University Band Concert

February 28, 2019

Alexander Gonzalez, conductor
Brent Levine, guest conductor
Joseph Carver, PhD, guest conductor

8 p.m. • Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019

1866 College Rd
Columbus, OH
 

PROGRAM

Illumination

David Maslanka (1943–2017)

From the composer:

“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.

Grainger Suite

Percy Aldridge Grainger  (1882–1961)

"Ye Banks and Braes O' Bonnie Doon"
"I'm Seventeen Come Sunday"

Ye Banks and Braes O' Bonnie Doon — Percy Aldridge Grainger, like John Hartmann, was keenly interested in the folksongs of the British Isles. Born in Australia, he spent his early professional life in England but moved to America at the onset of World War I. In 1905, he made the first of many trips to the English countryside to collect and document tunes sung by the local villagers. Over the course of his career, Grainger recorded more than 700 English and Danish folksongs and arranged dozens of them for performances by various ensembles. He delighted in the nuances and imperfections rendered by each singer and preserved the tunes in their natural state, with irregular meters and the unique interpretations of the original singers. “Ye Banks and Braes o’ Bonnie Doon” is a Scottish folksong with words by Robert Burns. Burns’ poem contrasts the happy singing of a “bonnie bird” with love’s disappointment as the narrator tells how “my fause lover staw the rose, but left the thorn wi’ me.” Grainger carefully scored the band version to balance melodic and accompaniment parts in a warm setting.

I’m Seventeen Come Sunday — Grainger’s choice of this well-known English folksong preceded the Ralph Vaughan Williams military band arrangement by nine years. Common as a broadside (sheet music) as well as in aural tradition, the “amorous encounter” song was more popular with singers than with collectors, who often considered such lyrics unfit or unworthy of publication. It comes from Mr. Fred Atkinson of Redbourne, a small village in Lincolnshire, in 1905.

O, as I rose up one May morning,
One May morning so wurly (early),
I overtook a pretty fair maid,
Just as the sun was dawnin’.
(Chorus) with me rue rum ray, fother didle ay, wok fol air didle ido.

Her stockin’s white, and her boots were bright,
And her buckling shone like silver:
She had a dark and a rolling eye,
And her hair hung round her shoulder.
(Chorus) with me rue rum ray, fother didle ay, wok fol air didle ido.

So, now I have my soldier-man,
and his ways they are quite winning.
The drum and fife are my delight, and a pint of rum in the morning.
(Chorus) with me rue rum ray, fother didle ay, wok fol air didle ido.

Ticheli Suite

Frank Ticheli (b. 1958)

"Joy Revisited"
"Earth Song"

     Alexander Gonzalez, conductor

Simple Gifts: "Here Take This Lovely Flower"
Cajun Folk Songs: "Belle"

     Brent Levine, guest conductor

Joy Revisited — From the composer:

The main melody and overall mood of the work (and its companion piece, Joy) were inspired by a signal event: the birth of our first child. The intense feelings that any father would likely feel on such a day were, in my case, accompanied by a simple little tune which grabbed hold of me in the hours preceding her birth, and refused to let go throughout the day and many days thereafter. Indeed, until I jotted it down in my sketchbook, it did not release its grip.

Seven years and two children later, I stumbled upon that old sketch and discovered (or rediscovered) that it would serve perfectly as the foundation for a joy-filled concert band overture.

Earth Song — From the composer:

“Earth Song" is one of only a few works that I have composed without a commission. Instead, it sprung out of a personal need during a time when so many in this country, including myself, were growing disillusioned with the war in Iraq. I felt a strong impulse to create something that would express my own personal longing for peace.

It was this longing which engendered the poem’s creation. Normally, I would spend countless hours, weeks, perhaps months, searching for the perfect poem to set. But in this case, I knew I had to write the poem myself, partly because it is not just a poem, but a prayer, a plea, a wish—a bid to find inner peace in a world that seems eternally bent on war and hatred.

But also, the poem is a steadfast declaration of the power of music to heal. In the end, the speaker in the poem discovers that, through music, he is the embodiment of hope, peace, the song within the Song. Perhaps music has the power not only to nurture inner peace, but also to open hearts and ears in a world that desperately needs love and listening.”

Sing, Be, Live, See...
This dark stormy hour,
The wind, it stirs.
The scorched earth cries out in vain:
O war and power,
You blind and blur.
The torn heart cries out in pain.
But music and singing
Have been my refuge,
And music and singing
Shall be my light.
A light of song
Shining strong: Alleluia!
Through darkness, pain and strife,
I’ll Sing, Be, Live, See...

