared about it. I think it wore him out.

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DIMEGLIO: Did he travel so often for financial reasons, or so that he could mould and adjust his music depending on the space and the people?

GREEN: He honestly felt that a performance could not be complete without his presence. In other words, you could not play his music without him there and have it be as good as it would be with him there. That was just the way it was with him. I don’t know what motivated that except that he could be intense, but at the same time gentle. He never came across as too harsh, but he would express “this has to be played this way” and he was relentless with this. He had a feeling that his presence made the difference. I’m not sure that that was ever equalized with him.

GREEN: Not that I know of, but it’s possible that it was there and I just wasn’t aware of it. Perhaps it was portrayed in his own way. The process of diving deeper into a subject did manifest itself in his compositions. I think that he would use meditation as a motivation to begin his work. But then he would rely on his ability to sing songs to begin his compositional process, and then they would have to match his idea of what the meditation was. There are two things in the symphony - well, there’s more than that - but there are two major ideas of structure. In the second movement, look at the opening half of movement 2, and you will see elements similar to the techniques he used in A Child’s Garden of Dreams. The opening is ethereal and almost suspended without movement. It starts in clarinet and mallet percussion and it’s almost like a cloud. Study this opening, the resolutions, and the harmonic devices he uses and you’ll find similarities in that music to A Child’s Garden of Dreams. The other thing that I think is fascinating is in the third movement. The fugue that separates the beginning and the end. I don’t know of another piece that he wrote that has a fugue in it, and this is a complex fugue. Fugues are difficult to write and difficult to play. It starts in the bassoon (sings theme) and that is, compositionally, extraordinary in the device that he chose to use in that movement. When you read what it’s supposed to represent, this viscous cycle of death and life, it’s an interesting combination of ideas. And the tempo is blazing - it’s fast.

DIMEGLIO: He says in the meditation that he had a hiker as a guide for that section. I’m your guide for the fugue. I’ll help you over the fugue mountain. And then he describes the mountain.

GREEN: I can’t think of any other pieces that have a fugue, and certainly not anything like that. It is “every man for himself” getting into it and then all of a sudden you’re on your own.

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DIMEGLIO: At the start of the letter he mentions that the piece is longer than he planned.

GREEN: I got the piece one movement at a time. I’d go to the post office to pick them up. By the time I had been there 5 times I was worn out. It was so big, and I had asked him for a piece of about 20 minutes of moderate difficulty, and I didn’t know what we were going to do. I was really frightened by it. I had great kids that I loved, but I was [fearful of hurting them] with this piece. Outside of the C major scale, you’re in trouble.

DIMEGLIO: He [also mentions] maybe splitting this up into different pieces. Was that ever a serious discussion?

GREEN: No. Once it came, that’s what it was and he wasn’t going to change it. The ending of that symphony is double reeds primarily - The song of quiet joy, he says. It is breathtakingly stark. It reminded me of the music of Stravinsky, in its timbre and in the austere mannerisms of the music. The only motion in it is the tempo. There’s nothing that propels that music until the very end of the piece and the quietness of it. It’s the only propulsion that you have after all that time. But the whole last section of it with the double reeds is extremely difficult.

GREEN: That was his opinion. It’s a difficult thing to talk about because you have to have experienced it. For example, in his great book about Gustav Mahler, Bruno Walter wrote that he was a companion and champion of Mahler’s music. However, Walter also says that there were long periods of time when he would have nothing to do with Mahler because Mahler wouldn’t allow him to be himself. He wouldn’t allow him to feel his sense of being in a musical way. Mahler felt he was above all, and he would not allow Bruno Walter to have his own musical thoughts. David was a little bit like that. He would express himself - like his idea that it couldn’t be a good performance without him there was a very real thing to him. But it isn’t true. If that’s true, then there will never be another really good performance of any of David Maslanka’s music because he can’t be there. And of course there will be. There will be great, moving performances, because the gift has been given. So whether with me or anyone, David was the key figure, as it should be. But he didn’t ever quite understand that the person that was working with him could actually offer anything. I think he softened on that a little bit, but early on not very much. He considered himself - his gift, the idea of who he was - to be the composer, and it was our responsibility to find his voice. He did conduct the Second Symphony once at UMass. He thought it to be an athletic thing, not a musical thing. But that’s the way he perceived it. He was a great friend and a great person to learn a lot from. He’s saying that he’s the most poorly organized person that ever lived. [laughs] I think he’s saying that his idea is to be the person that empowers the music and everybody physically brings it to life, not spiritually.

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DIMEGLIO: In some of his thoughts he almost seems to consider himself a type of a prophet. He makes bold claims about what you will experience in the future, specifically referring to you denying your Indian heritage.

GREEN: Once that happened (Maslanka’s thoughts on Green’s indian heritage) we had talked about it quite a bit. Between the two of us it was pretty common knowledge. I think that our conversations were more like “here’s how I feel, here’s how I’m reacting to all of this.” When you finish a piece and you long to have it again, those times will come again. You will feel attached to performances and it will be difficult to let it go. It is a time when you are the most vulnerable and you are learning the most. You cherish that and you want to stay in that. I think David would gather his feelings about our conversations together and he would recognize that in me was this sort of darkness that I was afraid to let go. I would work and work and then have to let it go so I would explain to him how I felt and then he would rewrite it in a letter such as this. I don’t think he’s so much of a prophet as just remembering our conversations prior to this.

