P R O G R a M N O T

PROGRAM NOTES KU WIND ENSEMBLE - PAUL W. POPIEL, CONDUCTOR TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 | 7:30 P.M. | LIED CENTER OF KANSAS Second Suite in F (1911) Gustav Holst/ed. Matthews 1. March (1874-1934) 2. Song Without Words 3. Song of the Blacksmith 4. Fantasia on the ‘Dargason’ Le cathédrale engloutie (1910) Claude Debussy/trans. Patterson (1862-1918) Rocky Point Holiday (1969) Ron Nelson (b. 1929) Brooke Humfeld, guest conductor --intermission— Symphony No. 4: In the Shadow of No Towers (2013) Mohammed Fairouz 1. The New Normal (b. 1985) 2. Notes of a Heartbroken Narcissist 3. One Nation Under Two Flags 4. Anniversaries SECOND SUITE IN F (1911) Gustav Holst (1874-1934) was a British composer and teacher. After studying composition at London’s Royal College of Music, he spent the early part of his career playing trombone in an opera orchestra. It was not until the early 1900s that his career as a composer began to take off. Around this same time, he acquired positions at both St. Paul’s Girls’ School and Morley College that he would hold until retirement, despite his rising star as a composer. His music was influenced by his interest in English folk songs and Hindu mysticism, Late-Romantic era composers like Strauss and Delius, and avant-garde composers of his time like Stravinsky and Schoenberg. He is perhaps best known for composing The Planets, a massive orchestral suite that depicts the astrological character of each known planet. His works for wind band (two suites and a tone poem, Hammersmith) are foundational to the modern wind literature. The Second Suite in F, Opus 28b for Military Band, dedicated to James Causley Windram, was written in 1911 and founded on old English tunes. Holst’s passionate interest in folk music had begun as early as 1905 when his friend Ralph Vaughan Williams was busy collecting traditional tunes from singers in small country villages. The piece received its first performance in 1922 and is today considered one of the cornerstones of twentieth-century band literature. Program note by Nicholas Waldron. LE CATHÉDRALE ENGLOUTIE (1910) Achille-Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was born in St. Germain en Laye in the Ile de France, a north-central province in France. Following early piano studies, Debussy was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire in 1872 where he studied piano and solfége. Between 1875 and 1877, Debussy was successful at winning minor performance prizes, but failed at achieving the premiere prix for piano and thus was forced to abandon the idea of a solo career. It was during this time that he enrolled in his first harmony classes. Debussy would go on to become one of the preeminent composers of his time whose works included new genre’s for both piano and orchestra and whose harmonic language would expose the vast array of timbres and colors available to the medium. Arranger Merlin Patterson writes of this setting: The Engulfed Cathedral (La Cathédrale engloutie) is No. 10, Book I of Claude Debussy’s Préludes; it is one of his best known and most popular works, not only in its original version for solo piano, but also in its numerous transcriptions, the most notable of which is the orchestral setting by Leopold Stokowski. The Engulfed Cathedral depicts an old legend from Brittany: To punish the people for their sins, the Cathedral of Ys is engulfed by the sea. Each sunrise the townspeople watch as the sunken cathedral rises from the water...and then sinks slowly into the ocean. Program note by Anthony Messina. ROCKY POINT HOLIDAY (1969) Ron Nelson (b. 1929) wrote his first composition at age six and began studying piano that same year. He taught himself to play string bass in order to play in the Joliet Township High School band. His director encouraged him to compose, so Nelson wrote a twenty-two minute concerto for piano and symphonic band, which he performed at age seventeen. He later studied composition at the Eastman School of Music with Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. After earning three degrees at Eastman, he went to Paris in 1954 on a Fulbright Grant and studied at the École Normale de Musique and the Paris Conservatory with Tony Aubin. He later joined the music faculty of Brown University in 1956, served as Chairman of the Music Department from 1963 to 1973, and retired in 1993. Rocky Point Holiday was Ron Nelson’s first major work for wind band. It was commissioned in 1969 by Frank Bencriscutto for the University of Minnesota Concert Band’s Russian tour. Nelson wrote this while on vacation at Rocky Point - a favorite seaside resort in Rhode Island. Program note by Brooke Humfeld. Brooke Humfeld is a native of Newark, Delaware and is in her first year as a doctoral student in wind conducting. Prior to starting this program, she was Assistant Director of Bands at Drake University, and previously held appointments as Director of Athletic Bands at North Central College and Director of Bands at Patuxent High School in Calvert County, Maryland. