TCU Symphonic Band Brian Youngblood, Conductor George Ishii, Guest Conductor Malcolm Williams, Guest Conductor

Presents TCU Symphonic Band Brian Youngblood, Conductor George Ishii, Guest Conductor Malcolm Williams, Guest Conductor December 3, 2020 7:00pm TCU Music Center Recorded November 11, 2020 Program Night Before Christmas Randol Alan Bass (b. 1953) Poem by Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863) Sam Bogart, Narrator Voice of the TCU Bands, 1973-Present Greensleeves: A Fantasia for Band Arr. Robert W. Smith (b. 1958) George Ishii, Guest Conductor Blithe Bells Percy Grainger (1882-1961) Arr. Robert Jager (b. 1939) Diamond Tide Viet Cuong (b. 1990) Movement II Malcolm Williams, Guest Conductor Sleigh Ride Leroy Anderson (1908-1975) Presents Virtual Wind Ensemble Bradley Baird, Coordinator and Editor Dylan Stepherson, Coordinator December 3, 2020 7:00pm Program Overture to “Candide” Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) Trans. Clare Grundman (1913-1996) Presents TCU Wind Symphony Bobby Francis, Conductor Joshua Donnelly, Guest Conductor Donald Hale, Guest Conductor December 3, 2020 7:00pm TCU Music Center Recorded November 11-17, 2020 Program Fanfare for the Common Man Aaron Copeland (1900-1990) Joshua Donnelly, Guest Conductor Song for Athene John Tavener (1944-2013) Trans. Donald Hale Donald Hale, Guest Conductor World Premiere Vientos y Tangos Michael Gandolfi (b. 1956) Prelude Op. 34, No. 14 Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) Trans. H Robert Reynolds Dance #1 from Jazz Suite #2 Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) Arr. Johan de Meij Christmas Time is Here Lee Mendelson ( 1933-2019) and Vince Guaraldi ( 1928-1976) Arr. Curt Wilson Sean Wright, Soprano Saxophone Solo Luis Rendon III, Alto Saxophone Solo SYMPHONIC BAND PROGRAM NOTES The Night Before Christmas - Randol Alan Bass, Poem by Clement Clarke Moore Mr. Bass grew up in Texas, studying piano, working in community theater and singing with local choral ensembles. A longtime student of choral music, Mr. Bass studied at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and Ohio State University’s Robert Shaw Institute. Bass sings regularly with the Dallas Symphony Chorus and performed as solo pianist with the Coast Guard Academy Band in New London, Connecticut. His choral and instrumental compositions have been commissioned and performed by numerous ensembles throughout the United States, including the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Tanglewood Chorus, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. This piece was commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra in 1988 and is a very cinematic setting of the famous poem. It is believed that Clement Clarke Moore wrote his immortal poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” also known as “The Night Before Christmas,” for his family on Christmas Eve, 1822. He never intended that it be published, but a family friend learned of the poem sometime later from Moore’s children. She submitted it to the editor of the Troy Sentinel (New York), where it made its first appearance in print on December 23, 1823. The poem was subsequently reprinted in other newspapers, magazines, and books. Moore did not acknowledge authorship until 1844 in a volume of his poetry entitled Poems, published at the request of his children. Generations later, it is the most-published, most-read, most- memorized and most-collected work in all of Christmas literature. Moore’s poem is largely responsible for the contemporary conception of Santa Claus, including his physical appearance, the night of his visit, his mode of transportation, and the number and names of his reindeer. Greensleeves: A Fantasia for Band - Arr. Robert W Smith In tribute to Ralph Vaughan Williams, Robert Smith’s second movement of the Vaughan Williams Suite is entitled Greensleeves: A Fantasia for Band. Beginning with a lyric solo statement by the flute, the compellingly beautiful melody is explored using the unique timbres of the contemporary concert band. It is generally agreed that the melody we know as Greensleeves is probably the second oldest piece of secular music in our Western culture, its origins having been traced back to about 1360. While we are not certain this was the original title, it is known that in the latter 14th century, English ladies wore gowns with great billowing sleeves, and the lyrics that have come down to us speak of a lover's lament over his lady's cruel treatment of him by a lady clad in a dress of green sleeves. Blithe Bells - Percy Grainger Grainger was a thoroughly taught musician who could look back upon the history of Western music to recognize kindred spirits in every age. While he had little use for the Mozart/Haydn/Beethoven axis, one of his central recognitions was Bach, discovered at age 10, in whose endless fecundity -- though corseted in the contrapuntal harmonic technique of the 18th century (which his works elaborated with a generously cunning hand) — and sovereign