Wind Symphony: "S Curves Ahead!" - 11/30/23

UCO Wind Symphony Presents: “S Curves Ahead!” -- Scott Erickson -- Schoenberg -- A Sweet Suite -- Saxophones! -- Scramjet -- Street Song -- Schmitt  -- 7:30 PM, November 30, 2023   Mitchell Hall Theatre  -- Program -- Theme and Variations, Op. 43a (1943) -- Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) -- Suite in D, Op. 29 (1889) -- Arthur Bird (1856-1923) -- I. Allegro Moderato -- II. Andante -- III. Allegretto Quasi Allegro -- IV. Allegro Con Fuoco -- Special thanks to faculty guest artist, Dr. Scott Erickson -- –INTERMISSION– Turbo Scramjet (2009) -- William Pitts (b. 1986) -- Jalon Thomas, soprano sax -- Jon Torres, alto sax -- Braeden Jermain, alto sax -- Jeffrey Stevenson, tenor sax -- Nick Cockerill, tenor sax -- Anthony DeLozier, bari sax -- Street Song (1988/1996) -- Michael Tilson Thomas (b. 1944) -- I. Slow -- II. Relaxed -- III. Moderate Swing -- Dionysiaques (1913) -- Florent Schmitt (1870-1958) -- Wind Symphony Personnel -- Flutes  -- Bryanna Louch -- Amari Kinyanjui -- Alison Horowitz -- Kayla Factor (piccolo) -- Kieran Sowerby (piccolo) -- Abbie Childers -- Oboes  -- Dr. Scott Erickson* (faculty guest) -- Richard Paulk -- Braeden Jermain (Eng. Horn) -- Nick Cockerill -- Bassoons  -- Micah Adkins -- Abbie Claussen -- Clarinets  -- Cristian Celis -- Noah Billingsley -- Fernanda Ceron -- Jace Cooper -- Roseanna Medina -- Liam Guill -- Brasen Walker -- Bass Clarinets -- Noah Billingsley -- Jeron Fishburn (contra) -- Devin Erwin-Acker (alto) -- Saxophones  -- Jeffrey Stevenson (tenor) -- Jalon Thomas (alto, soprano) -- Anthony DeLozier (bari) -- Jon Torres (alto) -- Braeden Jermain (alto) -- Nick Cockerill (tenor) -- Horns  -- Becca Geitzenauer -- Alex Hamm -- Cristalynne Burns -- Sephra Jared -- Trumpets -- Caleb Rollins -- Ryan DeWendt -- Trevor Chandler -- Noah Moey (flugelhorn) -- Laila Martinez -- Ty Clifton (flugelhorn) -- Trombones  -- Naomi Wharry -- Luke McHenry -- Mateo Rivera (bass) -- Mason Longey -- Euphonium  -- Andy Wolfe -- Lucas Haught -- Tuba  -- Riley Crow -- Cliff Muchunguzi -- String Bass -- Noah Colson # -- Percussion  -- Kyle Broadbooks -- Zach Kimber -- Trey Brabham -- Katelynn Moore -- Treven Cowherd -- Jonathan Haywood -- Calvin Forrester # -- Carl Corbitt # -- # denotes guest percussion on Turbo Scramjet -- Piano  -- Yingshi Bu -- About the Conductor -- Brian Lamb has served as the Director of Bands at the University of Central Oklahoma since 2001.  He conducts the Wind Symphony, the Symphonic Band, and the Marching Band, and teaches conducting and instrumental courses; he continues to guide all aspects of the UCO band program. Lamb made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2005, performing with UCO friend and colleague Tess Remy-Schumacher in the Weill Recital Hall. In 2006, Lamb and the UCO Wind Symphony performed for a full house in the Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall. The UCO Wind Symphony, with Lamb as conductor, has garnered international attention and acclaim from audiences, composers, and critics alike for outstanding and creative performances and for playing an active role in commissioning projects and consortiums, including work with Carter Pann, David Maslanka, Carolyn Bremer, Richard Danielpour, Michael Daugherty, Michael Colgrass, Samuel Magrill, and others. Lamb received his bachelor’s degree in music education from Baylor University, a master’s degree in trumpet performance and literature from the University of Notre Dame, and the doctor of musical arts degree in conducting from the University of North Texas. He has been fortunate to study with many outstanding musical mentors, including Eugene Corporon, Michael Haithcock, Gary Sousa, Larry Rachleff, Alan McMurray, Jack Stamp, Dennis Fisher, John Haynie, Barry Hopper, and William Scarlett. Prior to his UCO appointment, Lamb served as Director of Instrumental Studies at Southwest Baptist University and as director of bands and chairman of the fine arts department at James Bowie High School in Arlington, Texas. Still active as a trumpet performer, Lamb plays in the Redbud Brass Quintet, the UCO Faculty Brass Quintet. Lamb is active as a clinician and guest conductor all over the world, and his groups have received acclaim for performances at regional, state and national conventions.  In his 22-year tenure at UCO, the Wind Symphony has been selected to perform at three College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) Regional Conventions, and they have been the collegiate honor band at six Oklahoma Music Educators Association (OkMEA) conventions. Under Lamb’s baton, the UCO Wind Symphony has released 5 CDs on the prestigious Equilibrium label, which are available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, CDBaby, and all other relevant streaming services. He has contributed several published works to various journals and textbooks, and he is the author of “Music is Magic,” a children’s radio program that aired on KUCO-90.1 FM. