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Publication Date

Spring 4-23-2009

Year of Release

2009

Note(s)

Steven R. Barnett, conductor

Featuring:

Dr. Stephen Lawson, horn

Angela Crum, trumpet

Austin Seybert, trombone, student composer/conductor

Greg Richmond, graduate assistant/conductor

Winners of the Wind Symphony Soloist Competition: Angela Crum, Austin Seybert

Program Notes

Richard L. Saucedo is currently Director of Bands and Performing Arts Department Chairman at Carmel High School in Cannel, Indiana. Under his direction, Carmel bands have received numerous state and national honors in the areas of concert, jazz and marching. The Carmel High School Wind Symphony was invited to the Bands of America national Concert Band Festival in 1992 and 1999 and was named the Indiana State Champion concert band in 1999. Mr. Saucedo did his undergraduate work at Indiana University in Bloomington and finished his master's degree at Butler University in Indianapolis. He is constantly in demand as an adjudicator, clinician and guest conductor for concert band, jazz band, marching band, orchestra and show choir.

Full Tilt!, commissioned by the Northeast Oklahoma Band Directors Association, is filled with a rhythmic energy that will motivate and challenge even the most experienced players. With plenty of mixed meter and syncopation throughout, the composer hopes that the piece will provide a thrill ride of sorts for performers and audience members alike.

Alfred Reed was a 23 year old staff arranger for the 529th Anny Air Corps Band when he was called upon to create what has become a masterpiece of the wind literature. It was in 1944, when 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 premiers of new works from both countries. With just 16 days until the concert, Reed was assigned to compose a new Russian work for the concert. Scouring the Corp's music library, Reed found an authentic 16th-century Russian Christmas Song "Carol of the Little Russian Children" to use for an introductory theme. Drawing on his investigations of Eastern Orthodox liturgical music for other thematic ideas, he completed the score of Russian Christmas Music in 11 days; copyists took another two days to prepare parts for rehearsal. The music was first performed on December 12, 1944, on a nationwide NBC broadcast. A concert performance was given in Denver two days later. In later years, Reed made minor changes to the instrumentation to suit a large ensemble.

A Symphonic Prelude is based on "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair". This work embraces the modern conception of the integrated symphonic band, with fully balanced instrumentation and differentiation of the brass into three distinct tone color groups: Horns, conical brass (cornets, baritones and tubas) and cylindrical brass (trumpets and trombones).

Joseph Turrin is a contemporary composer who has had a long association with the N. Y. Philharmonic, composing a number of works for that orchestra. The Fandango was commissioned for the University of New Mexico Wind Symphony and soloists Joseph Alessi and Philip Smith, principal trombonist and trumpeter respectively, with the N. Y. Philharmonic. According to the composer "The work divides itself into three sections: The first is a combination of lively melodic and articulated interplay between the trumpet, trombone and wind symphony. There is a stately chorale in the woodwinds that opens section two. The trombone adds itself to this material culminating in a short cadenza leading up to the third section. Section three is a basic recap of the opening material, but this time the soloists work the themes into a canon. There is a brief return of the chorale, this time for full ensemble, and then a fast coda reiterating the work's various rhythmic elements."

Before deciding on music as a career, Philadelphian Joseph Willcox Jenkins (b. 1928) received a pre-law degree at St. Joseph's College. Jenkins studied composition under Vincent Persichetti at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. He earned his Bachelor and Masters of Music degrees at the Eastman School of Music and his Doctorate at the Catholic University of America. Jenkins began his musical career as a composer and arranger for the United States Army Field Bands and the Armed Forces Network. He is Professor of Theory and Composition at Duquesne University, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1960. He has received numerous prestigious commissions and has nearly 200 original compositions, works for band, orchestra, chorus, solo instruments and theatrical pieces, plus hundreds more vocal and instrumental arrangements to his credit. The ASCAP Serious Music Award has been awarded annually to Jenkins for nearly two consecutive decades.

American Overture for Band was written for the U.S. Army Field Band in 1953 and was the composer's first band work. It's slightly unorthodox instrumentation reflects the personnel of the ensemble for which it was composed. It is considered truly a "band classic" and is a staple of band libraries worldwide.

David Gillingham earned Bachelor and Master Degrees in Instrumental Music Education from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and the PhD in Music Theory/Composition from Michigan State University. Dr. Gillingham has an international reputation for the works he has written for band and percussion. Many of these works are now considered standards in the repertoire. His commissioning schedule dates well into the first decade of the 21st century. His numerous awards include the 1981 DeMoulin Award for Concerto for Bass Trombone and Wind Ensemble and the 1990 International Barlow Competition (Brigham Young University) for Heroes, Lost and Fallen.

