Wind Symphony Program Notes
Pegasus from "The Spirit Sleeping" - John Gibson
Pegasus is the winged horse of Greek mythology that carried his rider into many daring exploits. Zeus rewards his heroism by making him a constellation in the stars. In Medieval times he became the symbol of wisdom and remains one of the most recognized icons in the world today. This fanfare for band is from The Spirit Sleeping, written in celebration of the life of Howard Dunn.
Rocky Point Holiday - Ron Nelson
Rocky Point Holiday was a commission from Frank Bencriscutto and the University of Minnesota band for a tour of Russia. It was composed between 1968 and 1969. Bencriscutto had heard Nelson's orchestral work Savannah River Holiday and decided he wanted something virtuosic to take with him on the Russian tour. When asked about the limitations of the band, Bencriscutto told him there were none. "I'm going to write a tremendously difficult piece," Nelson warned him. "That's fine," replied Bencriscutto, and thus Rocky Point Holiday was born. Nelson says, "This was a pivotal moment in my notion of wind ensemble scoring, in which I focused on orchestrating in an extremely transparent way."
The bulk of the work on the composition occurred while Nelson was on vacation at a Rhode Island seaside resort. Rocky Point is an amusement park over a hundred years old, located in Warwick Neck, RI. It was closed down in the mid-1990s due to a lack of funds.
The Circus Band - Charles Ives
Composed as a march possibly as early as 1894 but worked over several times in the next 40 years, Ives's verses to this thoroughbred quickstep's printing in his 114 Songs are at once witty and wistful:
All summer long, we boys dreamed 'bout big circus joys!
Down Main Street, comes the band, Oh! "Ain't it a grand and a glorious noise!"[Repeat]
Horses are prancing, Knights advancing, Helmet's gleaming, Pennants streaming,
Cleopatra's on her throne! That Golden hair is all her own [Repeat][Trio]
Where is the lady all in pink? Last year she waved to me I think,
Can she have died? Can! that! rot! SHe is passing but she sees me not. [Last time patchwork-overlay of college songs from Version 3]
Riding down from Bangor on the midnight train,
Rip, slam, bang we go, Sir, right in thro' the rain,
I had a horse we'd called Napoleon,
All on account of his "Bony parts."
When in after years we take our children on our knee,
We'll teach them that the alphabet begins with D.K.E.
Ave Maria - Franz Biebl, trans. Cameron
Ave Maria was first published in 1964 in Dortmund, Germany, for seven-part men’s voices. The version utilized in this transcription, however, is the version for mixed choir selected because it better matches the registration of the wind ensemble or symphonic band. This adaptation is a transcription rather than an arrangement in that every attempt has been made to preserve every possible detail of the original.
La Mezquita de Córdoba - Julie Giroux
In 169 B.C. the Romans founded Córdoba. After the fall of Rome, it existed under the rule of the Visigoths and became the capital of Al Andalus, Muslim Spain, in 716.
The Moors conquered Córdoba in the eighth century and by the tenth century the city boasted a population of 500,000, compared to about 38,000 in Paris. According to the chronicles of the day, the city had 700 mosques, some 60,000 palaces, and 70 libraries - one reportedly housing 500,000 manuscripts and employing a staff of researchers, illuminators and book binders. Córdoba also had some 900 public baths as well as Europe’s first street lights.
Reigning with wisdom and justice, the rulers of Córdoba treated Christians and Jews with tolerance. They also improved trade and agriculture, patronized the arts, made valuable contributions to science, and established Córdoba as the most sophisticated city in Europe.
When the Moors conquered Córdoba, they found a Visigoth cathedral, promptly pulled it down and built a mosque complex, the walls of which enclosed about four acres. It was over 40 years in the making. Over the centuries, the Moors roofed-over and developed more and more within this complex. Muslim, Christian, and Jewish faiths alike were practiced within its walls, an unprecedented feat then and literally unheard of today.
When the Christians reconquered Córdoba in 1236, the new rulers were so awed by its beauty that they left it standing, building their cathedral in the midst of its rows of arches and columns. Thus it is preserved today, fondly referred to in Spain as "La Gran Mezquita."
La Mezquita contains over 500 marble, granite, and alabaster columns. Mixed into the califal styles, one can see the Byzantine and oriental influences, as well as Hispano-romanic and Visigoth elements throughout the mosque. The grandeur of La Mezquita and its colorful political and religious history has earned it its place as a true wonder of the civilized world.
La Mezquita de Córdoba opens with the destruction of the original Christian church in 716 A.D. and proceeds as a musical celebration of its multi-cultural, religious and artistic accomplishments.