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society, the College Band Directors National Association, Oklahoma Music Educators Association, Music Educators National Conference, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.  He was honored as a Friend of the Arts by Sigma Alpha Iota, he is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi, the national band service fraternity, and he is a member of the international band directors’ fraternity, Phi Beta Mu. -- Program Notes -- Arnold Schoenberg (born Vienna, 13 September 1874; died Los Angeles, 13 July 1951) began violin lessons when he was eight and almost immediately started composing, though he had no formal training until he was in his late teens, when Zemlinsky became his teacher and friend. His first acknowledged works date from the turn of the century and include the string sextet Verklärte Nacht as well as some songs, all showing influences from Brahms, Wagner and Wolf. In 1901-3 he was in Berlin as a cabaret musician and teacher, and there he wrote the symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande. He returned to Vienna and began taking private pupils such as Berg and Webern His compositional style moved in the direction of intensification of harmonic strangeness, formal complexity and contrapuntal density leading him further towards the evolution of the twelve tone method. However, Schoenberg found it possible a quarter-century later to return to something like his tonal style in such works as the Suite in G for strings, the completion of the Chamber Symphony No. 2 and the Theme and Variations, Op 43a for band. Gradually Schoenberg began writing longer instrumental structures in the 12-note serial method. In the 1920s, he returned to standard forms and genres, notably in the Suite for piano, String Quartet no.3, Orchestral Variations and several choral pieces. He also founded the Society for Private Musical Performances (1919-21), involving his pupils in the presentation of new music. In 1933,he left Berlin and moved to Paris. Later the same year, he arrived in the USA and settled in Los Angeles in 1934. It was there that he returned to tonal composition, while developing serialism. In 1936, he began teaching at UCLA and his output dwindled. After a heart attack in 1945, however, he gave up teaching and made some return to expressionism (A Survivor from Warsaw, String Trio), as well as writing religious choruses. Theme and Variations, op. 43a was composed in 1943, after numerous requests for a wind band composition from Schoenberg’s dear friend and president of G. Schirmer Music, Carl Engel. While not written in the composer’s famed twelve-tone style, Schoenberg still believed Opus 43a to be of practical and artistic significance. In a 1944 letter to Fritz Reiner, the composer stated: “…this is not one of my main works, as everybody can see, because it is not a composition with twelve tones. It is one of those compositions which one writes in order to enjoy one’s own virtuosity and, on the other hand, to give a certain group of music lovers – here it is the bands – something better to play. I can assure you – and I think I can prove it – technically this piece is a masterwork.” Although Opus 43a establishes itself clearly as a tonal work in g-minor, Schoenberg gives himself free reign to assert his mastery of the contrapuntal techniques developed in his prior twelve‐tone compositions by utilizing variation form. In order to achieve maximum diversity of character, Schoenberg clearly delineates each of the sections of the piece, giving these sections a specific melodic, orchestrational and formal framework. Not only is the melody of the theme, heard in the first twenty-one measures, developed over the course of the work’s seven variations, but background elements shift from structural scenery to predominance in the ensuing contrapuntal elaboration before the original theme reasserts itself in the climactic finale of the piece. By fracturing and passing around melody and other primary material, Schoenberg plays upon the coloristic strengths inherent in wind band instrumentation. Finally, over the course of Opus 43a the formal structure of contrapuntal development receives elaboration, so the listener hears in various sections an adagio, a waltz, a strict canon and a fugato before the final variation [a “choral fantasy”] and finale. Theme and Variations is comprised of a 21-measure theme followed by seven variations. At the onset, the composition appears to be firmly rooted in the key of G minor. However, the composer exercises