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Liftoff! – An Overture for Concert Band

Christian Garnes

Liftoff! Is a lively piece that is a lively piece that mixes a variety of motifs that simulate a flock of birds taking flight.  The whole piece is a musical journey that depicts birds flying through all sorts of twists and turns that the world throws at them.  At the end of the piece, the birds reach their destination with an uneasy, yet satisfying conclusion that will leave them eager to take off once again.

• Program Note from the score

Dance of the Whale – A Ballet for the Endangered Species

Philip Sparke

Dance of the Whale was commissioned by the Spanish music foundation Musica et Orbi at the instigation of its president, Frank De Vuyst. It is part of a unique project which involved nine composers each writing a short movement, describing an animal of the composers’ choice, to form a suite called Bestiarium. A consortium of bands around the world helped to fund the project, and the world premiere of the suite took place in March 2013 in Medellín, Colombia.

Dance of the Whale uses the tenor instruments of the band to describe a lazy and graceful dance by a blue whale and is dedicated to endangered species around the world.

– Program Note from publisher

Learn more about how you can help!

World Wildlife Fund

International Fund for Animal Welfare

US Fish and Wildlife Service

March of the Cute Little Wood Sprites (S. Onesy Twosy) for Concert Band

P.D.Q. Bach, Charmingly edited by: Professor Peter Schickele

It would be natural to assume that the title of the march under consideration was simply another example of the naive programmaticism that was part and parcel of the German early Romantic movement, but it turns out that the piece was actually commissioned by a band of cute little wood sprites, a travelling troupe of extremely small folk who played the Howdyvolkstheater in April, 1783.  The Cute Little Wood Sprites, as they called themselves, asked P.D.Q. Bach to write some entrance music for the beginning of their show, and they were so pleased with the result that after the first performance several members of the troupe, still wearing wings and halos, climbed up on top of the composer and did a jig, giving rise, incidentally, to the classic question, “How many angels can dance on a pinhead?”  The vocal passage in the eighth measure is based on the reaction of the audience to seeing the sprites come on stage; P.D.Q. was so pleased by the sound that he incorporated it into the score. 

– Program Note by Peter Schickele

The Lion King Soundtrack Highlights

Hans Zimmer, Elton John & Tim Rice / arr. Calvin Custer

This medley of Elton John songs from the Disney movie The Lion King includes Circle Of Life, I Just Can’t Wait to Be King, Be Prepared, Hakuna Matata, Can You Feel the Love Tonight, This Land, and To Die For.

– Program Note from the score

Tutued Toucan Can-Can

Erika Svanoe

The majestic and noble toucan dons its tutu and prepares for its grand entrance. What will the toucan ballet entail? Nimble hops on delicate legs? Short but graceful flights across the stage? Rousing kicks? Dramatic splits? Perhaps the grand movement of its large, brightly colored beak would be the most effective use of its greatest asset. The toucan, inspired by other great birds of ballet, enters the stage, and begins to dance.

Tutued Toucan Can-can draws inspiration from several sources, including many melodies heard while watching cartoons and eating breakfast cereal in my youth. Walt Disney’s Fantasia depicted the Dance of the Hours from Amilcare Ponchielli’s opera La Gioconda with animated ostriches. Jacques Offenbach’s Galop Infernal from Orpheus in the Underworld has worked its way into the public consciousness through multiple uses in popular culture, and might be better known now simply as “the Can-can.” Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Stravinsky’s Firebird also make brief appearances. If you listen carefully and follow your nose, you might find a few other musical nods to birds of note.

– Program Note by composer

Our Cast Aways

Julie Giroux

“For Those who rescue, Those who get rescued and especially for Those whose rescue never comes.”

6.5 million companion animals enter animal shelters every year and 2.4 million of these adoptable animals are put down. These numbers do not include the thousands who suffer in silence. Thanks to thousands of caring people, these numbers are steadily decreasing, but we still have a long way to go. This work is dedicated to all those who work hard in the fight to end puppy mills, to rescue suffering pets and to provide care and medical attention to all those rescued. It is dedicated to those companions who get rescued and for those whose rescue never comes.

We are all shepherds. Every living creature is in our care. Hopefully mankind will someday uphold his responsibility and become caretaker of all living things on earth. Maybe someday all humans will be humane and mankind will be kind.