DIMEGLIO: While you were rereading these letters, did anything stir your memory or come to you? Keep in mind that I do not have your responses to these letters.

GREEN: The Third Symphony was the beginning of the time in my life when composition was becoming more and more important. [When I] had gone to Miami, David had been there and we had performed A Child’s Garden of Dreams. We performed Symphony No. 3 not long after that. But it was evident to me, especially after that early time at Miami, that my heart was totally involved in David’s music and him. The music is so real to me. Nothing has ever touched me like that. I was so wrapped up in it that I was afraid that my life was going to go without knowing what else was out there. So I moved away from him. There are some emails where he talks about this. I did a podcast with somebody that talked about wind music and David heard it and he didn’t like it at all. It was my feeling that I needed to know about Michael Colgrass, Christopher Rouse, and all these other people so I felt like I needed to move away from David in order to do that, so I did and it was tough.

DIMEGLIO: Was he offended by that?

GREEN: Yes, I believe it hurt him. He was very unhappy with me about it [because, I believe, he was concerned for my future]. The reason I left teaching high school was because I felt like there were things I just didn’t know. I had never listened to Mahler - I’m not sure I even knew who he was. But I knew there was so much out there. There were experiences that I needed to have. As I began to experience these things, I didn’t want to stop learning once I started.

DIMEGLIO: In the letter from April 17, 1992, he talks about how tired he is.

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GREEN: I would talk to David on the phone and he would be so tired that you could barely hear him. His voice was so soft. He sounded just completely depleted, like he didn't have anything left. That’s the way it was with David. He was either down or up. Never a cheerleader at all, but when he was down he was really down. He would get to a point where he couldn’t even get out of bed. His wife Alison would tell him this means you’re getting closer to a time when you need to write. He would get really tired and then when he would get at his lowest would be when he would begin to work.

DIMEGLIO: I would assume that the writing process was exhausting for him as well.

GREEN: It was, but once he was in it then it was something he was going to do and he was challenged by it. When he would end it, he was exhausted again.

DIMEGLIO: You mentioned earlier that he would try to learn as much as possible about the person he was writing for. Was there music that he just wrote because he felt it or was it always inspired by someone else.

GREEN: To my knowledge, it seemed like it was always motivated by someone else. Except, there’s a series of pieces - Montana Music - for percussion, band, there are several pieces. Some of those, I believe, were written just because of Montana. He wrote Montana Music for Percussion for Central Michigan University with an unbelievably strong percussion program. I was at the premiere of that at Midwest and it was amazing. It may have been a commission. Most of the music David wrote was commissioned. I would say 90% or more.

DIMEGLIO: In this letter he mentions the name Steve often.

GREEN: That’s Steve Steele from Illinois State University, who commissioned the majority of David’s symphonies, concerti, and chamber music, either by himself or through consortium. Steve is a great champion of David’s music. When David came early in my time at Miami we did Symphony No. 4 and we did it at a church because we didn’t have an organ and I wanted a big organ. So we did it in the First Methodist Church in Coral Gables. Spectacular. They have a gigantic organ in there.

DIMEGLIO: In the letter from April, 1992 he’s reflecting so much on the piece and says how he relistens and “it is a great piece, it was worth all the time and effort.” Was it common for him to listen and reflect after the fact?

GREEN: Yes, every time. It’s self-doubt during the entire process. Knowing what he wanted but not confident that it was going to happen. And then a realization that everything was as it should be. He would bring things to the music that no one else could. The thing about David was that he was writing for winds but he really had a keen desire to write more for orchestra. I was becoming more and more involved in music of all kinds. I was less interested in what music was out there for us to do in band, but more interested in what music was waiting to be discovered regardless of ensemble medium.

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David was very interested in the orchestra, but he was destined to write for winds and percussion which is fine because the music is so real.

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Appendix A5: Gary Green, interview by author, March 16, 2021

In addition to this documented dialogue, Gary Green shared several edits to previously recorded interviews during this conversation. Those edits are reflected throughout the body of this document.

DIMEGLIO: Maslanka accepted your commission offer fairly easily and causally. Was this normal for him, or was there something special about your relationship even in its infantile stage?

GREEN: Every time I would work with David on a commission, whether if be for me or someone else, he was always approachable. He always wanted to listen and wanted to accommodate if you could. I think that was true throughout the whole process. He was never standoffish or aloof. I don’t know that it was casual, but he would listen to you.

DIMEGLIO: I meant this more in the sense that he accepted the commission fairly openly and easily, without needing to check his schedule or think about the proposal.

GREEN: Yes, he was always ready. That’s how he was every time I saw the process happen.

DIMEGLIO: Do you recall how many commissions you were a part of AFTER Symphony No. 3? While digging through Douglas Phillip’s Doctoral Essay I found 32 commissions while you were at the University of Miami. If this is a close estimate, that’s fine!

