November 24, 2019

Russel C. Mikkelson, conductor
Brent Levine, guest conductor

GUEST ARTISTS
Katherine Borst Jones, flute
Timothy Leasure, trumpet

7:30 p.m.  •  Sunday, Nov. 24

1871 N. High St.  •  Columbus OH

Program and Notes

Spiel, opus 39 (1926)

Ernst Toch (1887–1964)

1.  Overture
2.  Idyll
3.  Buffo

Brent Levine, guest conductor

Ernst Toch was born in Leopoldstadt, Vienna. He began his musical studies by teaching himself the piano at the age of seventeen. He went on to study, music, medicine and philosophy in his adolescence. Toch finally devoted his life entirely to music after being awarded the Mozart Prize in 1913. He moved to Berlin in 1929 and became one of the most distinguished composers in Germany. In 1933, Toch was forced to immigrate to the United States, where he taught in New York. He was appointed to the faculty at the University of Southern California in 1940, where he taught and began composing music for films.

Spiel was composed for the 1926 Donaueschinger Kammermusikfest at the instigation of Paul Hindemith. It was premiered under the baton of Hermann Scherchen, a twentieth-century German conductor and champion of contemporary music.

Spiel is in three movements, Overture, Idyll and Buffo. The first is in a standard A–B–A form with the A section marked by mixed meters and bright, articulate melodies, while the B section contrasts with flowing lyricism. The second movement is in ternary form (A–B–A), and features a prominent oboe solo throughout. It is the most romantic of the three movements, harkening back to the musical ideals of the prior musical era, an aesthetic that many other contemporary composers of the time were trying to extinguish. The last movement is boisterous and playful. Written in sonata form, it carries with it a satirical, almost showman-like quality, somewhat akin to a circus band.

—Note by Brent Levine

Masks and Machines (2015)

Paul Dooley (b. 1983)

I.   Quarter Note = 132
II.  Quarter Note = 56
III. Half Note = 84

Masks and Machines (2015) was commissioned by a consortium of wind bands organized by Timothy Shade in honor of Gary Green's retirement from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.  Masks and Machines is inspired by the early twentieth century works of Bauhaus artist Oskar Schlemmer, and the Neoclassical music of Igor Stravinsky.  I admire the simplicity of shapes and color in Schlemmer's works such as the "Bauhaus Stairway" and "Triadic Ballet" as well as the renaissance and baroque musical influences in Stravinsky's "Pulcinella."  Masks and Machines contains three contrasting character pieces featuring renaissance brass music, Baroque fortspinnung in virtuosic mallet percussion, lush oboe, clarinet and bassoon solos, and machine-like flute rips.

—Note by Paul Dooley

Symphony in B-flat (1951)

Paul Hindemith (1895–1963)

1.  Moderately Fast, with Vigor
2.  Andante Grazioso
3.  Fugue (rather broad)

Paul Hindemith is a colossus of the 20th-century musical scene.  He served as Professor of Composition at the Academy of Music in Berlin (1927 to 1940) and was appointed to the faculty at the Yale University School of Music in 1940, where he taught for the remainder of his life.  His famous work, The Craft of Musical Composition, published in 1937, is the most comprehensive theory of harmony text ever devised.  In addition to his many heralded compositions for band and orchestra, Hindemith is known for having written at least one sonata work for every instrument of the orchestra (string, brass, and woodwind), each of which he was able to perform at artists level-a stunning testament to his legendary creative genius and musical craftsmanship.

Symphony in B-flat was composed at the request of Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Curry, conductor of the United States Army Band, and was premiered in Washington, D.C. on April 5, 1951, with the composer conducting.  Its three movements offer what is perhaps the most beautifully crafted contrapuntal writing ever conceived for winds.  Hindemith’s musical materials, laced with chromaticism, actualize a brilliant synergy between the intellectual and spiritual components of music.

Child Moon (2017)

Aaron Perrine (b. 1979)

Katherine Borst Jones, flute
Timothy Leasure, trumpet

Child Moon began with a phone call from Patrick Reynolds, conductor of the University of Dayton Symphonic Wind Ensemble. He, along with Peggy Taulbee, was interested in commissioning a work to honor the life of Peggy’s late daughter, Leslie Taulbee Waddell. I graciously accepted, though I was unsure of how I would go about writing such a piece.

