Illinois State University College of Fine Arts School of Music ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Wind Symphony Martin H. Seggelke, conductor Amy Mikalauskas, graduate conductor Center for the Performing Arts Monday Evening April 6, 2015 8:00 p.m. This is the one hundred and fifty-ninth program of the 2014-2015 season. Program Please silence all electronic devices for the duration of the concert. Thank you. Funeral Music for Queen Mary (1992) Threnos (1998) Henry Purcell (1659-1695) edited by Steven Stucky (born 1949) Steven Stucky Fictions IV (2015) Laura Schwartz (born 1991) ~World Premiere~ Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920, rev. 1947) Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) Program Notes Welcome to Illinois State University! Thank you for joining us for today’s performances of the ISU University Band and ISU Wind Symphony. We hope that you will enjoy our concert, and that you might consider joining us again for future performances here at the ISU School of Music. Please visit http://www.bands.illinoisstate.edu for more information. Thank you for your support! Henry Purcell (1659-1695) was an English composer and was one of England's greatest and most original composers. When he was eighteen years old, he was appointed to the Chapel Royal as a composer and became organist of the chapel five years later. His official duties led him composing of a large amount of church music. He also wrote much theater music, short opera masterpieces for school performances, popular songs, and a large quantity of instrumental music for harpsichord and string instruments. A prominent feature of Purcell's music is a vigorous and steadily moving bass line, an idiom heard throughout the remainder of the Baroque period -Biography courtesy Wind Repertory Project Funeral Music for Queen Mary (1992) It was at the suggestion of Esa-Pekka Salonen that I transcribed this music of Purcell for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. I used three of the pieces heard at the funeral of Mary II of England, who died of smallpox on 28 December 1694: a solemn march, the anthem "In the Midst of Life We Are in Death," and a canzona in imitative polyphonic style. In working on the project I did not try to achieve a pure, musicological reconstruction but, on the contrary, to regard Purcell's music, which I love deeply, through the lens of three hundred intervening years. Thus, although most of this version is straightforward orchestration of the Purcell originals, there are moments when Purcell drifts out of focus. My version was first performed in Los Angeles on 6 February 1992. - Program notes courtesy of the composer Steven Stucky (born 1949) has an extensive catalog of compositions ranging from large-scale orchestral works to a cappella miniatures for chorus. He is also active as a conductor, writer, lecturer and teacher, and for 21 years he enjoyed a close partnership with the Los Angeles Philharmonic: in 1988 André Previn appointed him composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and later he became the orchestra’s consulting composer for new music, working closely with Esa-Pekka Salonen. Commissioned by the orchestra, his Second Concerto for Orchestra brought him the Pulitzer Prize in music in 2005. Steven Stucky has taught at Cornell University since 1980 and now serves as Given Foundation Professor of Composition. He has also taught at the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of California (Berkeley). A world-renowned expert on Lutosławski’s music, he is a recipient of the Lutosławski Society’s medal. He is a frequent guest at colleges and conservatories, and his works appear on the programs of the world’s major orchestras. -Biography courtesy of the composer Threnos (1998), ('lamentation,' 'dirge') was commissioned by Marice Stith and the Cornell University Wind Ensemble in memory of my colleague and friend Brian Israel, an American composer of enormous gifts who was taken by leukemia at the age of thirty-five. The music is dominated by three elements: the forceful arpeggiated gesture heard in the horns at the opening; the constant tolling of bells, both literal-piano, vibraphone, chimes, etc.and figurative; and a fragment of lament-like melody first heard in the solo oboe near the beginning. At its climax, the music takes up this oboe melody in a full-throated cry of grief. Threnos was completed in January 1988 and first performed in Ithaca, New York, on March 6th of the same year. -Program notes courtesy of the composer Laura Schwartz (born 1991) is a composer and horn player who grew up in Southern California. She attended the University of California, Davis (B.A. in Music 2013), where she studied primarily with Laurie San Martin, Sam Nichols, and Ross Bauer. Laura is interested in action-based music that explores visual movement as a foundation element of the compositional process. In 2014, her piece Disjunct was performed during the Oregon Bach Festival Composer’s Symposium. Recent collaborations include Fictions I-III with flutist Sarah Pyle and animator Shayna Schwartz. In 2014-2015, she won the first ISU Large Ensemble Contest for her piece Fictions IV. She is completing her Master’s degree in Music Composition at Illinois State University and studies with Martha Horst and Roy Magnuson. Laura lives in Bloomington, Illinois with her fraternal twin