GREEN: There were 53 commissions. There are three additional commissions not included on that list because they were completed prior to my time at UM. Maslanka’s Symphony No. 3, Bill Penn’s A Cornfield in July and the River, and then there was an overture that happened while I was at UConn. Doug’s essay goes up to 2012 or 2013, but several others occurred after: Hosannas, Colgrass’ pieces, and more. You’re safe to say there were over 50 commissions. Penn’s A Cornfield in July and the River was a bigger hit on our record than Maslanka’s Third Symphony. I liked the piece a lot.

DIMEGLIO: Out of my own curiosity, was David vegetarian?

GREEN: He was not vegetarian. He was not very careful about what he ate. There was a time in his life when he became more involved in eating healthier. He wasn’t cautious about anything, generally.

DIMEGLIO: In one letter, Maslanka sent you a score and asked for your opinion on which trumpet he should write for (Bflat, C, or D). How often would he ask for your input on things like this? Why did he question himself in this instance?

GREEN: The ranges were excessive and I think he was trying to accommodate what might be an easier experience for the player to play the part. But, then there were times

136 when we would talk about timbre [and ] what kind of a trumpet sound [he was] trying to achieve. . . He would ask those questions and the honest truth is that a lot of times we would substitute trumpets if it was easier for the students to play. Instead of playing on a C trumpet we’d play on Eb, or whatever we had to do to get the part right.

DIMEGLIO: This is one of the rare letters that had such a “nuts and bolts” question. Did those conversations with him happen more over the phone, or were there not a lot of them?

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APPENDIX B

Appendix B1: Letter from David Maslanka to Gary Green, August 15, 1990 Three pages

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Aug 15, 1990 Dear Gary: Thanks for your letter. I’m very pleased that you now have an assistant. That makes the coming year possible. Your vice president’s office does keep us hanging! We assume of course that it will come through. The deadline for the Barlow application has passed some time ago, so that’s no longer possible. No word from Koussevitzky? We have to have some money here so someone will have to give it to us! Our move was as smooth as such a thing can be. Six days of driving a truck and a car cross country with only very minor annoyances. Missoula is a nice city, yet we are not exactly where we want to be. We rented something quickly to get situated here, but we will be moving again in a year or less. Alison is working toward fulfilling a life-long dream which is to work out in the wild. She is looking for work in the forest service or with the national parks. What she finds will determine where we live. It seems that we will be closer to wilderness. We have done some very small walks in the closest national forest and it’s very beautiful and peaceful there. Having spent 16 years in the middle of NYC I’m looking for a time of absolute quiet so that I can hear nature and myself directly. I have just returned from 2 weeks in the East. Bill Rowell did the premiere of Golden Light with The South Shore Conservatory senior wind ensemble. These were 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. We had a wonderful time with the piece. The kids played beyond themselves and the performance was a heightened experience for everybody. I’ll send a tape when they send one to me. I was in Bennington VT for a week as composer- in-residence for The Chamber Music Conference and Composers Forum of The East. This is organized for good amateur players (all professionals in other fields) to come and be coached in chamber music. My Quintet No. 1 for winds was performed very effectively by the faculty quintet, and I coached and conducted a performance of my new Little Concerto for Six Players which was written for the conference. It was all a smashing success. Am now panicky about my deadline for The Air Force Band. The performance is on Nov. 8-9 and score has to be to them by Oct. 1. I have the piece conceived but not composed. Lots of work here. Then there is our piece… Bill Hochkeppel at Butler Univ. in Indiana wants to take A Child’s Garden on a European Tour (Austria, Hungary, Germany, Switzerland) next May. Lots of interest in In Memoriam. At the moment I’m swamped with requests for perusal materials and I don’t know how to handle it. The piece is not published because I’m submitting it to competitions. Xeroxing will be wildly expensive. That’s it for now. Let me know as soon as you know something. Greetings to all my friends esp. Dorothy, Bill, Paul, Peter. David

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Appendix B2: Letter from David Maslanka to Gary Green, March 18, 1991 One page

3 – 18 - 91 Dear Gary: Here is the second movement. The third will probably come in about two weeks. I still have to finish composing it and it’s a hefty movement in terms of number of score pages. The 4th and 5th movements are composed and are slower in tempo, so not so many pages of score. I can begin to see glimmers of daylight ahead! All best, David

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Appendix B3: Letter from David Maslanka to Gary Green, April 8, 1991 Two pages

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April 8, 1991 Dear Gary: Here’s III. The happy thing for copying is that the recap is almost an exact repeat of the exposition. Mm 221-321 (pp 110-132) are exactly the same as mm 8-108. If you arrange your copying properly you can xerox instead of recopying the recap. Enclosed is the program note for The Symphony. This has been sent to England. A further thought on No. 3 = from p110 on I started to erase the old page numbers and measure numbers but then thought it might help you to see which bars are identical from exposition recap. So I double numbered everything. Before long I’ll make up my meditation notes for you so that you can get a feel for what pushed this piece along. I’ll also return your baton. I think it would be appropriate to conduct the piece with the stick that I used to start the meditation process. It gave me some insight into your anglo-indian background and led me along the Indian path. The first movement deals directly with the conflict of Indian and white - not that it illustrates a story, but rather is a musical translation of the lives of tension. There is the pity that the Indian has been mostly destroyed, yet the knowledge that the Indian gift to the world is still being made and is growing stronger. The Symphony has to do in part with the emergence of that first. More later. Call me early on Wednesday - before 9 your time (7 here) - I have an 8:00am flight to Minneapolis for a performance of A Litany for Courage and The Seasons (The choral piece that Peter Bagley premiered) This is the Dale Warland Singers - a pro group. Hope it’s good. Enjoy the Mba. Concerto. It’s the last thing prior to The Symphony so obvious relationships especially in matters of scoring. Best, David