The pictures of the rescued animals belong to people who are my friends on Facebook. Apparently, I keep great company when it comes to people who rescue and adopt animals who have been cast away. My own rescues are also in the photos. The published score will feature these beautiful rescues in full color.

– Program Note by composer

Tuba Tiger Rag

Harry DeCosta / arr. Luther Henderson & David Marshall

Tiger Rag is a jazz standard, originally recorded and copyrighted by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in 1917. It is one of the most recorded jazz compositions of all time. In 2003, the 1918 ODJB recording of Tiger Rag was placed on the U.S. Library of Congress National Recording Registry.

After the success of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band recordings, the tune gained national popularity. Dance band and march orchestrations were published for the benefit of bands that couldn’t get the hang of the new jazz music. Hundreds of recordings of the tune appeared in the late 1910s and through the 1920s. The Canadian Brass tuba player Chuck Daellenbach has become internationally associated with Luther Henderson’s Tuba Tiger Rag. He has performed this work hundreds of times.

Tiger Rag is often used as a fight song by several American high school and college teams with a tiger as their mascot, most famously Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge).

– Program Note from Wikipedia

How to Train Your Dragon

John Powell / arr. Sean O’Loughlin

Embark on a vibrant adventure with John Powell’s How to Train Your Dragon, a highly energetic and original score that will ensure you are treated to a fabulous listening experience.

“We looked at all the folk music from the Nordic areas. And I’m [John Powell] part Scottish and grew up with a lot of Scottish folk music, so that came into it a lot. And Celtic music was something that Jeffrey Katzenberg felt had this very attractive quality to it, and sweetness, that he thought would be wonderful for the film.”

This fantastic arrangement for band by Sean O’Loughlin recreates all the inspiration from the movie. Its sweeping melodies and bombastic fanfares transport its listeners to an ancient Viking village, swarmed with dragons! Featuring: This Is Berk and Coming Back Around.

– Program Note from University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire University Band concert program, 26 November 2018

Salt March

Aakash Mittal

While the heart and soul of Salt March For Wind Ensemble is a tribute to Mohandas K. Gandhi’s historical protest and the music of that moment, fragments of the marching music prevalent during my childhood are woven into this composition. When I was eleven years old and still living in Dallas, Texas, I joined a Civil War-era fife and drum band. Around the same time that I was playing the Battle Hymn of the Republic on fife, I also began playing clarinet in my school’s wind band. This marked the beginning of a decade-long experience playing marches by Sousa, Grainger, and Berlioz. Cemented by four years of competitive high school marching band, marching in local parades, and playing marches at the town’s veterans club, the march became ingrained in my musical DNA. The march became part of my life again during the 2020 pandemic. Black Lives Matter and the Women’s March spotlit the power of the march as an effective type of non-violent protest that is still in use today. As the pandemic raged on, the idea of expressing our current climate of activism by writing a piece about Gandhi’s Salt March came to mind again and again. I wanted the piece to be an opportunity to study an important point in history and remind students that they already have the power to make positive change in the world.

My intent for Salt March was to remind us of where we have been and relate that history to the activism taking place right now. Salt March For Wind Ensemble is a contemporary imagining of the 1930 protest rather than a historically accurate rendering. However, I wanted to arrange a song that was sung during the original march to nestle a seed of that history in this piece. As many others have, I assumed that Gandhi and his followers sang during the historic journey. Photographs taken of the event clearly included musicians holding instruments. However, I struggled to find written references to any of the songs or music of that moment. It was at this point in my research that my cousin Gourav Venkateswar pointed me toward the devotional song Ragupati Raghava Raja Ram. Now the floodgates had been opened! I found reference upon reference corroborating that, indeed, Gandhi and his collaborators sang this song during the Salt March.

As I read about Gandhi’s work, I discovered he was quite a proponent of music. Politically, he believed that “in true music there is no place for communal differences and hostility.” This was further highlighted in a letter Gandhi wrote to the music teacher in the Satyagraha Ashram, Sabarmati, stating that “I have gradually come to look upon music as a means of spiritual development… Music is a constructive activity, which uplifts the soul.” Gandhi’s regard for music as a vehicle for spiritual development and political activism resonates with me and informed the writing of Salt March. The piece is as much an expression of the inner journey one must undertake to transform oppressive systems as it is about the power of communal protest. It is also about the idea that joy, celebration, and healing are revolutionary forces in and of themselves. Therefore, this piece is quite simply a catchy melody over some grooving drum beats. I hope you enjoy the music.

