Symphonic Band Concert 4/17/24

Note from the conductor

Welcome to this final performance of the academic year by the musicians of the Ohio State Symphonic Band. We are delighted that you are here with us this evening in the Timashev Family Music Building.

This shared performance begins with music composed for groups of trumpets. Directed by our own Professor Timothy Leasure, the trumpet ensemble compositions will set your listening experience in motion.

This has been an exceptionally rich and productive semester of music making for the musicians of Symphonic Band. In addition to two on-campus performances, the ensemble also engaged in a regional tour for the School of Music’s Opus 88 Initiative and performed a session at last week’s North Central Divisional Conference of the College Band Director’s National Association (NC CBDNA) hosted at Ohio State. The musicians of Symphonic Band have performed for enthusiastic listeners in new communities, rehearsed side-by-side with high school musicians, shared meals, and performed with no fewer than eleven guest conductors this semester.

The program we share this evening reflects the diverse experiences Symphonic Band musicians have encountered this semester. You will hear music that marches, sings, questions, explores, wanders, walks, and dances. We hope you find something that you “need to hear” this evening as we share this music with you.

The end of each academic year brings the opportunity to celebrate musicians who are graduating and/or performing for the final time in concert band at Ohio State. To Alex, Zach, Hanna, Zack, Michael, Nick, Katie, Nik and Dustin, we say a deep "thank you" for your contributions as musicians and people to our university. We are better because of our time with you…

Please join the musicians for a reception in the Lower Lobby of Weigel Auditorium immediately following the performing, sponsored by the Chi Chapter of Tau Beta Sigma.

Scott A. Jones, conductor

Program

TRUMPET ENSEMBLES 

My Heart to Thee Now Makes its Plea

Orlando di Lasso, arr. Roger Sherman

Prelude and Fugue for Trumpet Choir

Eric Ewazen

Trumpet Ensemble B: Jude Abuzeide, Stephanie Brown, Luke Buzard, Will Fisher, Gabrielle Hardisky, Marlee Lawson, Connor Milner, Joung Min Oh

Fantasia

William Schmidt

Trumpet Ensemble A: Luke Bingham, Ben Dickson, Ben Guegold, Zach Heffner, Connor McMullen, Bobby Petty, Matt Pileski, Nick Schnitzspahn
 

SYMPHONIC BAND

American Overture for Band (1955, 1956/2003)

Joseph Wilcox Jenkins (1928–2014)

Composer Joseph Wilcox Jenkins earned degrees from St. Joseph's College, the Eastman School of Music, and the Catholic University of America. His composition teachers included Vincent Persichetti and Howard Hanson. For nearly 40 years, Jenkins served on the faculty at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Jenkins composed this piece, his first for concert band, in 1955 while a member of the arranging staff for the United States Army Field Band. The overture is exceptionally optimistic in its spirit and includes melodic material that is tuneful and memorable.

Contre Qui, Rose (1993/2006)

Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943) / Reynolds

Sarah Baker, conductor

The music of American composer Morten Lauridsen occupies a permanent place in the standard vocal repertoire of the 21st century. His eight complete vocal cycles, instrumental works, art songs and series of motets are performed throughout the world, and have been recorded on over two hundred CDs, including several that received Grammy nominations. For more than 50 years Lauridsen was a member of the faculty in the Thornton Schoo l of Music at the University of Southern California (USC).

Contre Qui, Rose is the second movement of a larger song cycle entitled Les Chansons des Roses. The music's unresolved harmonies reflect the questions posed by the text. The text is that of Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) whose large catalog of poetry includes more than 400 in the French language.

Against whom, rose,
Have you assumed these thorns?
Is it your too fragile joy that forced you to become this armed thing?

But from whom does it protect you, this exaggerated defense?
How many enemies have I lifted from you who do not fear it at all?
On the contrary, from summer to autumn you wound the affection that is given you.

Dreadnought (2001)

Jeffrey Brooks (b. 1956)

Jeffrey Brooks is a Minneapolis-based composer who holds compositional degrees from Yale University. His composition teachers include Martin Andriessen and Martin Bresnick. An advocate of new music, he served as Artistic Director of the American Composers Forum in the early 1990s and later co-created/produced a radio program called The Composer’s Voice for Minnesota and National Public Radio.

“Dreadnought: a total absence of fear; invincible; a name given to a class of heavily armed battleships in the early part of the 20th century. These are feelings and images I had in mind as I composed this music for concert band.

This piece is essentially informed by the lessons provided by my two small children who were one year (Ronan) and three years (Adelle) at the time I started this composition. Ronan had no fears. It was something of which he had no concept. He would happily walk in front of a bus or get in a cage with a tiger.

Adelle was inventing new fears daily, trying them on, discarding some, keeping others. How did she decide these things? Where do we get our fears? What if most of our fears are invented? What If fear is a lie? What would the music sound like?”

— Note by the composer

Autumn Walk (1958)

Julian Work (1910–1995)

Dustin Ferguson, conductor

Julian Work was born in Nashville, Tennessee into a musical family. In the early 1930s he moved to New York, where he worked as a staff arranger for CBS, and became one of the first Black American composers to write for television and radio.

Autumn Walk aspires to take the listener on a sound journey, depicting musically what one may encounter out for a stroll on a crisp autumn evening. The chilling sounds of rustling leaves, the warmth of the late afternoon sun when it peers through the clouds, and even the sound of a doorbell announcing a return home can be heard in the piece. Work’s use of chromaticism is reminiscent of Impressionistic composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. He takes full advantage of the range of timbres in the wind band to create interesting combinations of colors not typically heard in music for this medium at the time it was composed.

— Note by Brandon Jones

Three Negro Dances (1933/39)

Florence Price (1987–1953), Erik Leidzén
ed. Trae Blanco

1. Rabbit Foot
2. Hoe Cake
3. Ticklin' Toes

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Florence Price was a pioneer of American composers in the early 20th century. Although many of her works would not earn recognition until after her death, the breadth of work was substantial. In 1932, her compositions Symphony in E minor as well as her Piano Sonata earned awards from the Wanamaker Foundation, which led to subsequent performances by the Chicago Symphony; thereby marking the first performance of music by a black female composer with a major orchestra.

The title comes from Ms. Price’s own pen: “In all types of Negro music, rhythm is of preeminent importance. In the dance, it is a compelling, onward-sweeping force that tolerates no interruption…All phases of truly Negro activity — whether work or play, singing or praying — are more than apt to take on a rhythmic quality.” (Program notes from Florence Price; Bryn Mawr: Theodore Presser, 1939).

Price’s use of the word Negro in the title would have been accepted as a common term until the 1960s. While many ensembles perform this music under its pseudonyms (Three Little Dances or Three Dances), retaining the composer’s intent was important in this new edition to honor its place within Price’s rich composition catalog.

— Note by Trae Blanco