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Appendix B4: Letter from David Maslanka to Gary Green, April 15, 1991 One page

4/15/91 Gary: Here’s page 106. Also the baton. Hope that fourth movement is in the mail by 4/22. It’s not as dense as the third, so copying should be easier. Tell Peter Bagley that the Dale Warland performance was a huge success and that Dale tells me to “wait for the phone to ring” for other performances. Dale remembers Peter from who knows where in the past. Best, David

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Appendix B5: Letter from David Maslanka to Gary Green, April 23, 1991 Six pages

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April 23, 1991 Dear Gary: Some thoughts on meditation - I’m certainly not an expert, though I’ve had some years of experience and use it for all kinds of things. The more I do, the more I see there is to do. My methods are home-grown though they touch on a basic body of objective knowledge that experienced meditators and mystics agree to be true. This whole practice is not religion, though the personal mystical experience is at the root of all formal religion. The difference is that between following the rules of a given religious practice and having your own vision. There are Christian mystics, Buddhist mystics, Eskimo mystics. The imagery of each religion is powerful and I find that my mystical experience has taken symbols from a number of sources (with a central body of Christian symbolism) and caused these symbols to come alive with significant energy. For example the Indian hunter, the buffalo and bear images that drive the 3rd movement of The Symphony. In practical terms I would like to strip away some of the mystical haze that surrounds these ideas and give you some “nuts and bolts.” For me composing is the same kind of problem = after the idea hits, what are the nuts and bolts that put the things together? You are already in contact with deep psychic energy through your music making. You know when you “connect” with the kids, and when you “connect” with the music. You enter what I call a waking dream state. The power of 40 or 50 people is focused at a single point and all move together. Your performance of my symphony No. 2 was like that. You recognize that you are very awake and very aware, but that you are part of a bigger ??? of power that is moving through you. Personal meditation is like that as well. At times it can be as ecstatic as powerful music-making, and at times it can be workaday. My private meditations that brought out the images of Symphony No. 3 were often powerful visions of how natural forces work. With them comes a giddy sense of simple joy at having a deep look at how things work. Some specifics = There are levels of meditation from light to very deep - When you are awake and working at any problem and the answer “comes” - where does it come from? We credit “thinking” or “logic” and also “intuition.” These are all contacts with a central force within. Daydreaming is one form of light meditative state. We tend to dismiss daydreams as unimportant and a waste of time. 1. One beginning exercise is to allow your mind to wander, but keep track of it with one part of your brain. After a while, stop and write down quickly the sequence of what happened in your “wander.” You’ll notice significant themes that are important to you; things which you may not be aware of consciously. 2. Imagine a particular scene, for ex - pretend you are out in the woods. With eyes closed, look at your imagined scene in detail. Notice type and texture of trees, leaves, plants, earth. Then imagine an animal in this scene. Describe it to yourself

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in detail, especially any movements it makes. Have your animal say something to you. Remember what it says. Open your eyes and write down quickly all the things you remember from this exercise. 3. Going down into the subconscious and the “collective unconscious.” This is a deeper version of daydreaming and imagining scenes. This is the technique I use most often. Lie or sit in an undisturbed place. (Books will say to lie down in a dark room. I’m not comfortable with that and have found that sitting up in a straight chair in normal daylight is best for me.) Then imagine a wooded place. See a hole at the base of a tree, or a cave opening into the ground. You can also imagine yourself entering a tunnel. Allow yourself to enter and experience “going down.” Let it happen until you arrive at a recognizable place. This will often be a nature place such as a waterfall or the ocean, or a woods, but many different kinds of places can be found. Be in this place and simply notice the surroundings in detail. At this level there may be intrusions from your subconscious and people often see scary things like large insects or devouring animals or murderous people. If something scary comes up and you are unnerved, simply retreat the way you came and return to normal consciousness. Scary things, just like bad dreams, can be explored as well, and the messages that scary or upsetting images have to bring are often not in themselves scary, and are always useful. For instance, skeletons are usually associated with death, but in my dreams and meditations, the figure of death (a skullface with a long black robe and sometimes a soft black hat) means either a message from someone who has died, or impending change in my life. The bears that came to my dreams and ultimately influenced the 4th and 5th movements of The Symphony so strongly were at first scary and I tried to get away from them. Distinguishing between stuff from your subconscious (which is personal and which people accept as real without much trouble) and stuff from the “collective unconscious” (which is the psychic experience of the human race at large and over eons and which people find harder to accept) is sometimes not easy. Images that are clearly outside your own life experience will begin to come through. This is where I have found my spirit helpers and where the major symbols of life and death take on great power for me. For instance I have two Indian helpers whom I call Old Grandmother and Old Grandfather. I can find them almost at will in my meditations and they help me to see emotional things that trouble me. Why these powers should be presented to me as Indians I don’t know. But I came across them in New York City and they are still with me here in Montana. For some reason the connection with Indian psychic force is very strong in me. This explains in part my connection to you.