– Program Notes by composer

Into the Sun

Jodie Blackshaw

Into the Sun is a scrapbook of stories told by many of their passage to Australia, whether it be as free settlers in the 1800s, post World War II immigrants or refugees seeking asylum with a focus on those who came to the Western Sydney region. It is roughly in six sections: Arrival; A New Land, a New Life; Camps & Confusion; Acculturation: A Yearning for Home and All That is Familiar; Opportunity: With New-Found Enthusiasm; Reflection: With a Feeling of Inner Peace of Calmness.

Into the Sun was written to raise awareness regarding be plight of refugees. Whilst the stories used pertain to people gaining residency in Australia, they remain universal. Students are able to read real-life stories that the composer has used as inspiration and directors have the opportunity to explore more localised stories within the context of their own country with their students. Tolerance comes from understanding and it is the composer’s desire for all people to love one another. This piece was written to encourage all children to gain an understanding of the desperate situation so many refugees are placed in and how important it is to help them when and where possible.

– Program Notes by composer

Folk Suite

William Grant Still

William Grant Still (1895-1978) is known for his settings of traditional spirituals. Folk Suite for Band (1963), is one of the latter . Each movement features creative, solo-filled arrangements of traditional spirituals in which the music almost paints an aural image of each spiritual’s context. The first tune, Get on Board, Little Children, is accompanied by incessant rhythmic passages imitating the rattling of a train in motion. The second movement, Deep River, includes a vocal-like, sustained accompaniment with written stylistic breaths imitating a vocalist. The final movement features two spirituals: The Old Ark’s a Moverin’ and Sinner, Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass. Multiple soloists interrupt sections of ensemble playing in an almost preacher-like fashion. The contrasting moods of the spirituals, joyful and pensive, are reflected in the accompaniment and the work comes to a celebratory, almost dance-like finish.

– Program Notes adapted from Florida State University Wind Ensemble concert program, 22 February 2022

Of Endless Miles and Empty Rafts

Michele Fernandez

Throughout time and regardless of origin, immigrants have shown a spiritual courage and resolve to survive that has found countless families suffering perilous journeys in search of safety. Many have been lost along the way. As a child of Cuban parents who fled oppression (leaving much behind to build a new life), my respect and empathy for all immigrants runs deep. Although my parents’ (still traumatic) exoduses were not by sea, several family members’ and friends’ journeys were. Throughout my life I have heard stories of near losses and rafts washing ashore, empty. I still recall the feelings since childhood — wondering who they were, and what happened to them.

This piece is in no way intended as a contemporary statement, rather as an empathic look at humanity’s struggles to protect innocent families throughout history, and a tribute to my own ancestors’ courage. Many of us are descents of immigrants at some point in our deep histories, regardless of era, or origin. During my 30 years as a public school teacher in Miami, I had countless (precious) students who suffered trauma from the dangers of their immigrant journey, and so this original composition honors displaced souls from all eras and walks of life, irrespective of hemisphere — who have fled homes, to anywhere, in search of safety for themselves and their children.

The piece is written using two authentic Afro-Cuban forms: Guaguancó and Son-Montuno. In this work, many authentic patterns are woven into the fabric of the winds as well. No prior knowledge of Afro-Latin forms is needed to achieve an authentic performance, as percussion parts are carefully crafted using a personally developed, simplified method to achieve authenticity quickly. Each brief section represents elements of an immigrant’s story.

1. Opening Chorale: Depicts a treacherous journey, for example, as seas toss about a small raft and its occupants. At the end of the chorale, the listener can almost visualize someone falling overboard and descending into the depths with others still in the raft, crying out with reaching hands as rain and darkness beat down.

2. Guaguancó (3/2 Rumba Clave): A seamless flashback to a memory; this dignified soul at home, living peacefully.

3. Son Montuno (2/3 Son Clave): Still a flashback — urgency sets in at home as turmoil intensifies into a pursuit, and the courageous decision to flee from danger comes to the forefront. The piece returns to the present (remaining souls), and the intense finale depicts the will of the human spirit to survive and carry on to thrive and contribute, now in their new home — in honor of their lost loved ones’ memories and courage.

