All-Campus Orchestra / Concert Band Concert – 10.18.2024

“Horizons Untold captures the excitement of possibilities unknown! The composer writes, “In composing this brief concert opener, it was my aim to craft something inspirational that performers and listeners might connect with in a variety of ways. To some, the piece may evoke images of a journey, looking to the horizon with optimism and hope, while for others, more of a celebration. For yet others, the piece may strike a patriotic tone. Regardless of the meaning it holds for you, I hope that the composition’s soaring melodies, bod fanfares, and shimmering flourishes leap off the stage to begin your concert with an undeniable bang!” 

-Program Note by Composer     

“December 17, 1903, a most important day in history, is the subject of composer Roger Cichy’s work for large ensemble. Titled First Flights, the work is a musical portrait of events occurring as humankind broke the bonds of the earth and took to the air for the first time in powered flight. On a sandy beach on the North Carolina coastline with Orville Wright piloting the Kittyhawk “Flyer”, Wilbur Wright, along with five others, witnessed the extraordinary event that would impact the world from that day on.

The first two movements of First Flights can be considered impressionistic in nature, creating the images of their titles. “Morning’s Cold/A Cold Day for History” represents the conditions of things as daylight broke on December 17, 1903. From the morning’s icy cold conditions to the Wright Brothers state of mind after an unsuccessful attempt a few days earlier, this movement builds in optimism and hope as the two brothers put their years of experimentation on the line. The image of the Kittyhawk “Flyer” is portrayed in the second movement. One can only guess what it would have been like when the hangar door swung open and the first bit of daylight appeared on the fabric wings of a machine that would start humankind on the road to powered flight. This movement also serves as a reflection of the many accomplishments that resulted in the creation of the Kittyhawk “Flyer”.

The final movement is highly programmatic and musically portrays the events of the first flights. A summary of these events are as follows: The “Flyer” is pulled out of the hangar and prepared of another attempt. Four men and a teenager arrive to help with the flight. The men help with last minute preparations and instructions are given to Mr. Daniels by Orville to operate a box camera, which is necessary to prove the flight if it is successful. The propellers are spun, the engine sputters and churns, and Orville climbs into the craft for the attempt. Amongst the noise, smoke, and vibrations, Orville nervously goes through a control check and finally pulls the level that releases the restraining rope. The “Flyer” rolls down the track and triumphantly becomes airborne. Along with the mood of celebration and jubilance, a moment of reflection occurs. The Wright Brothers made four flights that day. Orville alternated with Wilbur as pilot. After the final flight, the men were standing around conversing among themselves when a strong gust of wind suddenly appeared, took the “Flyer” and destroyed it. Despite the later event, the triumph of success and accomplishment make December 17, 1903 a day to remember. The title of the final movement, “Success for Four Flight…” comes from the first sentence of a telegram that the Wright Brothers sent to inform their father of their success.

First Flights was commissioned by the University of Georgia Bands, John N. Culvahouse, associate director of bands.”

–Program Note from Score

 “The wind band medium has, in the twenty-first century, a host of disparate styles that dominate its texture. At the core of its contemporary development exist a group of composers who dazzle with scintillating and frightening virtuosity. As such, at first listening one might experience John Mackey’s Sheltering Sky as a striking departure. Its serene and simple presentation is a throwback of sorts – a nostalgic portrait of time suspended.

The work itself has a folksong-like quality – intended by the composer – and through this an immediate sense of familiarity emerges. Certainly the repertoire has a long and proud tradition of weaving folk songs into its identity, from the days of Holst and Vaughan Williams to modern treatments by such figures as Donald Grantham and Frank Ticheli. Whereas these composers incorporated extant melodies into their works, however, Mackey takes a play from Percy Grainger. Grainger’s Colonial Songseemingly sets a beautiful folksong melody in an enchanting way (so enchanting, in fact, that he reworked the tune into two other pieces: Australian Up-Country Tune and The Gum-Suckers March). In reality, however, Grainger’s melody was entirely original – his own concoction to express how he felt about his native Australia. Likewise, although the melodies of Sheltering Sky have a recognizable quality (hints of the contours and colors of Danny Boy and Shenandoah are perceptible), the tunes themselves are original to the work, imparting a sense of hazy distance as though they were from a half-remembered dream.

The work unfolds in a sweeping arch structure, with cascading phrases that elide effortlessly. The introduction presents softly articulated harmonies stacking through a surrounding placidity. From there emerge statements of each of the two folksong-like melodies – the call as a sighing descent in solo oboe, and its answer as a hopeful rising line in trumpet. Though the composer’s trademark virtuosity is absent, his harmonic language remains. Mackey avoids traditional triadic sonorities almost exclusively, instead choosing more indistinct chords with diatonic extensions (particularly seventh and ninth chords) that facilitate the hazy sonic world that the piece inhabits. Near cadences, chromatic dissonances fill the narrow spaces in these harmonies, creating an even greater pull toward wistful nostalgia. Each new phrase begins over the resolution of the previous one, creating a sense of motion that never completely stops. The melodies themselves unfold and eventually dissipate until at last the serene introductory material returns – the opening chords finally coming to rest.”

 –Program Note from Score

“This piece is easily one of the most intriguing pieces I have written in my career as a composer. It is inspired by a friend of mine, G. Reid Wiseman, who is an astronaut with NASA. Wiseman spent two years preparing to launch and spent six months on the International Space Station, where he actually was when Open Space was premiered.

The piece is broken into three movements, each dealing with a specific aspect of his mission. The third movement, Spacewalk, was inspired by the following comment: ‘If I get to do a spacewalk, that will certainly be the absolute highlight of the mission — the scariest, most intense, and probably the most rewarding. And the view when outside in a spacesuit … the only thing between you and Earth is a two-mm thick piece of glass. Wow.’”