The “going down” exercise may take some practice and patience but it should happen without too much trouble. Consistent practice is important. I can’t say how much, but you

154 need to give it enough space each time you practice so that you can unload the cares of the day long enough to focus deeply on yourself. *in margin* 3 or 4 times a week It is also very important to keep a journal. After each meditation period write down what you experienced in as much detail as possible. In time you will see patterns emerging and this will give you confidence in the reality of the inner world that you have started to explore. The experience is just like moving to a new place. You have to learn all the new streets and patterns of the new place. After a while the landscape takes on special meaning for you even if it’s nothing special in itself. I have filled five notebooks with meditation imagery and still consistently write down all my meditation and dream experience.

Finding a guide in your area might be useful. You can start asking people “Do you know anything about meditation?” or “Do you know anyone who does or teaches meditation?” I’ll bet you’ll get a lot of references. As in anything else, check out a potential teacher. Don’t think of them as overly special or perfect people just because they have their skill developed. Choosing a meditation guide is like choosing a trombone teacher. One of my guides in NYC was an incredibly gifted psychic. He could see people’s emotional make up and problems he said “like watching TV.” But his marital life was a mess! YOu can ask about for psychic readers (no crystal balls and funny robes, please - the good ones are very direct) - you won’t have to network very far to come up with good references. Have this person tell you about yourself and offer some direction and pointers. Let me know how this all goes for you. Without being intrusive I’ll answer whatever questions I can. It is frankly wonderful to open to inner power in this way. It has changed my life enormously. It makes each individual more intense themselves, and connects them firmly with their deepest beliefs and values. All Best, David

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Appendix B6: Letter from David Maslanka to Gary Green, May 10, 1991 Seven pages

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May 10, 1991 Dear Gary: Here’s the last movement of the symphony. It turned out to be longer than I first thought - about 11 minutes - total playing time for the piece is about 49 minutes. Which means, among other things, that it may not get a lot of performances. I can’t imagine what the rental fee is going to be. Maybe I should do like Grandma Moses = when she had commissions for 4 paintings she cut one big painting into pieces. I am overwhelmed by the size and intensity of the work, and that it should have appeared complete in such a short time. I’m sure it is for the best that you have more time to contemplate the whole thing. What do you want to do about parts? If you are in need I will certainly pitch in and copy some. Is your copy of the score adequate for conducting? I’d be pleased to have a nicely bound copy made for you. I have also enclosed a title page and instrumentation page. Is the dedication note OK? Anything else that should be included? It’s very easy to remake this if necessary.

I have also included some of the meditation material which guided the composing of this piece. It may be heard for you to identify with these images, yet I don’t want you to take them as weird or unusual. Unusual they may be, but for me they have sharp reality and are a part of my “normal.” I always think of meditation as “dreaming while awake.” In my notes I speak several times of “descending.” As my meditation begins, there is most often a clear sense of descending, usually down a tunnel or long hallway. This is a metaphor for travel inward to become aware of things that are normally part of the unconscious. Most of us rely on the occasional dream, or the accidental encounter with some mental phenomenon or other to gain access to this hidden area. We all, without fail, have this hidden area, but not many develop a systematic way of entering. I outlined some approaches for you in my letter on meditation. In any case, when I am in a meditation the images are often clear and sharp, like being in a movie. I know that I am sitting in a chair, or walking, but my mind is able to let these images rise and to participate in them. Some would say that this is merely active imagination and has no external reality. My experience of it is that it is different from “imagination.” My connecting with the Christian archetypes of the cross and the figure of Christ go beyond my personal experience or imagination. The images of “bear” and “buffalo” came to me only when I was in this land of bear and buffalo. Old Grandfather and Grandmother are helpers who have helped me with deep emotional needs, and who have been guides to help me make contact with the energies that resulted in the symphony. There are a number of other animal and spirit helpers. Two things: All this information in its specific detail needs to remain private between you and me. You can share it with your wife if she is open, but no further. You need someone such as your wife to bounce things off of so that you maintain balance in

163 the real. The other thing is that it isn’t necessary for you to meditate in order to be a complete human being. I have offered all these ideas, but if you find it isn’t your way to enter the meditation path, there should be no guilt, regret, or diminishment of self-worth. Some people are “inner” oriented, some “outer.” You and I make a necessary team because I am an “inner doer” and you are an “outer doer.” I could do your organizing and presenting job only with difficulty. I have a hard time with the external aspects of career. Your role in the production of this symphony has been intimate and crucial. For years you have had the growing internal need for this experience, so you have found the way to make contact with an official dreamer (me) who could shape the thing that you needed for your own spiritual evolution. Most of your internal work will be done without worlds, but you will open up and remake the connection to your Indian heritage and out of this will come the power to bring forward into the dominant white culture some needed aspects of the Indian spiritual power. This power has not died. It is waiting for channels through which to flow.

