Wind Ensemble and University Singers Concert to be live streamed TONIGHT!
Follow this link www.ustream.tv/discovery/live/all?q=uofa-som
The University of Alabama College of Arts & Sciences School of Music presents The University of Alabama Wind Ensemble and University Singers on Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Moody Music Building on the campus of The University of Alabama. The program will include “Festive Overture, Opus 96″ by Dmitri Shostakovich, “George Washington Bridge” by William Schuman featuring Michael A. Guzman, Doctoral Conducting Associate, “Symphony No. 1 “The Lord of the Rings” by Johan de Meij, “Manhattan Beach” by John Philip Sousa, “American Salute” by Morton Gould, “The Cowboys” by John Williams, Songs from “An Alabama Songbook” by Donald Grantham and “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” by René Clausen.
This event is FREE and open to the public. For more information visit http://music.ua.edu/calendar-of-events/ or call 205-348-1477.
The University of Alabama, a student-centered research university, is experiencing significant growth in both enrollment and academic quality. This growth, which is positively impacting the campus and the state’s economy, is in keeping with UA’s vision to be the university of choice for the best and brightest students. UA, the state’s flagship university, is an academic community united in its commitment to enhancing the quality of life for all Alabamian
Program Notes
The story behind the creation of the Festive Overture is one of those fantastic tales that reveals the true nature of a composer’s genius, leaving all of the eye-witnesses shaking their heads in wonder. Shostakovich’s friend Lev Lebedinsky related the story of how while visiting with the composer at the composer’s apartment one day in the fall of 1954, a conductor visited them from the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra. Due to mysterious political maneuverings and bureaucratic snafus, the orchestra needed a new work to celebrate the October Revolution, and the concert was in three days. Shostakovich had his friend Lebedinsky sit down next to him and began to compose. Lebedinsky relates:
“The speed with which he wrote was truly astounding. Moreover, when he wrote light music he was able to talk, make jokes and compose simultaneously, like the legendary Mozart. He laughed and chuckled, and in the meanwhile work was under way and the music was being written down.”
There is not a trace of haste or carelessness in the vibrant Festive Overture. Shostakovich always composed at a fast pace, writing down the notes with superhuman facility. We will never know whether or not he employed musical ideas that were already lurking in his imagination, or whether the entire work was simply an instantaneous flash of inspiration. It is amusing however to think of Shostakovich “laughing and chuckling” as he composed, for it is easy to imagine the pervasiveness of the composer’s good humor driving this energetic, truly festive work. Incidentally, Shostakovich, who was known to have had shaky nerves when asked to guest conduct, conducted an orchestra professionally on only one occasion, at a concert organized by his friend Mstislav Rostropovich in 1962. Shostakovich opened the concert with his Festive Overture.
Of George Washington Bridge, the composer, William Schuman writes:
“There are a few days in the year when I do not see George Washington Bridge. I pass it on my way to work as I drive along the Henry Hudson Parkway on the New York shore. Ever since my student days when I watched the progress of its construction, this bridge has had for me an almost human personality, and this personality is astonishingly varied, assuming different moods depending on the time of day or night, the weather, the traffic and, of course, my own mood as I pass by. I have walked across it late at night when it was shrouded in fog, and during the brilliant sunshine hours of midday. I have driven over it countless times and passed under it on boats. Coming to New York City by air, sometimes I have been lucky enough to fly right over it. It is difficult to imagine a more gracious welcome or dramatic entry to the great metropolis.” William Schuman served on the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College in Broxville, New York from 1935-1945. In 1944, the noted music publisher, G. Schirmer, Inc, appointed Schuman Director of Publications, where he remained even after being appointed as President of the prestigious Julliard School in New York, New York. Schuman was awarded the first Pulitzer Prize ever given in the field of musical composition in 1943. He left Julliard in 1961 to become the President of Lincoln Center, a position he held until 1969.
Symphony No. 1 “The Lord of the Rings” is based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s best-selling novels of the same name. Symphony No. 1 was Johan de Meijs’ first substantial composition for the wind band and received the Sudler Composition Award in 2001. Hobbits is the fifth and final movement of the symphony and expresses the carefree and optimistic character of the Hobbits in a happy folk dance followed by a hymn that emanates the determination and noblesse of the hobbit folk. The symphony does not end on an exuberant note, but is concluded peacefully and resigned, in keeping with the symbolic mood of the last chapter in the book “The Grey Havens” in which Frodo and Gandalf sail away in a white ship and disappear slowly beyond the horizon. Johan de Meij studied trombone and conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague. His catalogue of compositions and arrangements of film scores and musicals have brought him international acclaim.
John Philip Sousa composed Manhattan Beach march in 1893 to commemorate the Sousa Band’s annual performance at the Manhattan Beach Park resort. In the late 19th century, Manhattan Beach was a very popular summer resort for New Yorkers. Foremost among the musical attractions at Manhattan Beach was the Sousa Band’s annual performances. When Sousa was leader of the
U.S. Marine Band, he had begun the practice of composing a march unique to a particular performance or venue. This march was from the Sousa Band’s July-August engagement at Manhattan Beach. Sousa’s Band was one of the great concert attractions of all time, and while he is most venerated for his more than 132 contributions to the march repertory, his band actually marched but a total of 7 times in its 39 year existence. Marching or not, Sousa was indeed the “March King” and Manhattan Beach is one of the brightest-shining jewels in his famous crown.