plasticity Grainger discovered a model for what he wished to become. Standard encyclopedia entries note that Grainger had “a few piano lessons with Busoni in 1903” — Grainger’s intuitive, freewheeling approach to the piano grated on the Italian’s perfectionism, though the one thing they saw eye-to-eye on, relatively speaking, was Bach. Among Busoni’s earliest SYMPHONIC BAND PROGRAM NOTES publications are editions of Bach’s two- and three-part inventions, while editions of the complete keyboard works occupied him throughout his life. His numerous transcriptions of Bach, in particular of the great Chaconne (from the Second Partita for Solo Violin), became part of his persona as a performer, occasioning criticism from purists. Busoni’s liberties, however, are the soul of discretion beside Grainger’s. Taking Bach’s sentimental favorite, the aria Schafe können sicher weiden ("Sheep may safely graze") from the secular cantata Was mir behagt (BWV 208), Grainger aggrandizes Bach’s innocent tune in an orchestral extravaganza in which the original’s prim voice leading becomes a fluent polyphony as the parts glow with distinctly post-Romantic harmonic lushness. The thirds of the original he divines as Bach’s imitation of sheep bells, magnified by scoring for “tuneful percussion” to glittering effect, For the variety of performing forces specified — and Grainger is generous in the allowance of his elastic scoring for the ensemble one may have at hand — the effect is at once respectful and vulgar, grandiose but cogent, exuberant and moving. Diamond Tide: Movement II - Viet Cuong A 2010 article published in Nature Physics details an experiment in which scientists were able to successfully melt a diamond and, for the first time, measure the temperature and pressure necessary to do so. When diamonds are heated to very high temperatures, they don’t melt, they simply turn into graphite, which then melts (and the thought of liquid graphite isn’t nearly as appealing or beautiful as liquid diamond). Therefore, the addition of extremely high pressure-40 million times the pressure we feel on Earth at sea lever- is crucial to melt a diamond. The extreme temperature and pressure used in this experiment are found on Neptune and Uranus, and scientists therefore believe that seas of liquid diamond are possible on these two planets. Oceans of diamond my also account of these planets’ peculiar magnetic and geographic poles, which do not line up like they do here on Earth. Lastly, as the scientists were melting the diamonds, they saw floating shards of solid diamond forming in the pools-just like icebergs in our oceans. Imagine: distant planets with oceans of liquid diamond filled with bergs of sparkling solid diamonds drifting in the tide… These theories are obviously all conjecture, but this alluring imagery provided heaps of inspiration for Diamond Tide, which utilizes the “melting” sounds of metallic water percussion and trombone glissandi throughout. The word is in two movements, which can be performed separately. Heartfelt thanks to Cheryl Floyd, Richard Floyd, the TMEA Region 18 bands, and John Mackey for making this piece possible. -Program note by the composer. Sleigh Ride (1948) - Leroy Anderson ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, named Sleigh Ride the most popular piece of Christmas music in the USA in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and again in 2015. Leroy SYMPHONIC BAND PROGRAM NOTES Anderson's original recording of Sleigh Ride was the version most often played in 2010 based on performance data tracked by airplay monitoring service, Mediaguide, from over 2,500 radio stations nationwide. Sleigh Ride was aired 174,758 times in 2010, making it the most-played holiday song on radio for the second year in a row. Sleigh Ride was played 118,918 times during the same time period in 2009. “ I began Sleigh Ride in the summer of 1946 in a cottage in Woodbury, Connecticut, where my wife and I were spending the summer with our 18-month-old daughter. The original version began with what later became the middle section. I recall working on it in the middle of a heat wave, so there is no basis for the music except the title itself. That same summer I also worked on Fiddle-Faddle and Serenata. After moving to Brooklyn, New York in the fall I finished Fiddle-Faddle on January 1, 1947 and Serenata on February 12, 1947 in addition to making arrangements for the Boston Pops concerts in the spring. I had felt that the original theme of Sleigh Ride was not strong enough to start the number but would make a good middle section. I finally worked out a satisfactory main theme, introduction and coda and finished the orchestra score on February 10, 1948. Sleigh Ride was first performed on May 4, 1948 in Symphony Hall, Boston as an extra at a Pops concert conducted by Arthur Fiedler. Lyrics by Mitchell Parish were added in 1950.” - Leroy Anderson VIRTUAL WIND ENSEMBLE PROGRAM NOTES Overture to Candide – Leonard Bernstein, trans.

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