Then the cowboy images and relationship - quite tense - between your forebears and the Indians and the buffalo. Something needs resolution here. You say you have denied this aspect of yourself up to this time. Something will happen in this area.

Some interesting books on Indian spirituality: John G. Neihardt 1. Black Elk Speaks - This is a famous and important book 2. The Twilight of the Sioux Joseph Epes Brown The Sacred Pipe - also about Black Elk. This is an account of the seven sacred rites of the Sioux (Joseph Epes Brown lives in Stevensville, MT which is 30 miles from here. Some friends in Missoula have offered to introduce me. Brown was a young man when he interviewed the aged BlackElk who died in 1950) Doug Boyd

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Rolling Thunder - Rolling Thunder was an Indian healer of recent times. Joan Halifax Shamonic Voices - not totally about Indians, but about the contact with spirit power which underlies Eskimo, Indian, and other traditions. Michael Harner The Way of the Shaman - Harner is a PhD anthropologist who got into these things and became a shamonic healer. Alison has taken a workshop with him and found him to be no B.S. and the real thing. He had established an Institute for Shamanic Studies -

Full name = The Foundation for Shawmanic Studies Box 670 Belden Station Norwalk, CT 06852 203 454-2825

This place can give you useful information on finding connection to internal helpers. Read the book first.

You’ll notice about my meditation images that they don’t always make a story that “makes sense” - many things are simply static images like “the fallen warrior” or the “big heads” of the buffalo, or the bear singing about the golden light. You can read about these things, but to feel the power and the connection to yourself, you would have to enter deeply and participate in the dream.

I am always happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability - and with all humility, since I know that I have found out only the smallest fraction of what there is to know.

All best, David

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Appendix B7: Letter from David Maslanka to Gary Green, May 16, 1991 Two pages

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May 16 1991 Dear Gary: Here is a clean copy of the Symphony Score. I can’t get it bound adequately here in Missoula. I’m hoping you can get a good cover with oversize binding put on it in your area. Make sure you get the oversize binding. Normal size just isn’t any good for music scores. I would like the Marimba Concerto score back at your leisure. If you can, make yourself a copy. This piece was just sent to Carl Fischer so you’ll have to deal with them for performance materials. If Rosemary wants a copy of the Marimba part I can send her one. I have enclosed the newest mailer from The Foundation for Shamonic Studies. If you can, get to one of their Basic Workshops. I have marked the one that might be possible for you. It’s good to do this stuff face to face with an expert, although my first experiments and experiences were on my own. I want to emphasize that reading about meditation is ok but doing it is the critical business. First attempts at meditation are like first attempts at playing a new instrument. You can read about playing an instrument but nothing happens til you actually play. You won’t be an expert the first time you try it! I look forward to hearing from you as all these things progress. Do remember to write down your meditation experiences no matter how puzzling they may seem. You’ll see patterns after a while. All best, David

Score reproduction = $22.30 Postage -

No check from UConn yet - It’s been a month. I expect it will take two...

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Appendix B8: Letter from David Maslanka to Gary Green, June 2, 1991 One page

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June 2, 1991 Dear Gary: No luck with the American Music Center. I expect the two reasons are that we didn’t have the premiere date fixed, and possibly that we didn’t have an independent copyist. It was worth a try. If $2000 can be found, that’s great. If not, so be it. We’ll stay alert for opportunities, but if nothing comes, don’t you fret about it. More importantly I have discovered a small but glaring error in the 4th movement. P. 183, m. 237-m. 249. Every time “E” appears in each of the clarinet parts, it should be E-natural and not E#. The chord is a sustained c#-minor chord from m. 235 through m. 249. All best, David

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Appendix B9: Letter from David Maslanka to Gary Green, January 14, 1992 Two pages

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Jan. 14, 1992 2625 Strand Ave Missoula, MT 59801

Dear Gary: The symphony and the performance hold up well after numerous hearings. Couldn’t stop myself! The music doesn’t pound in my head quite so fiercely now, and I have managed to get a good start on the new piece for string orchestra. It will be a much lighter piece than The Symphony, in part because of limited rehearsal time. The players are professionals and will have their parts learned before they get together, but there will be only four rehearsals for the whole program - thurs, Fri, Sat., and concert Saturday night (May 9). I hear echoes of The Symphony in this new piece but what the heck. Beethoven’s Seven Bagatelles sound a whole lot like his piano sonatas. I have tried to think of a name for the CD. Most classical recordings don’t really have names, unless it’s BERNSTEIN plays Brahms. Or whatever. The best I have come up with is UCONN Premieres Music of William Penn And David Maslanka University of Connecticut Symph. WE etc. Or = A short piece and a long piece by two different composers… I’m not being much help.

A serious thought = I know that you are deeply involved with The Symphony - making the CD and then thinking about writing on the piece - I suppose all this will work itself through and that you will move smoothly onto other things. Holding on to the piece too long can make you sick. Neither you nor I will ever forget this music, or the time we had in producing it, but all the excitement of it has to be passed through the system - given back to God, as it were. Otherwise it overloads and causes burn-out. There is the possibility for a serious crash.