Fortunately, Peggy and Patrick shared much about Leslie. I learned of her passion for life as well as her deep connection to music (Leslie played trumpet in the University of Dayton Symphonic Wind Ensemble, while her mother has played flute for years). Most importantly, though, I learned of her love for her two young daughters, Elise and Emma. After Leslie’s passing, her daughters continued to speak with her whenever they saw the moon. In their eyes, the moon was most certainly heaven.
This touching story of the girls and the moon stuck with me as I began to formulate ideas for the work. At about the same time I rather serendipitously discovered Carl Sandburg’s poem, Child Moon. Besides the obvious connection to Elise and Emma, the imagery in Child Moon helped me clarify my thoughts and feelings at a time when I was struggling to do so. Further, the poetry assisted with the structure of the composition: one last conversation between mother and daughter.

The child’s wonder
At the old moon
Comes back nightly.
She points her finger
To the far silent yellow thing
Shining through the branches
Filtering on the leaves a golden sand,
Crying with her little tongue, “See the moon!”
And in her bed fading to sleep
With babblings of the moon on her little mouth.

— Carl Sandburg (1916)

— Note by Aaron Perrine

Petals of Fire (2017)

Zhou Tian (b. 1981)

Petals of Fire is a fierce and colorful rhapsody inspired by American artist Cy Twombly’s 1989 painting of the same title. Part of the work was adapted from a movement of my Concerto for Orchestra. I’ve always been interested in learning how artists mix different styles and techniques to create a unique, new look. Inspired by Twombly’s attempt to combine text and color to express himself visually (literally, words are part of his painting, much like what Chinese painters did during the Song dynasty), I, as a composer, wanted to create a fusion of musical styles, harmony, and timbre, using a large wind ensemble. In a way, everyone in the ensemble is a “petal”: together, the fire glows, disappears, and dances…

— Note by Zhou Tian

The Ohio State University Wind Symphony

Russel C. Mikkelson, conductor

Autumn 2019

PICCOLO
Jiwoon Choi
Peyton Sandri

FLUTE
Peyton Sandri *
Alex Goad
Yuanzhu Chen
Daniel Zipin
Alison Addie
Grace Forrai

OBOE
Andrew Gresham *
Suzanne Jennison
Esther Krumm

ENGLISH HORN
Suzanne Jennison

BASSOON
Jesse Schartz *
Eric Tyler Barga
Dustin Gourley
Nate Centa

CONTRABASSOON
Dustin Gourley
Nate Centa

Eb CLARINET
Vanessa Klassen

CLARINET
Alyssa Powell *
David Brigle
Vanessa Klassen
Erin Dowler
Michael Blaha
Logan Howe
Gabrielle Valladares
Nathan Murta
Noah Wise
William Erickson

BASS CLARINET
Austin Suarez
William Erickson

CONTRABASS CLARINET
William Erickson

ALTO SAXOPHONE
Francesca Wantuch *
Kevin Ruppert

TENOR SAXOPHONE
Lindsay Smithson

BARITONE SAXOPHONE
Logan Wright

HORN
Benjamin Hottensmith *
Trevor Healy
Anna Dorey
Greg Eberwine
Cameron Reed

TRUMPET
Alex Sanso *
Brooklynn Howell *
Daniel Brinker
Luke Bingham
Vanessa Rivera
Kaity Catalfina

TROMBONE
Jeremy Smith *
Jake Pauley
Melody Harrell

BASS TROMBONE
Zach Irwin

EUPHONIUM
Sean O’Brien *
Seth Champion
Grant Booth

TUBA
Jocelyn Smallwood *
Bennett Deshotels
Bradley Krak

PERCUSSION
Joseph Spearman
Amelia DuPlain
Ben Shaheen
Hannah Moore
Justin Monroe
Alex Brudnicki

DOUBLE BASS
Dallas Carpenter

PIANO
Changyue Liu

HARP
Nathan Hay
Jillian Davis

* principal

Band Department Personnel