Friday, May 27, 2016 • 8:00 p.m. Wind Symphony Erica Neidlinger, conductor DePaul Concert Hall 800 West Belden Avenue • Chicago Friday, May 27, 2016 • 8:00 p.m. DePaul Concert Hall WIND SYMPHONY Erica Neidlinger, conductor Program Vientos y Tangos Michael Gandolf (b. 1956) From a Dark Millennium Joseph Schwantner (b. 1943) Music for Prague (1968) Karel Husa Introduction and Fanfare (b. 1921) Aria Interlude Toccata and Chorale presenting sponsor DePaul Wind Symphony • May 27, 2016 Program Notes Michael Gandolf (b. 1956) Vientos y Tangos Duration: 11 minutes As a self-taught guitarist, Michael Gandolf began playing rock and jazz at age eight. Te growth of his improvisational skills led to an interest in composition. He attended the New England Conservatory of Music, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in composition and now serves as chair of the composition department. He was also once a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, and now heads the composition faculty. Gandofi is a member of the Atlanta School of Composers, which evolved as a project of Robert Spano (conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra) to nurture, commission, and record contemporary music. Select composers include Jennifer Higdon, Christopher Teofanidis, Osvaldo Golijov, and Adam Schoenberg. An example of Gandolf’s contribution is Garden of Cosmic Speculation (2007). It was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood, recorded by Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and nominated for a Grammy. Gandolf’s broad range of musical interests embraces not only contemporary classical music but also popular genres. Tis in addition to his cultural curiosity has resulted in many intersections between his music and other disciplines including science, flm, and theater. Vientos y Tangos is a clear example of this intersection, as boldly diferent renditions of the tango unfold in a highly theatrical manner. Te composer noted: Vientos y Tangos (Winds and Tangos) was commissioned by Te Frank L. Battisti 70th Birthday Commission Project and is dedicated to Frank Battisti in recognition of his immense contributions to the advancement of concert wind literature. It was Mr. Battisti’s specifc request that I write a tango for wind ensemble. In preparation for this piece, I devoted several months to the study and transcription of tangos from the early style of Juan D’arienzo and the ‘Tango Nuevo’ style of Astor Piazzolla to the current trend of ‘Disco/Techno Tango,’ among others. After immersing myself in this listening experience, I simply allowed the most salient features of these various tangos to inform the direction of my work. Te dynamic contour and the various instrumental combinations that I employ in the piece are all inspired by the traditional sounds of the bandoneon, violin, piano and contrabass. Michael Gandolf DePaul Wind Symphony • May 27, 2016 program notes Joseph Schwantner (b. 1943) From a Dark Millennium Duration: 12 minutes A Chicago native, Joseph Schwantner was educated at the Chicago Conservatory and Northwestern University. He has served on the faculties of the Eastman School of Music, the Julliard School, and the Yale School of Music. He has also been composer in residence with the St. Louis Symphony and has received numerous commissions from ensembles including the National Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Eastman Wind Ensemble. In addition, Schwantner has received numerous Grammy award nominations and was honored as the 1979 Pulitzer Prize winner in Music for his Aftertones of Infnity. At age eight Schwantner began studying guitar, which he believes made an enormous impact on his compositional style. It is absolutely clear to me the profound infuence of the guitar in my music. When you look at my pieces, frst of all is the preoccupation with color. Te guitar is a wonderfully resonant and colorful instrument. Secondly, the guitar is a very highly articulate instrument. You don’t bow it, you pluck it and so the notes are very incisive. My musical ideas, the world I seem to inhabit, is highly articulate. Lots of percussion where everything is sharply etched, and then fnally, those sharply articulated ideas often hang in the air, which is exactly what happens when you play an E major chord on the guitar. Tere are these sharp articulations, and then this kind of sustained resonance that you can easily do in percussion - a favorite trick of mine! Schwantner’s frst work for wind band was …and the mountains rising nowhere (1977). Tis and two pieces that followed, From a Dark Millennium (1980) and In evening’s stillness (1996), were all inspired by poetry. Te three together create his trilogy for band. All use amplifed piano, an extensive percussion section, and episodes of what Schwantner calls “shared monody,” a linear melodic