-Program Note by Composer

 “Referring to the orbit of an electron, planet, or anything within the limits of one’s imagination, this work is an orbital in all meanings of the word. The music spirals around multiple metric and rhythmic pulses, key areas, and motivic ideas. Beginning softly, the first musical landmark is presented in the clarinets with an oscillation between two notes. As the work continues, powerful melodies and harmonies are introduced, laying the groundwork for the remainder of the piece. Musical developments swing the listener back and forth between multiple thematic ideas that cause tremendous tensions and portray gravitational forces. Orbital takes us on a thrilling journey that leads to a climactic point, only to continue raising the intensity level to the final stretch, bringing the piece to a dramatic conclusion.”

-Program Note by Composer

The overture was inspired by Heinrich von Collin’s play, Coriolan, which is based on one of Shakespeare’s less frequently performed tragedies, Coriolanus. Collin’s play initially gained some success on the Viennese stage after its creation in 1802 but later faded from view. It resurfaced for a remarkable one-night performance in 1807 at the palace of Beethoven’s patron, Prince Lobkowitz – solely for Beethoven’s new overture. Collin’s play then faded into obscurity, while Beethoven’s tremendous overture endures.

Beethoven likely identified with Shakespeare’s story of a lone man heroically challenging the system, rather than any potential improvement on the original by Collin. It is assumed that Beethoven’s overture is “programmatic,” dealing with the Roman general Coriolanus and his disdain for the plebeians of Rome, whom he considers greedy and corrupt. He also curses the Roman Senate for yielding to the wishes of the plebeians, resulting in his exile along with his family. Coriolanus joins the enemy side, the Volscians, agreeing to lead them in battle against Rome. Volumnia, Coriolanus’ mother, implores her son to reconcile with Rome.

The stormy first subject of the overture, in C minor, represents Coriolanus’ rebellious nature, while the second subject (a tone higher) is associated with the gentle and humane Volumnia. Volumnia eventually seems to win her son over, but then the C-minor theme returns with less conviction, and the music literally falls apart, as does Coriolanus, whose only possible fate is death: in Shakespeare, he is killed by the Volscians, whose army he ultimately refuses to lead against Rome. In Collin’s play, he falls on his own sword. In Beethoven’s version, he fades away, almost imperceptibly.

– Herbert Glass (edited)

The danse macabre, or “dance of death,” has been a common theme in European art, literature, and music since the Middle Ages. The fourteenth century was particularly difficult, with the “Black Death” alone killing an estimated two hundred million people in Europe, in addition to the Hundred Year’s War and various famines. In the face of almost certain and widespread death, the allegory of death dancing with everyone, regardless of their status, emerged. This allegory is depicted in numerous frescos, murals, and paintings in churches, and is a common theme in drama. Death as a skeleton, dancing with people from all walks of life, is the most common imagery, symbolizing the leveling of all by their common end. This allegory is still prevalent in the art of our time.

Saint-Saëns’s Danse Macabre is a reworking of a song that he had composed two years earlier, vividly describing death scraping on his violin at midnight, as dancers leap and their bones “crack.” The vocal part was recast as a solo violin, accompanied by an orchestra that includes the xylophone—a perfect allusion to rattling bones. The solo harp opens with twelve sonorous notes depicting the stroke of midnight, followed by the entrance of the solo “fiddle” of death. Saint-Saëns masterfully evokes the “scratchy,” sinister fiddle by calling for the instrument to be retuned by lowering the top E string to an Eb, giving the famous diabolus in musica (devil in music), or tritone, the fundamental dissonance in both harmony and melody. Two themes are heard: one in the solo flute, and the second in a descending scale in the solo violin, providing the basic ideas of the piece. After a short fugal section, the famous Dies iræ (day of wrath) from the chant in the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass is heard staccato in the woodwinds. The ghastly dance continues, but eventually ends at dawn, heralded by a solo oboe depicting the cock’s crow. The solo violin, now less ominous and more consoling, plays a short elegy, and the skeletons return to their graves, as the rest live for another day.

– Wm. E. Runyan (edited)

George Butterworth was perhaps the most gifted of the British composers who were killed in the First World War. The Two English Idylls of 1910-1911 is his first surviving orchestral work and was first performed in Oxford in 1912. The delicacy and skill of his orchestration distinguish these folk song-based rhapsodies. The second Idyll incorporates the folk song “Phoebe and her Dark-eyed Sailor” collected in Sussex. The theme is played by a solo oboe accompanied by two bassoons. This is a slower, quieter and more meditative idyll, but with a strong climax before solo violin and solo clarinet in canon lead the piece to a gentle close.

– Michael Kennedy (edited)

Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron) was premiered on 4 October 1885 and is one of the most performed works by composer Johann Strauss. Many music critics consider it a comic or lyric opera rather than an operetta due to the scoring and nature of Strauss’s music. It’s notable for being the first Viennese operetta set in Hungary, with Hungarian and Gypsy characters. The score features a Hungarian musical flavor, evident in the Overture’s chromatic motives and unusual orchestration. Set in the eighteenth century, Der Zigeunerbaron is based on the novel Saffi and tells the story of the proposed marriage of landowner Sándor Barinkay and a gypsy girl, Arsena, who turns out to be the daughter of a Turkish Pasha, Zsupán, and the rightful owner of a hidden treasure. The opera includes memorable characters such as a fortune-telling Romany Queen, an absurdly self-important Mayor, a rascally Commissioner, a Military Governor, a band of Gypsies, and a troop of Hussars.

– Josef Weinberger (edited)