– Program Notes from score

Variations on a African Hymnsong

Quincy C. Hilliard

The piece is based on a Nigerian folk song; fragments of the hymn song appear in the beginning and then the hymn song itself is introduced around the middle of the piece by the oboe. The piece also features two polyrhythms in the percussion that are based on authentic African rhythm patterns. The first polyrhythm comes from another African hymn entitled Kyrem. The second is based on the rhythm pattern called “Osebo.”

– Program Notes from University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire Symphony Band concert program, 27 April 2018

Moonlight Dragon

Yasuhide Ito

Some years after graduating college, the composer received a postcard from a high school classmate who visited the port of Hong Kong during his world travels. He wrote that the city of Hong Kong is chaotic, yet full of life and spirit. This reminded him of a quote, “Ma vie etait un festin” (My life had been a feast – A Season in Hell by French writer Arthur Rimbaud). Thereafter, the composer’s impression of Hong Kong is “a city of festivals”. This composition depicts his first impression and the city’s vitality.

This work was commissioned by the Hong Kong Band Director’s Association. It was premiered on September 14th, 2012, by the Hong Kong Band Directors Wind Orchestra under the baton of Ito himself at the “HKBDWO with Ito & HK Composers Concert”.

– Program Notes from publisher

Breath of the Mountains

Cait Nishimura

Breath of the Mountains was commissioned by Sam Yamamoto and the Lethbridge Collegiate Institute Gold Symphonic Band. Lethbridge is located in Southern Alberta, where the landscape and climate are shaped by powerful warming winds called chinooks coming from the Canadian Rocky Mountains. In addition to these winds, Lethbridge is known for having more than 320 days of sunshine each year.

When writing this piece, I reflected on my time visiting Lethbridge in 2020 (my last pre-pandemic residency) where I had the opportunity to connect with the welcoming music community and also experience the warm sunshine and expansive, powerful winds that define this part of the province. I began thinking of the wind as a life force; an expression of aliveness coming from the mountains in the form of birdsong, flowing water, hills and valleys, and sparkling sunlight. And as I wondered what that wind would sound like, Breath of the Mountains was born.

– Program Notes by composer

Roma

Valerie Coleman

A nation without a country is the best way to describe the nomadic tribes known as gypsies, or properly call, the Romani. Their traditions, their language (Roma), legends, and music stretch all over the globe. from the Middle East, the Mediterranean region, and the Iberian peninsula, across the ocean to the Americas.

Roma is a tribute to that culture, in five descriptive themes, as told through the eyes and hearts of Romani women everywhere: Romani Women, Mystic, Youth, Trickster, and History. The melodies and rhythms are a fusion of styles and cultures: malagueña of Spain, Argentine tango, Arabic music, Turkish folk songs, 3/2 Latin claves, and jazz.

– Program Notes from score

Hallelujah Chorus

George Frederic Handel arr. Roger Longfield

Handel composed Messiah without getting much sleep or even eating much food. When his assistants brought him his meals, they were often left uneaten. His servants would often find him in tears as he composed. When he completed Hallelujah, he reportedly told his servant, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself seated on His throne, with His company of Angels.”

Although the first performance in Dublin on April 13, 1742, was a huge success, Messiah wasn’t met with the same excitement in London the following season. Six scheduled performances were cancelled by Handel in 1743, Messiah was completely removed from the 1744 schedule, and it wasn’t performed in London until 1749.

In another reversal of fortunes, London’s Foundling Hospital held a fundraising concert, where Handel performed a mix of new music and well as older pieces including the Hallelujah chorus. At the time, Messiah was still somewhat unknown to London audiences, but the concert was so well received that Handel was invited back the next year, where he performed the entire Messiah oratorio. Performances of Messiah became an Eastertime tradition at the Foundling Hospital until the 1770s. Earnings from many early performances of the oratorio were used to help the poor, needy, orphaned, widowed, and sick.

In 1910 the Tabernacle Choir made its first recordings, which included the “Hallelujah” chorus; this was most likely the first recording of Messiah music outside of England. It was also the first recording of a Messiah piece to use an established choir, as all early recordings were made using temporary choirs comprised of provisional singers.

Text for Hallelujah comes from the book of Revelation in the New Testament. Revelation 19:6: “Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” Revelation 19:16: “And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.” Revelation 11:15 reads, “And he shall reign for ever and ever.”

– Program Note from thetabernaclechoir.org 

Greensleeves

Arr. Alfred Reed

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 14^th 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.