his compositional mastery to create seven variations of increasing complexity which often mask the melody with various contrapuntal techniques. The original theme returns toward the end of the work, culminating in a subtle tip of the hat to George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. - Program Note from Sonoma State University Symphonic Wind Ensemble concert program, 21 March, 2018. (Biography and Program Note both accessed on WindRep.org) Arthur Homer Bird (23 July 1856, Belmont, Mass. – 22 December 1923, Berlin, Germany) was an American composer who lived most of his life in Europe. He was among the few Americans of his era whose music won approval by Europeans. Bird was also well known as a foreign correspondent, a music critic, and a pianist. In 1901 his Serenade for an octet of wind instruments won the Paderewski Prize. Arthur H. Bird first learned music from his father and uncle; both were composers and compilers of hymn tunes. In 1875 he went to Germany and studied at the Berlin Hochschule with Albert Loschhorn (piano), Karl. A. Haupt (organ), and E. Rohde. In 1877 he became organist at St. Matthew’s Church in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Bird went back to Europe in 1881 and studied music theory with Heinrich Urban in Berlin. In 1885 he went to Weimar and studied composition with Franz Liszt (who became a close friend). He was honored for his compositions at the Milwaukee Musical Festival during a short visit to America in 1886. During that same year he returned permanently to Germany and became well known after the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra gave a concert of his music. As Berlin correspondent for the Chicago journal Musical Leader, he often criticized Richard Strauss and other modern composers. Bird’s composition style was conservative. His music has been described as “richly harmonic, chromatic-tinged, lively, buoyant, cheerful, and often dance-like.” His wind chamber works were similar in style to the courtly ensembles of the previous century, In addition to one comic opera (Daphne – performed in New York on December 13, 1897), one ballet (Rubezahl – Berlin, 1886), one symphony and 12 other orchestral works, 12 chamber works, 26 piano pieces, and four organ works, Bird wrote several scores for winds, including Galop for Military Band, Nonet, Serenade, and Suite in D. (Bio accessed on WindRep.org) Suite in D, Op. 29, was composed for Paul Taffanel in 1889. It was given its American premiere by the Longy Club of Boston on February 10, 1908. Edward Burlingame wrote: This Suite is a pleasing and melodious composition. It is coherent and well-developed in form. It lies easily within the range of the instruments, and displays no little knowledge of their resources. It pleases by virtue of the simplicity, directness, and unaffected manner in which the musical thought is unfolded. On the whole this Suite is an agreeable addition to the repertory, all too slight, of effective work for wind instruments, and as such invites repetition. Louis C. Elson reviewed the work as follows: Bird is modern enough in what he has to say, and knows how to say it. He does not indulge in extremes and his musical effects are attained without any straining. From the very first of the Suite there was beautiful melody and intelligible figure treatment…The delicacy of the second movement, the crisp almost musette-like character of the scherzo with its difficult work for bassoons, the beautiful contrast (horns chiefly) of the trio, the attractive oboe theme with flute figuration in the finale, these are but a few points of a thoroughly commendable work. This edition is born of reverence and love for the music in these four movements. Arthur Bird is a little-known genius in American music. That he has avoided notice by many American musicians and performers may stem from his many years away from home, in Europe, and/or because his greatest works are chamber wind compositions relegated to obscurity by scholars. (Program Note taken from the score) William Pitts (b. 16 June 1986, Atlanta, Ga.) is a composer, conductor, and arranger from Dallas, Texas. Growing up in Carrollton, Georgia, Will began his musical studies in piano and choir at age seven, saxophone in grade five, and began his conducting studies in grade seven. Pitts graduated summa cum laude from Emory University, where he studied saxophone, conducting, and composition. He was the first student to complete an Honors Project in both Conducting and Composition. Will also earned teaching certification from North Georgia College and State University. Pitts served as a conductor of the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps of Rockford, Illinois, for three years (2005, 2007-2008). He was a finalist for DCI’s Jim