All-Campus Orchestra / Concert Band Concert

Boston University Concert Band
Dr. Jennifer Bill, Conductor
Chuze Sun, Teaching Assistant
Raymond J. Horvat, Guest Conductor

Boston University All-Campus Orchestra
Mark Miller, Conductor
Fernando Gaggini, Teaching Assistant

Transcendent Journey	Rossano Galante (b. 1967)
Fog	Raymond J. Horvat (b. 1995)
Eternity in an Hour	Nicole Piunno (b. 1985)
Hymn for the Innocent	Julie Ann Giroux (b. 1961)
Goddess of Fire	Steven Reineke (b. 1970)
A Mother of A Revolution!	Omar Thomas (b. 1984)

— Short Intermission —

Overture to La Clemenza di Tito, K. 621	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Symphony No. 2 in c minor, Op. 17 ii. Andantino marziale, quasi moderato	Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Symphony No. 3 in C Major, Op. 52 ii. Andantino con moto, quasi Allegretto	Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Symphony No. 104 in D Major iv. Finale: Spiritoso	Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Rosters

Boston University Concert Band Spring 2022

Flute
Amman Bhatti, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2023
Clarice Bouvier, Optometry, 2025
Yashi Cai, Undecided,, 2025
Bo Yu (Bonnie) Chen, Mathematics and Computer Science, 2025
Samantha Downing, Biomedical Engineering, 2022
Emily Kirslis, Accounting and Spanish (Providence College), 2019
Maura Lee, Journalism, 2024
Jinyi Liu, Business Administration and Management, 2025
Kaylynn Michael, Music, 2023
Jennifer Ortiz Valverde, Music, 2024
Simran Raikundalia, Chemistry and Biochemistry, 2025
Blaire Smith, Biomedical Engineering, 2022
Madison Soares, Psychology, 2025
Ling Tan, Arts Administration, M.S. 2023
Kendall Thomas, Media Science, 2025
Yukai (Shelly) Wu, Economics and Mathematics, 2023

Oboe
Christine Fielding, Biology, 2025
Ariel Narayan, Theater Design, Production, and Management, 2025
Nicholas Ward, Music Composition, 2023

Bassoon
Camille Christie, Mechanical Engineering, 2025
Dana Zareski, Music and Arts Administration, 2019/M.S. 2021

Clarinet
Johanne Antoine, Computer Science, 2022
Kevin Erixson, Community Member
Jonathan Fang, Business, 2024
Chase Fukuda, Mechanical Engineering, 2024
Anne-Sophie Gall, Neuroscience and Psychology, 2023
Ryan Griffin, Biology – Ecology and Conservation, 2022
Chris Hennighausen, Physics, 2022
Heather Johnson, Linguistics and Computer Science, 2020
Tori Keevaufer, Neuroscience, 2024
Jacob Labovitz, Biomedical Engineering, 2025
Lay Yen Denise Lee, Business Administration and Management, 2023
Nicholas Ogrinc, Philosophy, (Providence College) 2019
Anna Schorr, Mechanical Engineering, 2025

Bass Clarinet
Brendan Blakely, Marine Science, 2024

Alto Saxophone
Faith Cerbo, Biology, 2025
Sarah Josinsky, Biology, 2024
Angeleah Madore, Music Education, 2025
Elizabeth Mutkas, Marine Science, 2024
James Robson, Biomedical Engineering, P.h.D. 2025
Kyle Sousa, Music, 2023

Tenor Saxophone
Eric Falley, Theological Studies, M.D. 2023
Julianna Hill, Mechanical Engineering, 2022

Baritone Saxophone
Melissa Cine, Music Education, 2025

Horn
Jameson Beckman, Journalism, 2025
Samantha Brayton, Neuroscience and Psychology, 2024
Charles Cevallos, Music Education, M.M. 2022
Lukas Chin, Computer Engineering, 2025

Trumpet
Sierra Hansen, Psychology, 2022
Raymond Horvat, Music Theory, M.M. 2023
Jieyu (Warren) Liu, Religion and Public Relations, 2022
Nicholas Meixsel, Law, J.D. 2022
Sophia Pinto, International Relations, 2023
Ryan Rosenberger, Electrical Engineering, 2022
Justin Surette, Electrical Engineering, 2025
Taylor Williams, Music Education, 2025
Guannan Zhou, Economics and Mathematics, 2023