By the time of William Shakespeare, this song had already become a classic and he made use of it in two of his plays, most notably in the Merry Wives of Windsor. Over 300 years later, the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams used this melody as an intermezzo between two acts of his opera Sir John in Love, which was based on the same play. Since then the tune has been adapted as the basis for at least one Christmas carol (What Child Is This?), several popular songs, and even by the Swingle Singers on one of their albums. In addition, it has been performed instrumentally by groups of all sizes and styles from full symphony orchestra to small jazz and rock groups.

This arrangement is a symphonic development of this 600-year-old classic melody adapted for the full resources of the modern wind orchestra or concert band.

– Program Note from score

A Hanukkah Festival

Arr. Chris Bernotas

A Hanukkah Festival is a medley of three traditional Hanukkah songs, Sevivon, Maoz Tzur, and Hanukkah. Sevivon has a dramatic melody and is written with a variety of accompaniment leading to a brief, but impressive, clarinet cadenza that leads into Maoz Tzur. This traditional piece is scored with full, rich voicings along with the beautiful melody. Hanukkah is the festival of lights and the last section of the piece. It is a bright playful march with an exciting conclusion.

– Program Note from publisher

The Toymaker’s Workshop

Rebecca Jarvis

This charming holiday novelty piece opens with Bavarian-style folk melodies.  As the picture of the workshop is painted by the melodies, we become acquainted with the “toys” as portrayed by all members of the band–winds, brass, and percussion.  Percussionists quickly alternate between traditional and accessory instruments while winds and brass add humor with glissandos, color punches, and imitation.  

– Program Note from Score

Pacem

Robert Spittal

As is the case with most of my compositions, I wrote Pacem – A Hymn for Peace for a friend who also happens to be a musician. The work was composed for Patrick Brooks and his wind ensemble at Idaho State University. The thematic structures of the piece are based on the second movement of my Consort for Ten Winds, which impressed at a chamber recording session I led in 1999. I intended Consort to be a contemporary reflection of older music, and for the second movement to reflect the beautiful, imitative motet style of the Renaissance composers I admire, such as Josquin Des Prez and Palestrina. While many of the stylistic and inherently lyrical elements of Consort are retained in Pacem (the title in Latin for “peace”), the large-scale instrumental forces of the symphonic wind ensemble presented opportunities to expand the music proportions of Pacem. Rather than simply an “arrangement” of the earlier chamber work. Pacem became an original piece unto itself. The musical propositions of Pacem range from the introspective to the epic, reflecting the scope of humanity’s persistent, hopeful and often difficult struggle toward the realization of personal and universal peace.

Pacem is a musical expression of humankind’s desire for universal peace among all people, as well as the personal peace that comes from within. “Pacem” is the Latin word for “peace.” The choice of Latin is significant for two reasons: 1) as a kind of tribute to the Franco-Flemish Renaissance composers, whose music strongly influenced this work, and 2) as a symbol of the universality of humankind’s desire for peace –- a collective desire that cuts across geographic, religious, ethnic, historical, or other boundaries. The reflective, more peaceful moments in the work represent our hope for personal peace. The stronger, maestoso statements of the main theme convey a hopeful optimism for the realization of peace among all people. Other statements are more conflicted and ambiguous and remind us that achieving universal peace requires persistence and struggle, and that it remains an unrealized challenge in the world.

– Program Note by composer

Highlights from Disney’s Frozen

Robert Lopez, Kristen Anderson-Lopez arr. Sean O’Loughlin

Hailed as one of Disney’s best animated films ever, Frozen is quickly establishing itself as a classic with a heartwarming story, stunning visuals and magnificent songs. This impressive concert medley features Vuelie, Do You Want to Build a Snowman?, For the First Time in Forever, and Let It Go.

–Program Note from publisher

Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring

Johann Sebastian Bach

Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring is the popular English title of the chorale from the 1723 Advent cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life), BWV 147, by Johann Sebastian Bach. The chorale occurs twice in the cantata, with different texts each time (neither of which matches the English): as its sixth movement, Wohl mir, dass ich Jesum habe (It is well for me that I have Jesus), and again as its tenth movement, Jesus bleibet meine Freude (Jesus Remains My Joy). The English title derives from famous piano transcriptions made by Myra Hess, in 1926 for piano solo and in 1934 for piano duet, as published by Oxford University Press. Whether played instrumentally or sung in German or English, the chorale is often heard at weddings and during Advent, Christmas, and Easter. Bach composed a four-part setting with independent orchestral accompaniment of two stanzas of the hymn Jesu, meiner Seelen Wonne, which had been written by Martin Janus in 1661 and was commonly sung to a Johann Schop melody, Werde munter, mein Gemüthe.

