Selected Program Notes Quincy Symphony Orchestra, Chorus, and Youth Chorus December 6, 2014
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Selected Program Notes Quincy Symphony Orchestra, Chorus, and Youth Chorus December 6, 2014 It’s Christmastime ............................................................................................. Arr. Calvin Custer (1939-1998) This arrangement features nostalgic music including Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (1934), Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (1944), Silver Bells (1950), and I’ll Be Home For Christmas (1948) which harks back to a time, still recent then, when many servicemen were not at home for Christmas. ~ Dr. Lavern Wagner Festive Sounds of HANUKAH ..................................................................... arr. by Bill Holcombe (1924-2010) Bill Holcombe was best known as a composer and arranger. But he also played saxophone and woodwinds while arranging for the Tommy Dorsey Band, and with Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. Additionally, he scored music for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movies and The 101 Strings. In this 1985 arrangement, he navigates the audience through the enjoyable melodies of Rock of Ages, Mi Y’ Malel (Who Can Retell,) Hanukah – Hanukah, My Dreidel, S’Vivon (Spin Dreidel), and Hanukah – O Hanukah. ~ Dale Gedcke An Olde English Christmas....................................................................................................... Arr. Mark Hayes Gloria! To God Sing Gloria!Arr. Lloyd Larson & Brant Adams Carols were ancient circle dance songs that allowed traditional music to exist alongside sanctioned liturgical chant as Europe accepted Christianity. Composers Mark Hayes and Lloyd Larson have Baylor University credentials. The 5 carols in Olde English Christmas have ancient roots. Popular 15th century God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen figures in Dickens’ Christmas Carol as Scrooge humbugs all well-wishers away. King Wenceslaus doesn’t mention the Nativity but instead tells a story of medieval noblesse oblige based on a 10th century Bohemian king as sung to a 13th century Finnish spring carol tune. Holly/Ivy imparts Christian meaning to Druid solstice and Roman Saturnalia emblems. Coventry Carol, a lullaby for children slain by Herod in Coventry’s 14th century guild pageant, remained popular after Commonwealth suppression of mystery plays; it figured poignantly in a BBC broadcast after the 1940 bombing of Coventry Cathedral. The tune of Sussex Carol comes from folk tradition set with words of a 17th century Irish bishop. While Shepherds, the first of 3 carols in Gloria!, was written by poet laureate Nahum Tate based on Luke 2:8-14. Tate and Brady compiled the official 1703 Anglican Psalter, and this hymn/carol set to music from Handel’s opera Siroe was the only non-Psalm included. The tune for He is Born is an old Normandy hunting song. Mohawk Indians loved it so much, they made their own version. Charles Wesley wanted a somber tune for Hark, but Mendelssohn’s printing press commemoration tune became the standard. ~ Dr. Carol Mathieson Russian Christmas Music ................................................................ Alfred Reed (1921–2005) / Arr. McAlister Alfred Reed was a 23-year old staff musical arranger for the 529th Army Air Corps Band when he was asked to pen what has become a masterpiece of the wind literature. It was 1944, and optimism was running high with the successful invasion of France and Belgium by the Allied forces. A holiday band concert was planned by the city of Denver to further promote Russian-American unity with premieres of new works from both countries. The Russian work was to have been Prokofiev’s March, Op. 99, but late in the planning it was discovered that it had already been performed in the United States. With just 16 days until the concert, Reed was assigned to compose the new Russian work for the performance. Reed found an authentic 16th-century Russian Christmas Song to use for an opening theme. He made use of Eastern Orthodox liturgical music as well, and in only 11 days, the score of Russian Christmas Music was completed. Transcribed for orchestra in 1995 by Reed’s student Clark McAlister, the work captures the true character of traditional Russian Orthodox music. It begins quietly and slowly with the 16th-century “Carol of the Little Russian Children,” then builds to the “Antiphonal Chant.” The “Village” song in the third section of the composition prepares for the spectacular finish of an instrumental version of “The Cathedral Chorus.” Listen as more and more instruments are added, and rejoice as the celebratory sounds fill the auditorium. ~ Claudia Drosen Sleigh Ride ............................................................................................................... Leroy Anderson (1908-1975) The music of Leroy Anderson has become a distinctive part of American culture. Born in 1908 in Cambridge, Mass. of Swedish immigrants, he eventually went to Harvard University. As a graduate student he directed the Harvard Band, and his numerous clever arrangements brought him to the attention of Arthur Fiedler, Director of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Thinking that a career in music held little promise, he became an expert in all the languages of central Europe, and served as an interpreter/translator in Iceland during World War II. In the years immediately following the war, he wrote his best-known works, including: Sleigh Ride, Fiddle-Faddle, and A Trumpeter’s Lullaby. Subsequent years saw more beloved compositions: Blue Tango, Bugler’s Holiday, The Typewriter, and Waltzing Cat. ~LW Stille Nacht .................................................................................... Franz Gruber (1787-1863) / Arr. Chip Davis This arrangement of Gruber’s beloved Christmas carol is by Chip Davis of Mannheim Steamroller, and features gentle strings along with oboe, horn, restrained percussion, and the sound of the wind. This arrangement appears on at least three recordings: Christmas 1984, Christmas Live 1997, and Christmas Celebration 2004. The name, Mannheim Steamroller, relates to the orchestra in Mannheim, Germany from the 1740’s through the 1770’s. It was the first orchestra specially noted for the performance of dynamics. Its loud passages were crashingly loud, while its soft passages only whispered. A melodic theme which shot upward, called the Mannheim rocket, was frequently used in compositions for this orchestra. ~LW Fantasy on “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” ............................................................................ James M. Stephenson Chicago area composer James Stephenson’s works have been performed by leading orchestras around the world, hailed by critics as having “straightforward, unabashedly beautiful sounds.” His growing catalog boasts concerti and sonatas for nearly every wind instrument, in addition to the violin and piano. Jim is active in the concert band world with premieres occurring at major venues. Earlier this year, his music was premiered/performed at four consecutive CBDNA and ABA conferences. A highly sought-after arranger, his arrangements have been performed/recorded/broadcast by virtually every major orchestra in the country, including the Boston Pops, Cincinnati Pops, NY Pops and more. Commissioned by the QSOA, this new work for chorus, youth chorus, and orchestra is an inviting, exciting and even slightly humorous take on the famous traditional carol, We Wish You a Merry Christmas. In reference to the world-wide observation of Christmas, the Fantasy opens with the youth chorus sing "Merry Christmas" in eight different languages, followed by the youth and adult choruses singing a "Christmas greeting" to one another before launching into a verse of the carol for the children, spiced up with fresh harmonies and rhythms. As a youngster, I remember hearing this for the first time, and wondering what figgy pudding was. This new setting explores what "figgy pudding" actually is - underscored with smoky jazz sounds. The ingredients are described, with the most important - rum or cognac - saved for last! After this description, it seems that the men of the chorus really WANT some figgy pudding, so they quickly ask for some...(If this is found to be humorous, all the better!) Each orchestra section - brass, strings, woodwinds and percussion - gets to shine in this Fantasy. The thrilling finish is meant to send the audience out of the house full of the holiday spirit. ~ James M. Stephenson .