Trombone
Alex Habeen Chang, Music Theory, M.M. 2024
Julia Dickinson, BU Academy, 2022
Jack Martin, Political Science and International Relations, 2025

Euphonium
Nathaniel Hontz, Law, J.D. 2024

Tuba
Alex Mowen, Music and Archaeology, 2020
Alan Perry, Doctor of Medicine, 2024
Brackney Pickett, Astronomy, 2028

Percussion
Kat Howell, Community Member
James Kang, Business Administration, M.A. 2020
Jenna Moscaritolo, Statistical Practice, M.S. 2022
Ikechukwu Okereke, Political Science, 2024
Abby Roberts, Linguistics, 2023
Zane Sharp, Music and Political Science, 2022
Andrew Shulov, Business Administration and Management, 2024

Boston University All-Campus Orchestra Spring 2022

Program Notes

Transcendent Journey

About the music

With the first sounds of Transcendent Journey, I wanted to create a big, powerful, exhilarating chord that would grab the listener right away. The introduction is the beginning of our “journey” and gives a melodic hint, stated by horns, to the heroic main theme. The main theme should evoke not only the heroic quality of the melody, but also its beauty. This was suited perfectly for the trumpets. The listener should feel as though they can accomplish anything, no matter how challenging. I feel this is a melody that transcends all my others. The same theme is then stated in the horns and woodwinds, accompanied with rhythmic hits by the rest of the ensemble creating a stalwart sound.

Then a short B section is introduced, performed by piccolo and oboe with delicate accompaniment. Note the light relaxed feeling of joy in this section in contrast to the heroic material in the opening.

Following the B section, the main theme returns, this time played by flutes, capturing the sensitive aspects of the heroic theme. We now move into the slower section of the composition. This warm melody is almost wistful with a sad, yearning quality. It is repeated three times, each getting stronger, emotional and very climactic.

The final section is a fast-paced version of the introduction that includes extensive percussion and woodwind ostinati. Exhilaration and achievement is what I am trying to convey here. We finally complete our “journey” with a slower, grand statement of the main theme performed by trumpets and trombones. The piece ends with tutti ensemble bringing the “transcendent journey” to an end.

Resource from: https://www.windrep.org/Transcendent_Journey

About the composer

Born in Buffalo, New York, Rossano Galante received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Trumpet performance from SUNY Buffalo in 1992. That same year he was one of nineteen people from around the world to be accepted to the University of Southern California’s Film Scoring Program. He studied with the late Jerry Goldsmith, who won an Academy Award for his film score for The Omen. In 1999, Mr. Galante moved to California to pursue a career in film composition and orchestration. Since then he has worked with two-time Oscar nominated composer Marco Beltrami, Christophe Beck, Brian Tyler and Wolfram de Marco.

Mr. Galante has served as orchestrator for over sixty studio films including, A Quiet Place, Logan, Wolverine, Charlie’s Angels, 3:10 to Yuma, A Good Day to Die Hard, Trouble with the Curve, The Thing, Final Destination 5, Don’t be Afraid of the Dark, Knowing, Max Payne, The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Live Free or Die Hard, Red Eye, The Tuxedo, Tuesdays with Morrie, among many others.

For his large-scale Wind Ensemble compositions, he has been commissioned by the Hofstra University Symphonic Band, Nebraska Wind Symphony, the Amherst Chamber Orchestra, Trenton State College, SUNY Buffalo, Grand Island Middle School, Syracuse Youth Symphony, Point Pleasant Borough High School, North Tonawanda High School, Lockport City School District, Edward Town Middle School, Duxbury High School Wind Ensemble, Allegro: The Chamber Orchestra of Lancaster, Franklin & Marshall College, West Genesee High School Wind Ensemble, East Stroudsburg High School, Grissom High School and the Erie County Wind Ensemble. Many in progress.

Mr. Galante has 49 published compositions for Alfred Publications, G. Schirmer, Hafabra, C.L. Barnhouse and Dehaske/Curnow.

Resource from: http://rossanogalante.yolasite.com/

Fog

About the music

Fog is Raymond’s third piece written for Concert Band, and was first premiered by the Emporia State Wind ensemble in the Spring of 2017. Fog is the third movement of his weather suite that includes others like Snow (2015), Rain (Unfinished), and Wind (2016). Fog fits into the weather suite like all the other pieces, in that it doesn’t directly represent the weather, but more of the mood of the weather. This movement starts off with a main theme in the low reeds that persists throughout the entire piece. Slowly the texture gets thicker and thicker until it is a swirling maze of sound. As you finally feel like you’ve completely lost your way, all of a sudden it clears. Now you can see where you are going and you wonder why you were ever worried in the first place. The piece represents the phrase “nothing lasts forever, good or bad” so if you are happy and enjoying yourself, be present for that moment, and if things are hard remember they will always get better.