– Program Note from Wikipedia

A Christmas Festival

Leroy Anderson

A Christmas Festival was written by Leroy Anderson and first recorded on October 27, 1952.

When asked why he wrote this piece, Anderson said, “Well, I was trying to write a Christmas festival. You see, there are all types of things that have been written for various occasions and in this particular case I was working at the time for the Boston Pops, I was the arranger and orchestrator for them for years, and they wanted to record a special concert number, using Christmas songs, carols and other Christmas music, for records, so they asked, Arthur Fiedler asked me to do a concert overture, and this is how it came about. I selected the ones that were the most popular and best known, and then I took them and tried to give instrumental treatment to them; in other words, it’s not a medley, that isn’t what we wanted to do here, certainly what I didn’t want to do. I rather took the themes and built you might say a concert overture, around the Christmas songs. They’re not just carols because in this we end with ‘Jingle Bells’, that is, of course, a secular song, it’s not a carol, but it’s associated so much with the gaiety and spirit of Christmas that you certainly couldn’t leave it out.”

A Christmas Festival is a medley of eight carols: Joy to the World, Deck the Halls, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Good King Wenceslas, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Silent Night, Jingle Bells, and O Come All Ye Faithful.

– Program note by Sam Bradfield

Sleigh Ride

Leroy Anderson

Leroy Anderson (1908-1975) got the idea for the theme of Sleigh Ride as he dug in his Woodbury, Connecticut, yard for water pipes during a heat wave in 1946. As he dug and the perspiration soaked his clothes, he thought of a tall glass of ice water to quench his thirst, a thought that turned to winter and snow and then to racing over the countryside in a horse-drawn sleigh with a sharp, wintry breeze whipping across his cheeks. With those thoughts in mind, the composer conjured up a melody.

Anderson’s new ‘holiday’ miniature premiered at a May 1948 concert of the Boston Pops. It was such an immediate hit with the public that several recorded versions appeared within a year, including one with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops and one with the composer conducting.

– Program note from the Clinton Symphony Orchestra

Overture To Dancer in The Dark

Björk arr. Mendoza/Smart/Smith

Winner of Cannes Film Festival’s Palm d’Or in 2000, Dancer in the Dark is a genre-defying cinematic creation, incorporating elements of melodrama, documentary, musical, and experimental film, shot in the manner of cinema vérité. The audience is made to feel as though they are a participant, rather than an observer, in the tumultuous and descending trajectory of the main character, Selma.

The Overture from Dancer in the Dark begins by rising from the stasis of the opening pedal. As the music develops, layers of the brass chorale establish a haunting, shimmering, melancholic mood upon which a main theme emerges. This motif, indicative of Selma, is restated and elaborated, each time becoming simultaneously more urgent and inexorably entwined in the darkening complexity of the work’s underlying harmonic web. As quickly as the work crests, it dissolves back to a more stable form of the stasis from which it grew.

– Program Note from University of Georgia Hodgson Wind Symphony concert program, 22 March 2017

Illumination

David Maslanka

Illumination — lighting up, bringing light. I am especially interested in composing music for young people that allows them a vibrant experience of their own creative energy. A powerful experience of this sort stays in the heart and mind as a channel for creative energy, no matter what the life path. Music shared in community brings this vital force to everyone. Illumination is an open and cheerful piece in a quick tempo, with a very direct A-B-A song form.

Illumination: Overture for Band was composed for the Franklin, Massachusetts’, public schools. The commission was started by Nicole Wright, band director at the Horace Mann Middle School in Franklin, when she discovered that my grandnephew was in her band. The piece was initially to have been for her young players, but the idea grew to make it the center of the dedication concert at the opening of Franklin’s new high school building. Rehearsals of Illumination were actually the first musical sounds made in their fine new auditorium.

– Program Note by composer

Lumen De Lumine Caelum

Joshua A. Idio

Lumen de Lumine Caelum was supposed to be a general idea. This theme about light and dark existed in the back of my mind and was just at first meant to be a thematic hymn for concert band. But in early 2020, the entire world was consumed with dread and sorrow from the presence of a new coronavirus disease, which was later called Covid-19. It was a devastating time, with hundreds of thousands of people dying. My family and I were also infected with Covid-19 and at one point, I thought I was going to lose both my parents. Restrictions to battle the disease unintentionally made a new way of life for all of us. There were so many conflictions between peoples about how to handle this new lifestyle, and it split even more an already divided world.