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of Delaware and a Master of Music in Music Education and Conducting from Appalachian State University. SYMPHONY NO. 4, “IN THE SHADOW OF NO TOWERS” (2012) Born in 1985, Mohammed Fairouz is a prolific young composer who has made numerous contributions in several genres. His education took place at New England Conservatory of Music and Curtis Institute, working with Gunther Schuller and Richard Danielpour, and he also studied with György Ligeti in Austria. Describing himself as “obsessed with text,” Fairouz has great interest in vocal music and has composed operas, song cycles, and many other songs. Some of his instrumental music has also been inspired by literary sources, such as his symphonies. Symphony No. 1, “Symphonic Aphorisms” (2007), was influenced by various authors and images, and Symphony No. 3, “Poems and Prayers” (2010) includes Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew texts and explores the Middle East conflict. His first three symphonies are for orchestra—the third also includes vocal soloists and chorus—but Symphony No. 4, “In the Shadow of No Towers” (2013) is Fairouz’s first major piece for wind ensemble. It is in fulfillment of a commission from Reach Out Kansas, Inc. for the University of Kansas Wind Ensemble, which premiered it at Carnegie Hall in March 2013. Fairouz’s inspiration for his fourth symphony was a comic book by Art Spiegelman that bears the same title. Spiegelman began it shortly after the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, capturing our horror and varied reactions to the tragedy with provocative images and statements. The artist has found himself “moved by the scary, somber and seriously silly symphony” that Fairouz composed, noting that they are different types of artists but “equally obsessed with structure.” Fairouz had been interested in writing a piece based on Spiegelman’s book for several years but hesitated to approach it because of the work’s inevitably divisive nature. Each movement is a faithful rendering of excerpts from Spiegelman, and, as will be shown, Fairouz does not shrink from controversy in this work. The first movement, “The New Normal,” draws its inspiration from three Spiegelman panels that show a family asleep in front of the television on 10 September, in the same place but horrified on 11 September, and then asleep again but with the calendar replaced with an American flag and their hair still frazzled. Fairouz admits that he depicted these frames “literally,” composing in ternary form. The opening A section is based upon layered, dissonant ostinati that seem to shift repeatedly from one possibility to another. As the horror of 9-11 strikes in the B section, constant rising scalewise passages in the woodwinds clash with great chords in the brass as one hears both towers fall, followed by many loud, dissonant chords. The opening material returns but is momentarily interrupted by a cataclysmic segment from the B section and “a cold and quick funeral march.” As the full return of A ensues, there are additional ideas that do not quite fit, because after 9-11 much is similar, but everything is also different. All images from Art Spiegelman’s “In The Shadow of No Towers” are reproduced with permission from Penguin Random House. Any third party use of these materials, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Penguin Random House LLV for permission. Fairouz scored the first movement for the entire wind ensemble, but he enters a striking new world in “Notes of a Heartbroken Narcissist,” a telling evocation of the horror of 9-11 for our materialistic, self-centered society. Spiegelman produced four frames using a limited color palette that show a man staring in a mirror trying to figure out how he should adjust his facial hair in the post-9/11 world, finally turning into a rodent. Fairouz reacted to the grey scale by scoring for timpani, three suspended cymbals, two sets of chimes, bass drum, harp, piano, and double bass, completely eschewing the traditional wind ensemble sound. Cymbal players set the stage by scraping coins across the instruments: we are at ground zero looking for remains and contemplating the event. Sounds from the bass and low range of the piano create a disturbing rumbling while chimes and harp provide an elegiac element. Society might be narcissistic, but this is a heartfelt lament for those who died in the attack. 1he stars & stripes are a symt,o\ of unitythat n,any people see The next panel from Spiegelman on which as a war banner.

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