About the composer

Raymond J. Horvat is currently in his first year of a masters in music theory at Boston University. Before Boston University, Raymond was the music director for Council Grove Junior-Senior High school in Council Grove, KS. He taught grades 5-12 band, 7-12 choir, and directed and produced the school’s fall musical. He taught at Council Grove from 2018-2021. In the fall of 2017, Raymond graduated with a degree in Music Education from Emporia State University in Emporia Kansas.

Raymond started composing during his senior year of high school. During his time at Emporia State, he studied with many great professors and composers including Jacob Narverud and the Director of Bands, Dr. Gary Ziek. Raymond has written pieces for concert band, brass quintet as well as solo trumpet, and piano works. He has arranged many different pieces for athletic bands including short songs still played by his former high school band. Raymond currently studies composition with Professor Ketty Nez at Boston University.

Raymond plays the trumpet and is currently a member of the Boston University Concert Band. He has performed as a member of the Emporia State Wind Ensemble, Emporia State Jazz Band, the Emporia Symphony Orchestra and the Emporia Marching Hornets, where he served as drum major.

Raymond would like to thank Dr. Jennifer Bill for programming Fog and giving him the opportunity to conduct it at the concert. Raymond would also like to thank Dr. Ketty Nez, Dr. Jason Yust, Dr. David Kopp, Terry Everson, and the entire trumpet studio and Music Theory studio for all of their support this first year in Boston.

Eternity in an Hour

About the music

When thinking about the concept behind this piece, I knew I wanted to celebrate the purpose of music. Music is something we hear that connects us with that which cannot be heard. In a sense, we learn to “see” the invisible with our ears. I think this is what William Blake touched upon in the opening of his poem, Auguries of Innocence:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour

Every work of art invites us to “see a World in a Grain of Sand”, and every piece of music allows us to experience “Eternity in an hour”. Music is a grain of sand through which we can see an entire world. In other words, it is a smaller reality that helps us grasp a larger reality.

Music can display chaos, yet show that order can come from this chaos. Melodies can be sorrowful in a way that gives permission to the listener to feel sorrow. Music can come alongside people and weep with them or take someone by the hand and carry him into a place of peace. Musical themes can connect someone with joy even when that person has no joy inside herself. Ultimately, music has the power to connect people with a reality outside of themselves and allows them to experience Eternity in an hour.

Eternity in an Hour highlights many individuals and requires a great amount of attentiveness between the musicians. I require each section of the ensemble to pull equal weight as they intricately interact with each other throughout the three movements. By the end of the piece, we should have seen a glimpse of Heaven through the many “Wild Flowers” or various timbres of the ensemble.

Resource from: https://www.windrep.org/Eternity_in_an_Hour

About the composer

Nicole Piunno (b. 1985) is a composer who views music as a vehicle for seeing and experiencing the realities of life. Her music often reflects the paradoxes in life and how these seeming opposites are connected as they often weave together. Her harmonic language and use of counterpoint mirrors the complexity of our world by acknowledging light and dark, past and present, beauty and brokenness, confinement and freedom, chaos and order, spiritual and physical, life and death.

Nicole holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition and a Master of Music degree in theory pedagogy from Michigan State University. Her composition teacher was Ricardo Lorenz. She earned a Master of Music degree in composition at Central Michigan University, studying with David Gillingham. Nicole earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education and her emphasis was on trumpet. Her music has been performed by the Principal Brass Quintet of the New York Philharmonic, Athena Brass Band, The United States Coast Guard Band, Wind Symphony of Clovis, the University of North Texas Wind Ensemble, and at many other universities and conservatories around the country. Her chamber music has also been performed at the Orvieto Musica TrumpetFest in Orvieto, Italy, the International Trombone Festival, and multiple International Trumpet Guild Conferences.

Resource from: https://www.nicolepiunno.com/bio

Hymn for the Innocent

About the music

This letter from myself to Colonel Larry Lang following receiving his recording with The United States Air Force Band best describes this piece, certainly better than any program notes I could write. The focus of the letter and the hymn are the same. Whom we love and lose are what defines us as human beings. The relationships we have with each other are our greatest strength. The ability to mourn and grieve, not alone but with others, is the greatest gift of healing we have. Music grieves, it mourns and it heals.