But it also brought us together with ideas of hope and solidarity. Millions band together, sacrificing so much to help bring the world out from sadness. It forged a fellowship that continues to reside in us: to bring out the light of our world from a dreadful time. It was this expression of hope from despair that inspired me to re-envision this piece and its purpose. I wanted to write a piece resembling a small light emanating out from the dark. The Latin title loosely translates to “The light from heaven” or “the light from the sky.” This elegy is my prayer for the world.

– Program Note by composer

First Suite in E♭

Gustav Holst

Gustav Holst’s First Suite in E♭ for Military Band occupies a legendary position in the wind band repertory and can be seen, in retrospect, as one of the earliest examples of the modern wind band instrumentation still frequently performed today. Its influence is so significant that several composers have made quotation or allusion to it as a source of inspiration to their own works.

Holst began his work with Chaconne, a traditional Baroque form that sets a series of variations over a ground bass theme. That eight-measure theme is stated at the outset in tubas and euphoniums and, in all, fifteen variations are presented in quick succession. The three pitches that begin the work — E♭, F, and B♭, ascending — serve as the generating cell for the entire work, as the primary theme of each movement begins in exactly the same manner. Holst also duplicated the intervallic content of these three pitches, but descended, for several melodic statements (a compositional trick not dissimilar to the inversion process employed by the later serialist movement, which included such composers as Schoenberg and Webern). These inverted melodies contrast the optimism and bright energy of the rest of the work, typically introducing a sense of melancholy or shocking surprise. The second half of the Chaconne, for instance, presents a somber inversion of the ground bass that eventually emerges from its gloom into the exuberant final variations.

The Intermezzo, which follows, is a quirky rhythmic frenzy that contrasts everything that has preceded it. This movement opens in C minor, and starts and stops with abrupt transitions throughout its primary theme group. The contrasting midsection is introduced with a mournful melody, stated in F Dorian by the clarinet before being taken up by much of the ensemble. At the movement’s conclusion, the two sections are woven together, the motives laid together in complementary fashion in an optimistic C Major.

The March that follows immediately begins shockingly, with a furious trill in the woodwinds articulated by aggressive statements by brass and percussion. This sets up the lighthearted and humorous mood for the final movement, which eventually does take up the more reserved and traditional regal mood of a British march and is simply interrupted from time to time by an uncouth accent or thunderous bass drum note. The coda of the work makes brief mention of elements from both the Chaconne and Intermezzo before closing joyfully.

– Program Note by Jacob Wallace for the Baylor Wind Ensemble concert program, 19 December 2014

Sun Dance

Frank Ticheli

Sun Dance was written in 1997 on a commission from the Austin Independent School District to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of their All-City Honor Band Festival, and it was premiered by that group on March 18 of that year. Ticheli writes about the piece:

While composing Sun Dance, I was consciously attempting to evoke a feeling: bright joy. After completing the work, I found that the music began to suggest a more concrete image — a town festival on a warm, sun-washed day. I imagined townspeople gathered in the park, some in small groups, some walking hand in hand, others dancing to the music played by a small band under a red gazebo. Throughout the composition process, I carefully balanced the songlike and dancelike components of “bright joy.” The oboe’s gentle statement of the main melody establishes the work’s song-like characteristics, while in the work’s middle section, a lyrical theme of even greater passion appears. Several recurring themes are indeed more vocal than instrumental in nature.

The work’s dancelike qualities are enhanced by a syncopated rhythmic figure… The figure is used not only in the main melody, but also as a structural building block for virtually everything in the piece, including other melodies, accompaniment figures, and episodes.