Pegasus is the winged horse of Greek mythology that carried his rider into many daring exploits. Zeus rewards his heroism by making him a constellation in the stars. In Medieval times he became the symbol of wisdom and remains one of the most recognized icons in the world today. This fanfare for band is from The Spirit Sleeping, written in celebration of the life of Howard Dunn.
Rocky Point Holiday - Ron Nelson
Rocky Point Holiday was a commission from Frank Bencriscutto and the University of Minnesota band for a tour of Russia. It was composed between 1968 and 1969. Bencriscutto had heard Nelson's orchestral work Savannah River Holiday and decided he wanted something virtuosic to take with him on the Russian tour. When asked about the limitations of the band, Bencriscutto told him there were none. "I'm going to write a tremendously difficult piece," Nelson warned him. "That's fine," replied Bencriscutto, and thus Rocky Point Holiday was born. Nelson says, "This was a pivotal moment in my notion of wind ensemble scoring, in which I focused on orchestrating in an extremely transparent way."
The bulk of the work on the composition occurred while Nelson was on vacation at a Rhode Island seaside resort. Rocky Point is an amusement park over a hundred years old, located in Warwick Neck, RI. It was closed down in the mid-1990s due to a lack of funds.
The Circus Band - Charles Ives
Composed as a march possibly as early as 1894 but worked over several times in the next 40 years, Ives's verses to this thoroughbred quickstep's printing in his 114 Songs are at once witty and wistful:
All summer long, we boys dreamed 'bout big circus joys!
Down Main Street, comes the band, Oh! "Ain't it a grand and a glorious noise!"[Repeat]
Horses are prancing, Knights advancing, Helmet's gleaming, Pennants streaming,
Cleopatra's on her throne! That Golden hair is all her own [Repeat][Trio]
Where is the lady all in pink? Last year she waved to me I think,
Can she have died? Can! that! rot! SHe is passing but she sees me not. [Last time patchwork-overlay of college songs from Version 3]
Riding down from Bangor on the midnight train,
Rip, slam, bang we go, Sir, right in thro' the rain,
I had a horse we'd called Napoleon,
All on account of his "Bony parts."
When in after years we take our children on our knee,
We'll teach them that the alphabet begins with D.K.E.
Ave Maria - Franz Biebl, trans. Cameron
Ave Maria was first published in 1964 in Dortmund, Germany, for seven-part men’s voices. The version utilized in this transcription, however, is the version for mixed choir selected because it better matches the registration of the wind ensemble or symphonic band. This adaptation is a transcription rather than an arrangement in that every attempt has been made to preserve every possible detail of the original.
La Mezquita de Córdoba - Julie Giroux
In 169 B.C. the Romans founded Córdoba. After the fall of Rome, it existed under the rule of the Visigoths and became the capital of Al Andalus, Muslim Spain, in 716.
The Moors conquered Córdoba in the eighth century and by the tenth century the city boasted a population of 500,000, compared to about 38,000 in Paris. According to the chronicles of the day, the city had 700 mosques, some 60,000 palaces, and 70 libraries - one reportedly housing 500,000 manuscripts and employing a staff of researchers, illuminators and book binders. Córdoba also had some 900 public baths as well as Europe’s first street lights.
Reigning with wisdom and justice, the rulers of Córdoba treated Christians and Jews with tolerance. They also improved trade and agriculture, patronized the arts, made valuable contributions to science, and established Córdoba as the most sophisticated city in Europe.
When the Moors conquered Córdoba, they found a Visigoth cathedral, promptly pulled it down and built a mosque complex, the walls of which enclosed about four acres. It was over 40 years in the making. Over the centuries, the Moors roofed-over and developed more and more within this complex. Muslim, Christian, and Jewish faiths alike were practiced within its walls, an unprecedented feat then and literally unheard of today.
When the Christians reconquered Córdoba in 1236, the new rulers were so awed by its beauty that they left it standing, building their cathedral in the midst of its rows of arches and columns. Thus it is preserved today, fondly referred to in Spain as "La Gran Mezquita."
La Mezquita contains over 500 marble, granite, and alabaster columns. Mixed into the califal styles, one can see the Byzantine and oriental influences, as well as Hispano-romanic and Visigoth elements throughout the mosque. The grandeur of La Mezquita and its colorful political and religious history has earned it its place as a true wonder of the civilized world.
La Mezquita de Córdoba opens with the destruction of the original Christian church in 716 A.D. and proceeds as a musical celebration of its multi-cultural, religious and artistic accomplishments.