Jones Leadership Award all three years. In 2008, the Regiment took first place honors as World Champions at the Drum Corps International Finals. Will was also honored as Regiment’s 2008 Mark Glasscoe Member of the Year. He has also served on Regiment’s management and teaching staff. Pitts is active as a music designer, adjudicator, and instructor for high school band programs throughout the country. His compositions and arrangements have been commissioned and performed across the United States and Australia. He has written works for and been commissioned by the University of North Texas, Wake Forest University, Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony, the Atlanta Trumpet Ensemble, The Vega String Quartet, the Atlanta Saxophone Quartet, the Northwinds Symphonic Band, horn virtuoso J.D. Shaw, tuba virtuoso Christian Carichner, and numerous high school and collegiate wind and chamber ensembles. He has also served as a production consultant and talent for Tom Blair, Inc., Drum Corps International, and MTV. Pitts’ recent Honors and Awards include the 2008 Katherine Blumenthal Award for Composition, the 2009 Emory University Music Department Nominee for the Sudler Prize in the Arts, and the 2010 Award Recipient of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Band Directors Association Grant for Young and Emerging Wind Band Composers. Pitts is currently Assistant Director of Bands at Duncanville High School in Duncanville, TX, where he is Director of Jazz Studies, Music Arranger and Composer for the Duncanville High School Marching Band, and teaches the Symphonic “Red” Band. (Bio accessed on WindRep.org) Turbo Scramjet is named for an experimental engine developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). A ramjet, sometimes referred to as a stovepipe jet, or an athodyd, is a form of jet engine using the engine’s forward motion to compress incoming air. Ramjets therefore require forward motion through the air to produce thrust. A scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) is a variation of a ramjet distinguished by supersonic combustion. Projections for the top speed of a scramjet engine (without additional oxidizer input) vary between Mach 12 and Mach 24 (orbital velocity). Usable dynamic pressures lie in the range 20 to 200 kPa, where q=pv2 where q is the dynamic pressure of the gas, p (rho) is the density of the gas, and v is the velocity of the gas. It’s not really like I know what any of that means, but I just thought Turbo Scramjet would be a great name for a piece. Scramjets are both fast and extremely unpredictable, and I wanted to incorporate these characteristics into the music. The entire piece is based on the five-note Lydian scale that is played throughout the canonic opening. The driving nature of the rhythm is relentless and, in many spots, unstable. The use of shifting meters as well as random syncopated rhythms makes it difficult to tap one’s foot through the whole piece. As soon as there is any feeling of stability, the strain disintegrates with either a unison rest, or a quarter rest spaced differently through each voice. After this opening, the middle section is more subdued and focuses on the calm experienced during a smooth flight. The call and response relationships throughout the ensemble are still free flowing, but are focused on counterpoint rather than rhythmic drive. Eventually, all parts remerge and the rhythmic drive returns. After the gradual build to the climax, the momentum relents until the final punch. Turbo Scramjet began as a saxophone quartet commissioned by the Atlanta Saxophone Quartet. The wind ensemble version of Turbo Scramjet was commissioned by Scott A. Stewart and the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony for their performance at the 2010 Georgia Music Educators Association In-Service Conference in Savannah. (Program Note by the composer, taken from the score) Michael Tilson Thomas (b. 21 December 1944, Los Angeles, Calif.) is an American conductor, pianist and composer. Tilson Thomas was born to Ted and Roberta Thomas, a Broadway stage manager and a middle school history teacher, respectively. He is the grandson of noted Yiddish theater stars Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, who performed in the Yiddish Theater District in Manhattan. Michael was an only child and a prodigy. Tilson Thomas studied piano with John Crown and composition and conducting under Ingolf Dahl at the University of Southern California. As a student of Friedelind Wagner, Tilson Thomas was a musical assistant and assistant conductor at the Bayreuth Festival. From 1968 to 1994, Tilson Thomas was the Music Director of the Ojai Music Festival seven different times. After winning the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood in 