sister. -Biography courtesy of the composer Fictions: IV (2015) is a part of a larger collection of works that take inspiration from the format of literary novels and short stories. Narratives, characters, and the underlying manifestations of philosophical ideas are used as a basis to create musical novels. I refer to them as “sonic realties”. Fictions: IV’s foundation is the question “Does music change when tonal bias created by a western education is recognized?” Building on this question, Fictions: IV’s narrative presents all sound as cyclical. Despite developing and changing, it always returns to its original form. The beginning will always match the end even if the middle is different. The characters are the sound qualities of white noise, which can be harsh or pleasant. These characteristics, being foils, are intrinsically linked. -Program notes courtesy of the composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) began studying piano when he was nine years old, but was far from a prodigy. Much like Tchaikovsky, he was urged by his parents to study law, and he did in fact enroll at St. Petersburg University. This early training served him well in later years when he became known as the most litigious of composers, and thus helped him in his many business dealings. When he was twenty years old he showed his budding work to a friend of his father’s — composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Rimsky-Korsakov took Stravinsky on as his pupil, providing him with much guidance and discipline that Stravinsky had not had to this point. Under Rimsky-Korsakov’s tutelage, Stravinsky was exposed to the music of many different composers and met many artists, writers, and musicians. Around 1908, the ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev commissioned Stravinsky to write music for his Paris series of the Ballet Russes: The Firebird is the piece that resulted from this commission, and Stravinsky’s name became famous. Following hot on the heels of The Firebird came Petrouchka and the scandalous Le Sacre du Printemps. Stravinsky’s international fame was assured by these works, and he never lost the reputation for being one of the most brilliant composers of the twentieth century. For nearly fifty years, Stravinsky toured the world as a concert pianist and then as a conductor, partly for the money, but also to assure performances of his own works. In 1945, he became an American citizen and settled in Hollywood, California. In 1969, he moved to New York to be closer to the medical facilities he depended upon. Stravinsky died of pneumonia in New York on April 6, 1971. -Biography courtesy of Wind Repertory Project Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920, rev. 1947) In 1908, on the death of his beloved teacher Rimsky-Korsakoff, Igor Stravinsky responded by composing a work in his memory which was conceived in terms of instrumental ritual and which he afterwards remembered as the best work of his early period – the Chante funèbre – later, unfortunately, lost. Ten years later, the death of his admired colleague, mentor and friend Debussy caused him to write another memorial composition which stands among his most characteristic and influential masterpieces – the Symphonies of Wind Instruments, dedicated “To the memory of Claude Achille Debussy”. The work is not a ‘symphony’ in the accustomed sense; Stravinsky went back to the word’s ancient connotation of groups of instruments sounding together, and used the plural to indicate that the music is made up of several of these instrument colloquies. He described it at various times as ‘a grand chant, an objective cry’, and ‘an austere ritual which is unfolded in terms of short litanies between different groups of homogenous instruments’. The overall form of the piece is an apparent challenge to all previously accepted canons of musical architecture. It is a kind of mosaic, made out of discrete blocks of contrasting material, separate yet interlocking, in different but closely related tempi. These are shuffled, juxtaposed or intercut without modulation or transition, culminating in the ineffably severe calm of the concluding chorale. Stravinsky had already explored the potential of such ‘antisymphonic’ discontinuity in The Rite of Spring and Les Noces, but the Symphonies of Wind Instruments raises it to a new level. The scoring, which associates each idea with a different grouping of instruments, enhances the impression. Yet paradoxically, at the smallest level, the melodic and harmonic cells out of which the music is spun work across the surface divisions of the work, lending it a kind of secret organic continuity. Stravinsky’s description of the music as a ‘ritual’ however gives the clue to its expressive nature: this is an instrumental liturgy, a burial service, the chorale rounding off the proceedings in something like a Byzantine Alleluia. In this sense, Symphonies of Wind Instruments is a forerunner of such later Stravinsky works as the Mass and Requiem Canticles. The first performance of the complete work was given at the Queen’s Hall in London on June 10, 1921, conducted by Serge Koussevitsky as part of a series of Russian Festival Concerts. The original version of 1920 was never finalized for publication except in piano reduction. In 1945, Stravinsky made a revised version, published in 1947, for a slightly different ensemble, dropping