So much for serious. I am looking forward to the CD, to doing parts, to working with you on your writing. It is a beautiful time in Missoula - four inches of fresh snow today - Altogether a temperate winter. I am feeling well and energetic. All best, David

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Appendix B10: Letter from David Maslanka to Gary Green, April 17, 1992 Six pages

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April 17, 1992 40 Cisar Rd. 2625 Strand Ave. West Willington, CT 06279 Missoula, MT 59801

Dear Gary: I start this letter with a bunch of mixed emotions. It was a great pleasure to see you last week, and to do the kind of work we did with Steve’s band. On coming home I have crashed pretty hard. Inevitable, but difficult on everybody here. Am suddenly confronted with some heavy demands from the house: lawn repair, tree planting, new fences and endless details..forgot the garden. I have no creative energy for these things at the moment, but spring is here and I have no choice. It is hard giving out so much energy in music making. I couldn’t do it any other way, but sometimes I wish there was a way to sidestep the pain and the depression. Any clues? To compound things, I have felt and continue to feel a strong surge of the heart [redacted] On very rare occasions you meet a person with whom there is an instant affinity [redacted]. There is absolutely nothing to do about it. [redacted] Beyond that is the simple fact of my life and age being what they are - things that I don’t want to change, and will not damage through [redacted]. I have thought it out and there simply isn’t anything to do except to let it subside. Yipe! This is one of the dangers of opening up. If we were cool and business-like, none of this would happen… Working with Steve and his kids in rehearsal was a wonderful time of insight and sharing. There are times, when rehearsals reach their greatest depth and intensity, that it may seem like not much is happening: communications are brief and quietly spoken, and great and close attention is paid to the inner workings of the music. I loved watching you work with the Grainger. It’s a great piece, and those players moved with you body and soul. Something special has happened to your conducting. You were always in control in the past, but now your work is front he center and filled with passion and compassion.

Yesterday on impulse I listened to the first movement of our recording. Today the rest of it. I hadn’t listened in a while, and Steve’s very good performance was still in my ears. One more time I was knocked out by the piece and by your work. It is simply stunning. I appreciate very keenly what you accomplished in making this recording, and it helped me better to understand your moodiness and preoccupation of last week. Even though I feel very abashed saying it, The Symphony really is a grand thing, and worth our time and attention. It is hard to get past it, and as you said, what is there to do if you do get part it? We really are out on an edge, and not too many people may want to join us out there. I will help you as much as I can with writing the paper. I know you have asked for everything I can say about the piece, but I can also see what a burden it is to sort all this

180 out. It is a creative project parallel to The Symphony and the same sense of fuddle and depression that I felt in organizing the music now comes over you as you look at the pile of worlds and try to find a center. About getting past The Symphony = it seems to have precipitated something of a creative crisis in your life. If you can stand it, I think the idea of “creative waiting” is important. Things are developing internally for you and it will take a while til the direction is clear. Another thought is to do an intensive literature search. Places like The American Music Center and The American Composers Alliance (both in NYC) have extensive score and recording libraries of American music. AMC represents 25,000 composers living and dead. There may well be significant wind literature buried there. *on side* - You can also put out a “call for scores” through The AMC newsletter. Another thoughts: There was a space of about 10 years for Richard Wagner (ca 45-55) when he didn’t write any music. He was preoccupied with the philosophical and mythological basis for the big works that then came. Can you imagine a ten year hiatus in the middle of a major creative life? Another thought = I can’t stand the idea that you might wind up hating (or at least resenting) the Symphony and/or me because you can’t digest or get past us. I value and need you too much as a friend. I have lots of acquaintances and not very many friends. This is important. I wanted to share a few book thoughts with you. First is another recommendation to find “Iron John” by Robert Bly. This should still be in bookstores, probably paperback by now. It was a NY Times best seller for over a year. This is a very rich exploration in plain language of what it is to be male in this age. More importantly, what it is to come into full possession of mature power. Talk to me about it once you have read it. The enclosed pages are from “My Search for Absolutes” by Paul Tillich. I mentioned him last week. Tillich is (was) a very highly regarded philosopher and Theologian. His book is about the grounds of human life and awareness of spirit. Some passages reminded me strongly of where you are and I have marked them. Tillich was Rollo May’s Teacher. There are hundreds of books in The “New Age” category, and it takes hunting and sorting to get to the solid core - that is, where the connection is made to the roots of Thought and feeling - Books I have liked include Jung = “Man and his Symbols,” “Memories Dreams and Reflections,” Sylvano Arieti = “Creativity,” Sir James George Frazer “the Golden Bough” (This is a classic in myth study), various works of Joseph Campbell. Heinrich Zimmer “The King and The Corpse” (This is from the 40’s.) Zimmer was Campbell’s teacher. That’s all for now. I will write again with more thoughts on the Symphony. I have a real need for you to bear with me til the Symphony and your writing are launched in the world. I will bear with you. Best,

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David

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Appendix B11: Letter from David Maslanka to Gary Green, January 12, 1993 Two pages