Morton Gould showed signs of musical talent at a very early age. He began to play piano when he was four years old, published a composition at the age of six, and was engaged to play piano over radio station WOR in New York when he was seven. He was only 18 when he joined the musical staff of the Radio City Music Hall. Gould’s music is unique in its Americanism and in the seemingly endless wealth of creativity displayed by the composer. Like much of his music, American Salute is semi-serious in nature, and reflects Gould’s uncanny skill in the thematic development. Originally written for orchestra and transcribed for band, American Salute is a fine example of both Gould’s sophisticated writing for the orchestra and his instinct for achieving broad appeal. Using “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” for melodic resources, he contrives a brilliant fantasy. Popular with most Americans, “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” was originally written by Patrick Gilmore during the American Civil War. Also celebrated as a composer for Broadway, film and television, American Salute is, by far, Gould’s most popular work. The composer attended a performance of the piece, given by the United States Military Academy Concert Band, on the last evening of his life.
ALABAMA WIND ENSEMBLE
KENNETH B. OZZELLO, CONDUCTOR
RANDALL O. COLEMAN, ASSOCIATE CONDUCTOR
UNIVERSITY SINGERS
JOHN RATLEDGE, CONDUCTOR
The Cowboys (1972) John Williams
(b. 1932)
In a career that has spanned more than five decades composing musical scores to films, composer John Williams has scored fewer than five Westerns, which judging from this exemplary work for the 1972 score for the film of the same name, seems something of a shame. The Cowboys is the story of a tough veteran cowpoke, portrayed by John Wayne, who is helping to bring a group of inexperienced young hands to manhood on a cattle drive in the American “Wild West”. Williams offers a robust, brassy score that leans heavily on the composers’ heavy influence from another American composer, Aaron Copland.
From “An Alabama Songbook” (2007) Donald Grantham
(b. 1947)
I. Bower of Races/Acorns Grow on White Oak Trees
II. Go To Sleepy
III. Straw Boss and Gandy Dancers Song
IV. Honey in the Rock
V. Walk Tom Walker
Donald Grantham is the Centennial Professor of Composition at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, and is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes in composition, including the Prix Lili Boulanger and a Guggenheim Fellowship. From An Alabama Songbook was commissioned in 2007 by a consortium of schools in the state of Alabama, led by the University of Alabama Bands to commemorate the publication of An Alabama Songbook, which is a collection of folksongs, ballads and spirituals indigenous to the state of Alabama. Alabama is a state rich in folksong tradition, from old English ballads sung along the Tennessee River to children’s game songs played in Mobile, from the rhythmic work songs of the railroad “gandy dancers” to the spirituals of the Black Belt. The musical heritage of our state, rich and poor, hill folk and cotton farmers, these songs endure as a living part of our states historic past. Grantham arranged seven of these timeless gems in his classic work for the modern wind band.
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (2008) René Clausen
(b. 1953)
Movement I. Roger Dean Publishing 45/1160R-1
Movement II.
Movement III.
Movement IV.
Movement V.
University Singers
John Ratledge, Conductor
Camille Sonnier, Soprano
During the late evening of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere made his famous midnight ride to Lexington to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that the British were coming. General Gage wanted the invasion from Boston to Concord to be kept secret, but Revere had a different goal: he wanted to give Adams and Hancock time to flee before the British arrived.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s well-known poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” was written in the early 1860′s, eighty-five years after the actual event occurred. Some of the details in the poem were exaggerated, but Longfellow was not interested in history; however, he wanted to show Americans that the actions of a single man can have a significant impact on the outcome of events.
René Clausen is currently on faculty at Concordia College, where he conducts the Concordia Choir. He graduated in 1974 from St. Olaf College, and received a Master of Music Performance and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Illinois, Urbana. He is also a renowned composer, arranger, guest conductor, and lecturer. Clausen’s The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere was commissioned and premiered by Eastern New Mexico University in 2008. Clausen used a great deal of text painting throughout the work to evoke the drama. Each of the five movements invoke the excitement of the horse ride as well as the quiet of the streets, the beauty of the night, the history of the rickety old bell tower, and the breathless excitement as the message is delivered.
Sources used to compile program notes: Roger Dean Publishing Company, “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Staci Swedeen, biography of Dr. René Clausen found on the Concordia College website.
I.
Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,–
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.”
Then he said “Good-night!” and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.
Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street
Wanders and watches, with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore.
II.
Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade,–
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town
And the moonlight flowing over all.
III.
Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel’s tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, “All is well!”
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay,–
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.
IV.
Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse’s side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! As he looks, on the belfry’s height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns.
V.
A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.
It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer’s dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.
It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.
It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket ball.
You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,—
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.
So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,—
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.
Text by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)