idea shared by doublings and the sustain of pitches within a given theme. Although Schwantner does not consider the piece to be programmatic he has stated, “Te mysterious and shadowy atmosphere of From a Dark Millennium springs from images drawn from a brief original poem that forms the poetic backdrop for the work. Te poem helped to DePaul Wind Symphony • May 27, 2016 program notes stimulate, provoke and enhance the fow of my musical ideas.” Te poem, entitled Sanctuary, is by the composer himself: Sanctuary… deep forests a play of shadows, most ancient murmurings from a dark millennium, the trembling fragrance of the music of amber… Karel Husa (b. 1921) Music for Prague (1968) Duration: 23 minutes Pulitzer Prize winning composer Karel Husa was born in Prague Czechoslovakia. He studied at the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Music, before going on to Paris where he studied with Arthur Honegger and Nadia Boulanger. During his studies in Paris, Husa developed a reputation as a conductor as well as a composer. He met an American named Elliot Galkin who was soon to begin a position in musicology at Cornell University. It was Galkin who recommended Husa for an interim conducting position at Cornell, and in 1954 Husa moved to the United States. He became a U.S. citizen in 1959 and remained on the Cornell faculty until his retirement in 1992. Husa left for Paris in 1946, two years before Czechoslovakia became a member of the Communist Bloc (an event caused by a Soviet-backed political coup). Teir alignment with the Soviet Union remained until Communism fell in Czechoslovakia in November of 1989 (the entire Communist Bloc later dissolved in 1991). While under the oppression of Communism, there was a brief period of relief in 1968 when newly elected leader Alexander Dubcek took ofce in January. He initiated the “Prague Spring” reform, intended to give socialism “a human face.” Te reform was abruptly stopped on August 20, 1968 when forces from fve Communist Bloc countries invaded Czechoslovakia, exercising the right of Soviet forces to intervene should a member of the Bloc appear to shift towards Capitalism. Tirty Czechs were killed, 300 injured, and hundreds of thousands eventually fed the country. Tese events greatly disturbed Husa and compelled him to write Music for Prague (1968). DePaul Wind Symphony • May 27, 2016 program notes During those tragic and dark moments…I suddenly felt the necessity to write this piece for so long meditated…I was sure that the music I would write for Prague would be scored for the concert band, a medium which I have admired for a long time. Te combination of wind and brass instruments with percussion fascinated me and the unexplored possibilities of new sounds…attracted me. Although the piece was premiered in January of 1969, it was not performed in Prague until February 13, 1990 with Husa conducting. Te performance received an overwhelming emotional response. Husa provided the following notes in the score and requested they be printed for every performance: Tree main ideas bind the composition together. Te frst and most important is an old Hussite war song from the 15th century, “Ye Warriors of God and His Law,” a symbol of resistance and hope for hundreds of years, whenever fate lay heavy on the Czech nation. It has been utilized also by many Czech composers, including Smetana in My Country. Te beginning of this religious song is announced very softly in the frst movement by the timpani and concludes in a strong unison (Chorale). Te second idea is the sound of bells throughout; Prague, named also the City of “Hundreds of Towers,” has used its magnifcently sounding church bells as calls of distress as well as of victory. Te last idea is a motif of three chords frst appearing very softly under the piccolo solo at the beginning of the piece, in fute, clarinet, and horn. Later it reappears at extremely strong dynamic levels, for example, in the middle of the Aria. In addition to Husa’s comments, there are other symbolic references in the piece. Te Introduction and Fanfare opens with a piccolo solo that emulates a bird call, a symbol of liberty that the city of Prague has only experienced for short periods of its thousand years of existence. Strong fanfares interrupt the opening “calm before the storm” as calls of distress. Husa uses mallet percussion throughout the piece to represent the church bells. Tese are introduced in the frst movement and return throughout. Te movement establishes yet resists conformity with its ternary form and tone row DePaul Wind Symphony • May 27, 2016 program notes (appearing in the A and A’ sections). Te tone row is used loosely as if the people are resisting the imposed structure. Te term Aria in the second movement is sarcastic in Husa’s view. Contrary to its operatic implication, it instead represents tragedy.