the two ‘exotics’ of the original scoring, the alto flute in G and the alto clarinet in F. He also changed some of the music, added a few bars, entirely re-thought the rhythmic articulation, and re-barred the entire work, breaking down its larger irregular phrases into simpler units. It is in this form that the Symphonies of Wind Instruments has entered the repertoire. Stravinsky first conducted the Symphonies of Wind Instruments in his completely rewritten 1947 version of the music at Town Hall, New York, April 11, 1948. After the performance, his friend Stark Young, the novelist and former drama critic for The New York Times, wrote to him: ‘I am wondering how these incredible patterns of form and tone appear to any soul, how can the wonder and beauty of what you say come to anyone like that. All the miracles of the ancient, barbaric, passionate world are there, and all of the human heart is there.” -Program notes courtesy of Malcolm MacDonald and Robert Craft Wind Symphony Personnel Dr. Martin H. Seggelke, conductor Amy Mikalauskas, graduate conductor Flute Miranda DeBretto Daniel Gallagher Mark Grigoletti Pam Schuett* Casey Sukel Oboe Linnea Couture David Merz* Terri Rogers Bassoon Veronica Dapper* Matt Jewell Contrabassoon Aston Karner Clarinet Brian Do Jenny Dudlak Beth Hildenbrand* Marissa Poel Colby Spengler Bileshia Sproling Nuvee Thammikasakul Bass Clarinet Cassie Wieland Contrabass Clarinet Andy Lucas Saxophone Jeff Blinks Amy Mikalauskas* Alex Pantazi Tre Wherry Trumpet Eli Denecke* Nicole Gillotti Sean Hack Robin Heltsley Michael Pranger Ginny Ulbricht Trombone Aaron Gradberg Jordan Harvey Wm. Riley Leitch* Bass Trombone James Mahowald Euphonium Morgan McWethy Sam Stauffer* Tuba Alex Hill* Jason Lindsey Percussion Francis Favis Elliott Godinez Kevin Greene Matt James Mallory Konstans* Kyle Singer String Bass Laura Bass Ana Miller Piano Seung-Kyung Baek Horn Jack Gordon Kevin Krivosik Laura Makara Nelson Ruiz* Acknowledging the important contributions of all ensemble members, this list is in alphabetical order. *Denotes Section Leader THANK YOU Illinois State University College of Fine Arts James Major, Dean John Walker, Executive Associate Dean Sherri Zeck, Associate Dean Pete Guither, Assistant Dean Laurie Merriman, Assistant Dean Janet Tulley, Assistant Dean Illinois State University School of Music A. Oforiwaa Aduonum, ethnomusicology Allison Alcorn, music history Debra Austin, voice Mark Babbitt, trombone Daniel Belongia, associate director of bands Glenn Block, orchestra & conducting Connie Bryant, bands administrative clerk Karyl K. Carlson, director of choral activities Renee Chernick, piano David Collier, percussion & associate director Andrea Crimmins, music therapy Peggy Dehaven, office support specialist Judith Dicker, oboe Michael Dicker, bassoon Geoffrey Duce, pano Tom Faux, ethnomusicology Angelo Favis, graduate coordinator & guitar Sarah Gentry, violin Amy Gilreath, trumpet David Gresham, clarinet Mark Grizzard, men’s glee club Christine Hansen, academic advisor Kevin Hart, jazz studies & theory Martha Horst, theory & composition Mona Hubbard, office manager Joshua Keeling, theory & composition John Michael Koch, vocal arts coordinator Shela Bondurant Koehler, music education William Koehler, string bass & music education Adriana La Rosa Ransom, cello Marie Labonville, musicology Katherine J. Lewis, viola Roy D. Magnuson, theory Joseph Manfredo, music education Leslie A. Manfredo, choir, music education Tom Marko, director of jazz studies Rose Marshack, music business & arts technology Joe Matson, musicology & music history Kimberly McCord, music education Carren Moham, voice Carlyn Morenus, piano Joe Neisler, horn Paul Nolen, saxophone Maureen Parker, administrative clerk Stephen B. Parsons, director Frank R. Payton, Jr., music education Kim Risinger, flute Cindy Ropp, music therapy Andy Rummel, euphonium & tuba Tim Schachtschneider, facilities manager Carl Schimmel, composition Daniel Peter Schuetz, voice Martin H. Seggelke, director of bands Matthew Smith, arts technology David Snyder, music education Ben Stiers, percussion & assistant director of bands Tuyen Tonnu, piano & accompanying Rick Valentin, arts technology Justin Vickers, voice & musicology Michelle Vought, voice Sharon Walsh, advisor Band Graduate Teaching Assistants Aaron Gradberg, Josh Hernday, Beth Hildenbrand, Amy Mikalauskas, Nelson Ruiz, Shannon Shaffer Upcoming Illinois State University Large Instrumental Ensemble Performances Details and links to tickets at www.bands.ilstu.edu Jazz Combos Concert Wednesday, April 8, 2015 Center for the Performing Arts 8:00 P.M. Jazz Ensembles Concert Thursday, April 16, 2015 Center for the Performing Arts 8:00 P.M. 2015 State of Illinois Junior High Concert Band Festival Saturday, April 18, 2015 Center for the Performing Arts All Day Symphonic Winds Concert Sunday, April 19, 2015 Center for the Performing Arts 3:00 P.M. University Band and Symphonic Band Concert Thursday, April 23, 2015 Center for the Performing Arts 8:00 P.M. 2015 State of Illinois High School Concert Band Festival Friday & Saturday, April 24-25, 2015 Center for the Performing Arts All Day Wind Symphony Concert Sunday, April 26, 2015 Center for the Performing Arts 5:00 P.M. Visit the School of Music website for more upcoming events: http://finearts.illinoisstate.edu/events/
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