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Jan. 12, 1993

Dear Gary: Here are the Symphony parts. Do send them back after you have made copies. I need to find a copyist for these parts and for other projects. If you know of a conducting grad student who has a decent hand and who would benefit from learning The Symphony in this way, please send me the name. I will be happy to train someone. Also OK if it’s a computer person. I can’t pay much, so the benefit to them has to be in the opportunity to learn the music. If I can’t find someone then the world will just have to get by with existing parts until I’m dead - at which point I will be a famous dead composer and the publisher will rush to get score and parts into print. The Symphony was broadcast here in Missoula on KUFM last Saturday. The commentary was offhand and perfunctory but the piece sounds just fine on the radio. It was placed next to the last works of Sibelius, a composer whom I’ve always liked - And I am pleased to say our piece compares very favorably with those of the Master. His 9th Symphony (also in C) starts with a scale as well - His is pure minor, however, and the whole effect is very different of course. The new piece for high school WE is coming along - a good week last week, something of a stone wall this week. I swear I don’t know how to do this business! Recent (or coming up soon) “In Memoriam” performances I know about: Dale Louis, Central Washington, Northern Arizona, and yours. I miss hanging out and talking with you. We’ll have to figure something out about a visit. I won’t be at CBDNA - Nothing of mine being done that I know about. All best, David

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Appendix B12: Letter from David Maslanka to Gary Green, April 27, 1993 Two pages

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4-27-93

Dear Gary: Good to talk with you yesterday - my thoughts are with you as you make the transition to Miami. All the feelings are deep and hard, but you can draw real strength from the departure process - and this is an evolution, not a divorce. Here is Tim Salzman’s tape of No. 3 (ie, a dub of a dub, but the music is there.) This performance was at University of Calgary, his third public performance of the piece, and three days after our work session in Kalispell. I love the intention of Tim and his players in this performance. They understand what they are aiming for though there are dozens of things still to clean and polish. But the line and energy are alive and well. If there is one consistent fault, it is that Tim is too hasty with faster tempos. The first movement is on the fast side. The very opening - being able to count out a full 5/4 far - But then they hold the movement together well at what amounts to a headlong tempo. Second movement is well-made. It breathes properly. But the coda starts too fast and gives the game away before it’s played. Third movement is a touch too fast, yet stands up very well, all things considered. Tempo pushes too fast in the recap. Tim prefers to beat half notes rather than quarters, and this results in pushed tempo and a slight back in internal tension. I like a lot his treatment of the fugue, especially when it gets to the offbeat brass (MUSIC NOTATION) These finally sound fierce and aggravated enough. Fourth movement shape is good, needs lots of polish, more strength from soloists; faster things push too fast. Again the game is given away too quickly when things get pushed. Fifth movement is remarkably firm in pace, line, and shape. He had a weak euphonium soloist, so divided the final solo between Horn and Euphonium. Also on tape is Duncanville performance of Golden Light. Thanks again for the Euphonium solo tape. Matthew is impressed. He can get overwhelmed. As an unbiased doting parent, I can say that Matt has a fine natural talent and could be a brilliant player! I am working not to push him too fast or allow others to push him too fast. All for now. David

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Appendix B13: Letter from David Maslanka to Gary Green, July 6, 2003 Two pages

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7-6-03

Dear Gary, I thought you would be interested to hear Gregg Hanson’s recent work with Symphony No. 3. I was there for rehearsal and performance in May (Brent was there), and Gregg did a quick and dirty recording session in a 2-hour rehearsal slot which I was unable to attend.

I am particularly pleased to have Gregg’s work at this time because the piece has pretty much been passed over by conductors. I think it is a grand piece (I know you do too) and something has to be done to set it on its feet.

My initial plan with Gregg this year was performance and recording of both #3 and #4. His ensemble was too young, and finally not up to the task of producing the finished recording, although they experienced major growth in working up the pieces.

Do you have a thought to do No. 3 next year? I know it was one choice that you were considering. Steve Steele has already asked me to think about a recording project for 2004. We have several options, and I have asked him to think about No. 3. Nothing is decided yet. Maybe you and Steve could have a talk.

Brent was in AZ and as you doubtless know was knocked out by the live symphony. I think he and I made a lot of progress at the relationship level, and I think he is a lot less afraid of approaching me and the project. At Least I hope so!

Any progress on thinking about our new piece? You are often in my thoughts. All best, David

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Appendix B14: Email from David Maslanka to Gary Green, April 22, 2014 One page

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Appendix B15: Letter from Kevin Salley to Gary Green, no date One page

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APPENDIX C

APPENDIX C1: David Maslanka’s Meditation Notes, typed for Gary Green, 1991. Provided by Gary Green Two pages (Pages one and three are provided. Page two is missing.)

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APPENDIX C2: University of Connecticut Research Foundation Panel Deliberation, May 23, 1990 Provided by Gary Green Four pages

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APPENDIX C3: David Maslanka, Telephone interview with unknown person, November 11, 2001 Provided by Gary Green Two pages (Pages one and three are provided. Page two is missing.)

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APPENDIX C4: Score Sketch of David Maslanka’s Symphony No. 3, Movement I One Page

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APPENDIX D

APPENDIX D1: Title page of score to David Maslanka’s Hosannas – Inscription in the hand of David Maslanka

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APPENDIX D2: Title page of score to David Maslanka’s MASS – Inscription in the hand of David Maslanka

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APPENDIX D3: Title page of score to David Maslanka’s Symphony No. 8 – Inscription in the hand of David Maslanka