1969, he was named assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, making his conducting debut that same year. Between 1971 and 1977, he also conducted the series of Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic. From 1981 to 1985, he was principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1987, Tilson Thomas founded the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, an orchestral academy for gifted young musicians whose stated mission is “to prepare highly-gifted graduates of distinguished music programs for leadership roles in orchestras and ensembles around the world.” Tilson Thomas became the San Francisco Symphony’s 11th Music Director in 1995, a post he retains today [2019]. He also hosts the Keeping Score television series, nine one-hour documentary-style episodes and eight live-concert programs, which began airing nationally on PBS stations in early November 2006. (Bio accessed on WindRep.org) Street Song is a work in three continuous parts – an interweaving of three songs. The first song opens with a jagged downward scale suspending in the air a sweetly dissonant harmony that very slowly resolves. This moment of resolution is followed by responses of various kinds. The harmonies move between the world of the Middle Ages and the present, between East and West, and always, of course, from the perspective of twentieth-century America. Overall, the movement is about starting and stopping, the moments of suspension always leading somewhere else. The second song is introduced by a yodel-like horn solo. It is followed by a simple trumpet duet, which was first written around 1972. It is folk-like in character and also cadences with suspended moments of slowly resolving dissonance. The third song is really more of a dance. It begins when the trombone slides a step higher, bringing the work into the key of F sharp where it develops a jazzier swing. The harmonies here are stacked-up moments of suspension from the first two parts of the piece. By now I hope these ‘dissonant’ sounds actually begin to sound ‘consonant’. There is a resolution, but it is in the world of a musician who, after many after-hours gigs, greets the dawn. Finally, the three songs are brought together and the work moves toward a quiet close. Street Song was originally written in 1988 for the Empire Brass. It is dedicated to my father, Ted, who was and still is the central musical influence of my life. (Program Note by the composer, taken from WindRep.org) Florent Schmitt (28 September 1870, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France- 17 August 1958, Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a French composer. He began composition lessons with local composer Gustave Sandre, before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 19. While at the Conservatoire, he studied with composers like Gabriel Faure and Theodore Dubois, winning the Prix de Rome in 1900. Throughout his life, he composed for most major forms of music, except for opera. His style was primarily impressionistic, similar to that of Debussy, but also included elements of Wagner and Richard Strauss. His Piano Quintet in B minor, composed in 1908, helped to establish his reputation, but today his most famous compositions are La tragedie de Salome and Psaume XLVII (Psalm 47). It has been speculated that Schmitt’s involvement in World War I brought him into contact with military bands, which influenced his compositions to included pieces for such ensembles. (Bio accessed on WindRep.org) Dionysiaques was composed for the 100-member Garde Républicaine Band in Paris in 1913, mere months after Schmitt attended the premiere performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Its own premiere had to wait until 1925 because of World War I, but it has been performed frequently since the mid-20th century and it now stands as one of the cornerstone pieces of the early wind band repertoire. The title comes from the “Dyonisia”, ancient Greek celebrations honoring Dionysus, the god of wine. He was thought to have provided man with the vineyard, and subsequently the harvest, winemaking, drunkenness and the means for mystical trances. The piece itself begins ominously as the low brass and woodwinds set the stage for an exotic and almost hypnotic journey. Schmitt’s impressionistic tendencies are immediately evident: wandering melodies emerge in the woodwinds and gradually gain momentum. Their fluidity is slowly abandoned in favor of festivity, perhaps encouraged by the ‘fluid’ of Dionysus, be it red or white. The bacchanal eventually bursts forth, brimming with rhythmic vitality and a relentless insistence on partying all the way to the verge of control, and perhaps a bit beyond. (Program Note by Cynthia Johnston Turner, accessed on WindRep.org)