– Program Note from Baylor University Concert Band concert program, 18 February 2018

Candide Suite

Leonard Bernstein

Candide was Leonard Bernstein’s third Broadway musical, following On the Town and Wonderful Town. Adapted by Lillian Hellman from Voltaire’s 18th-century satire on blind optimism, Bernstein’s Candide is an operetta set in the castle of the Baron Thunder-ten-Tronckh in the mythical European land of Westphalia. Within these walls live the Baron and Baroness; Cunégonde, their beautiful and innocent virgin daughter; Maximilian, their handsome son; Candide, their handsome bastard nephew; and Paquette, the Baroness’ buxom serving maid. They are taught by Dr. Pangloss, who preaches the philosophy that all is for the best in “The Best of All Possible Worlds.” Candide and Cunégonde kiss, and Candide is banned from Westphalia. As he leaves, Bulgarians invade, kidnap him and slaughter everyone except for Cunégonde, who they prostitute out to a rich Jew and the Grand Inquisitor. Candide escapes and begins an optimistic, satirical journey, taking with him his sweetheart Cunégonde and Pangloss. Candide journeys to Lisbon, Paris, Buenos Aires, and even the legendary El Dorado, only to discover reality in the forms of crime, atrocity, and suffering. He returns to Venice with Cunégonde, stripped of his idealism. His ultimate emotional maturation concludes in the finale with “You’ve been a fool, and so have I, But come and be my wife, And let us try before we die, To make good sense of life. We’re neither pure nor wise nor good; We’ll do the best we know; We’ll build our house, and chop our wood, And make our garden grow.”

Opening on Broadway on December 1, 1956, Candide was perhaps a bit too intellectually weighty for its first audiences and closed after just 73 performances. Bernstein was less concerned over the money lost than the failure of a work he cared about deeply. The critics had rightly noted a marvelous score, and Bernstein and others kept tinkering with the show over the years. With each revival, Candide won bigger audiences. In 1989, the already seriously ill Bernstein spent his last ounces of vital energy recording a new concert version of the work. “There’s more of me in that piece than anything else I’ve done,” he said.

– Program note by San Luis Obispo Wind Orchestra concert program, 12 May 2012

The Fairest of the Fair

John Philip Sousa

The Fairest of the Fair is generally regarded as one of Sousa’s finest and most melodic marches, and its inspirations came from the sight of a pretty girl with whom he was not even acquainted. It was an immediate success and has remained one of his most popular compositions. It stands out as one of the finest examples of the application of pleasing melodies to the restrictive framework of a military march. The Boston Food Fair was an annual exposition and music jubilee held by the Boston Retail Grocers’ Association. The Sousa Band was the main musical attraction for several seasons, so the creation of a new march honoring the sponsors of the 1908 Boston Food Fair was the natural outgrowth of a pleasant business relationship. In fairs before 1908, Sousa had been impressed by the beauty and charm of one particular young lady who was the center of attention of the displays in which she was employed. He made a mental note that he would someday transfer his impressions of her into music. When the invitation came for the Sousa Band to play a twenty-day engagement in 1908, he wrote this march. Remembering the comely girl, he entitled the new march The Fairest of the Fair.

Because of an oversight, the march almost missed its premiere. Nearly three months before the fair, Sousa had completed a sketch of the march for the publisher. He also wrote out a full conductor’s score from which the individual band parts were to have been extracted. The band had just finished an engagement the night before the fair’s opening and had boarded a sleeper train for Boston. Louis Morris, the band’s copyist, was helping the librarian sort music for the first concert, and he discovered that the most important piece on the program — The Fairest of the Fair — had not been prepared. According to Morris’s own story, the librarian, whose job it had been to prepare the parts, went into a panic. There was good reason; considerable advance publicity had been given to the new march, and the fair patrons would be expecting to hear it. In addition, the piano sheet music had already been published, and copies were to be distributed free to the first five hundred ladies entering the gates of the fair.

Morris rose to the occasion. He asked the porter of the train to bring a portable desk, which he placed on a pillow across his lap. He worked the entire night, and the parts were nearly finished when dawn broke. Both were greatly surprised by the appearance of Sousa, who had arisen to take his usual early morning walk. When asked about the frenzied activity, they had no choice but to tell exactly what had happened. There were many times in the life of John Philip Sousa when he demonstrated his benevolence and magnanimity, and this was surely one of them. After recognizing Morris’s extraordinary effort and remarking that it was saving the band from considerable embarrassment, he instructed him to complete his work and to take a well- deserved rest, even if it meant sleeping through the first concert. With no one the wiser, Louis Morris — hero of the day — was asleep in his hotel as Sousa’s Band played The Fairest of the Fair for the first time on September 28, 1908. Sousa did not mention the subject again, but Morris found an extra fifty dollars in his next pay envelope — the equivalent of two weeks’ salary.

– Program Note from John Philip Sousa: A Descriptive Catalog of His Works