The Gower Community Band of St. John's, NL, CANADA Edsel Bonnell, Director, commissioned the Concerto for Horn and Symphonic Band. The concerto is cast in the usual three-movement format with the first and last movements structured in sonata-rondo design. The work is not intended to be programmatic, but titles have been given to each of the movements which allude to a musical style or mood.

The first movement, Fanfares, starts slowly and mysteriously followed by an entrance by the solo horn hinting at the main thematic material to follow. This section grows to a fanfare-like conclusion and leads to the allegro section and the first theme group. The first theme group is a spirited melodic line saturated with intervals of the perfect fourth that are commonly found in traditional fanfares. The low brass follow with the second theme group that contrasts the first with a flowing and lyrical line. The solo horn then brings back the first theme group and closes the exposition. The development seeks to extensively exploit motives from both theme groups in various guises and leads to the recapitulation. In the recapitulation, the solo horn carries both the first and second theme groups. The slow tempo of the introduction returns and the horn plays a sort of quasi-cadenza that is followed by a fast and rousing coda.

Austin Seybert is a Sophomore Music Education/Performance Major at Marshall University. He is from Bridgeport, WV. Austin participates in many ensembles such as Wind Symphony and 12.0 jazz band in which he serves principal and lead chair respectively. He is also a member of Delta Omicron, a professional music fraternity here at Marshall.

Wind Journey is a piece that was written in his junior year of high school. He wanted to take the listeners on a musical journey from a simple statement to a grand finale. Austin would like to thank Dr. Michael Stroeher and Dr. Sean Parsons for their musical guidance here at Marshall and a special thanks to Mr. Barnett for this opportunity to play Wind Journey. Austin's future plans are to finish up his undergraduate degree here at Marshall and pursue a Masters and Doctoral degree in Jazz Studies. Austin's dream is to become a Trombone/Jazz Studies professor.

Satoshi Yagisawa was born in 1975 and graduated from Musashino Academia Musicae, where he completed his Master's Degree in Music. His compositional genres include orchestral, chamber and choir music. Yagisawa is active as a contest adjudicator, guest conductor, performer, and author for music magazines.

Machu Picchu- City in the Sky (The mystery of the hidden Sun Temple) a glorious mountaintop lncan city was rediscovered by Hiram Bingham, an archeologist from Yale University. At the central high point of the city stands its most important shrine, the Intihuatana, or "hitching post of the sun", a column of stone rising from a block of granite the size of a grand piano. Finding the last remaining Sun Temple of a great city inspired the belief that perhaps the royal lineage stole away to this holy place during Pizzarro's conquest for gold and the ensuing tragic encounter with the Spanish conquistadors. Three principal ideas dominate the piece: I) the shimmering golden city of Cuzco set in the dramatic scenery of the Andes, 2) the destructiveness of violent invasion, and 3) the re-emergence of lncan glory as the City in the Sky again reached for the sun.

Wind Symphony Personnel:

Callie Huff- principal, Lauren Manor, Laura Simpson, April Bennett, Aaron Sowards- piccolo, Emily Crabtree, Sean Reed, Heather Elliott, flute

Allie Hughes- 1st, Robert Heath, Hannah Bird- 2nd, Emilea Burgh, Tessa Gore, Tim Cline- 3rd, Meagan Hairston, Ashley Gilbert, bass- Rebecca Adkins, Kathryn Greer, clarinet

Adam Stephenson, bassoon

Beau Cayton- 1st, Sara Vorac- 1st, Carl Hamlin 2nd, Jason Mitchell, 2nd alto saxophone

Zack Merritt, tenor saxophone

Luke Miller, baritone saxophone

Angela Crum, Isaac Winland, Briana Blankenship, Dylan Elder, John Daniels, Drew Gladwell, Brandon Layman, Natasha Beverly, trumpet

Nick Amis, Kristen Liegy, Billy Holderby, Mindy Kelle, horn

Austin Seybert, John Galloway, Katie Ferber, Andy O'Neal, Daniel Ellis- bass, trombone

Jason Rose, euphonium

Matt Kelly, Adam Phillips, Shirelle Yuhase, tuba

Matt Jarvis, Jenna Palmer, Amy Holliday, Levi Billiter, Clark Littlepage, James Hairston, Robert Kelley, Neal Titus, percussion

Rebecca Harrison, string bass

Nicole McComas, piano

Note

Smith Recital Hall

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Fine Arts | Music | Music Performance

Marshall University Music Department Presents the Wind Symphony, Spring Concert, Steven R. Barnett, conductor

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