Simple Gifts: Four Shaker Songs
III.  Here Take This Lovely Flower

This movement is based on a Shaker Lullaby of the same name. It is an example of the phenomenon of the gift song — music received from spirits be Shaker mediums while in trance. Like many Shaker songs, this lullaby embodies the Shakers’ ideal of childlike simplicity. The lyrics of the lullaby are as follows:

Here take this lovely flower
Thy mother sent to thee,
Cull’d from her lovely bower
Of sweet simplicity.
O place it near thy bosom
And keep it pure and bright,
For in such lovely flowers
The angels take delight.

Cajun Folk Songs
II.  Belle

Cajuns are descendants of the Acadians, a group of early French colonists who began settling in Acadia (now Nova Scotia) around 1604. In 1755 they were driven out by the British, eventually resettling in South Louisiana. Although a rich Cajun folksong tradition exists, the music became increasingly commercialized and Americanized throughout the twentieth century, obscuring its original simplicity and directness. In response to this trend, Alan and John Lomax traveled to South Louisiana in 1934 to collect and record numerous Cajun folksongs in the field for the Archive of Folk Music in the Library of Congress. By doing so, they helped to preserve Cajun music in its original form as a pure and powerful expression of Louisiana French Society.

"Belle" is about a man who goes away to Texas only to receive word of his sweetheart's illness, forcing him to return to Louisiana. Finding her unconscious upon his return, he pawns his horse to try to save her, to no avail. The folk melody is sometimes varied rhythmically, texturally and coloristically, and an original melody (measures 12–21) is added for variety.

Prestissimo

Karl King (1891–1971)

Prestissimo contains all the musical excitement that we've come to expect from this march giant and, as a result, all the good memories and fun times we associate with the circus radiates through this classic march. Equally effective at a standard march tempo, or as an up-speed circus galop.
 

University Band

Alexander Gonzalez, conductor

Spring 2019

FLUTE
Jenna Batchelor
Mitali Dalwalla
Samantha Darr
Palina Hornaya
Claire Mills
Lauren Nemec
Chloe Patrick
Sloan Shingleton
Emily Trauntvein
Lin Ye
Linghui Zhang

CLARINET
Anna Baker
Grant Brooks
Matthew Duel
Osama Khrawesh
Emily Killian
Abby Krummel
Marissa Polito
Julia Sammartino
Courtney Shepler
Kayla Thomas
Lauren Timmins

BASS CLARINET
Jordan Gulley

ALTO SAXOPHONE
Whitney Baxter
Diana Brooks
Lily Conway
Caroline Ferro
Tom Kellett
Gavin McCracken

TENOR SAXOPHONE
Daniel Maibaum
Laurie McIlvenna
Jeremiah Oconer
Kaelyn Willingham
 
BARITONE SAXOPHONE
Gabriella Reyes
Adam Shand

BASSOON
Sarah Khoury

TRUMPET
Megan Barnes
Günther Beall
Mallory Cooper
Noah Cothern
Andrew Duffy
Noah Hollyfield
Sam Howard
Lauren Klenk
Tyler Kotaka
Katlyn Lenduay
Mitch Lyons
Eric McPherson
Alex Merrill
Elizabeth Morris
Jordan Murray
Josh Oconer
Megan Quinlan
Jacob Ryan
Spencer Topper
Jeff Turner
Derek Walker
Scott Weber
Adam Verbsky

HORN
Maren Beall
Kaitey Chervenak
Anessa DeMers
Noah Feingold
Geneviève Gray
Nik Henderson
Jillian Horan
Clark Hou
Maycee Hurd
Erica Justice
Spencer Litzenberger
Hayden Riley

TROMBONE
Chris Beard
Hannah Crosby
Nash Crosby
Andy Hack
Ethan Hardy
Melody Harrell
Thomas Henry
Jeremy Kendle
Matt Kolke
T. Joseph Nash
Johnnie Zappitelli

BASS TROMBONE
Antwan Tate

EUPHONIUM
John Christman
Carmen Greiner

TUBA
Michael Fiorita
Sean McGivern
Jacob Olivera
Dominic Polemeni-McGovern

PERCUSSION
Todd Andersen
Erin Jackson
Josh Mitchell
Ethan Ours