Larry,

Thank you so much for the perfect recording. I will admit I can barely listen to it. So much pain, so much loss in a country, in families, in ourselves; to have it culminate into its own music — its own voice — is almost unbearable. Many times right after I mailed it to you I felt great dread and fear: fear that it wasn’t what I thought it was, that my emotions had gotten the better of me, and as always, the fear of rejection or of being misunderstood. My one consolation was that I did not – and still do not think I had much at all to do with its conception. It came to me finished, every melody, counter, structure and dissonance pounding on me to be put on paper right then so it could continue its journey free again of earthly manipulation; free to mourn and love.

I am truly grateful it picked me for its dictation source, but I am also so very thankful that you were put in my life, you and every member of your wonderfully gifted United States Air Force Band. Thank you, Larry, for also helping this work find its true voice, its perfect voice. Please thank your band members for this gift. I will be forever thankful.

With my deepest gratitude,
Julie

About the composer

Julie Ann Giroux was born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts on December 12, 1961. She graduated from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge LA in 1984. She started playing piano at 3 years of age and began composing at the age of 8 and has been composing ever since. Her first published work for concert band, published by Southern Music Company was composed at the age of 13.

Julie began composing commercially in 1984. She was hired by Oscar winning composer Bill Conti as an orchestrator, her first project with Conti being “North & South” the mini-series. With over 100 film, television and video game credits, Giroux collaborated with dozens of film composers, producers, and celebrities including Samuel Goldwyn, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Madonna, Liza Minnelli, Celene Dion, Paula Abdul, Michael Jackson, Paul Newman, Harry Connick Jr. and many others. Projects she has worked on have been nominated for Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Golden Globe awards. She has won individual Emmy Awards in the field of “Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Direction”. When She won her first Emmy Award, she was the first woman and the youngest person to ever win that award. She has won it three times.

Giroux has also published a large category of classical works with emphasis on original compositions for Wind Band which are published by Musica Propria and distributed internationally. She is greatly sought after as a composer and recently completing her 5th Symphony “Sun, Rain & Wind” which premiered in June, 2018. Her music has been recorded and reviewed internationally receiving top reviews and her music has been performed at major music festivals the world over.

Giroux has been a true force in a male dominated field and has accrued many previously male only awards. She is a member of ASCAP, The Film Musicians Fund, Kappa Kappa PSI, Tau Beta Sigma and a member of the American Bandmasters Association. She is a recipient of the Distinguished Service to Music Medal Award, Emmy Awards and was the first female composer inducted into the American Bandmasters Association in 2009.

Resource form: https://www.juliegiroux.org/bio-discs

Goddess of Fire

About the Music

Pele, the goddess of Hawaii’s volcanoes, is the most respected and feared deity in Polynesia. She is both creator of the sacred land and destroyer when she devours the land with her flames. The work opens with primordial, mysterious sounds representing the foreboding volcanoes of Hawaii. We are then introduced to Pele as a tall, beautiful young woman. This is one of the forms she can take and it represents her powers of creation and beauty. This gives way to the active and destructive Pele, often taking the form of an old woman, wrinkled and bent with age. The following lyrical section of the piece is the full statement of Pele’s theme of creation and beauty. As this theme settles, we begin to hear the ground pop and crack, letting us know that new lava is beginning to bubble and flow. Suddenly and violently, one of her volcanoes erupts, creating massive chaos and destruction. After the eruption subsides, Pele’s theme of creation and beauty returns again.

In memory of Mildred Smith, beloved band booster and friend. Dedicated to the students and parents of the Ben Davis High School Symphonic Band, Indianapolis, Indiana – Jim Butz, Shawn McNabb, Gary Rudloph and John Papandria, directors.

Resource from: https://www.windrep.org/Goddess_of_Fire

About the Composer

Steven Reineke has established himself as one of North America’s leading conductors of popular music. Mr. Reineke is the Music Director of The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, Principal Pops Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Principal Pops Conductor of the Houston Symphony and Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He previously held the posts of Principal Pops Conductor of the Long Beach and Modesto Symphony Orchestras and Associate Conductor of the Cincinnati Po.ps Orchestra.

Mr. Reineke is a frequent guest conductor with The Philadelphia Orchestra and has been on the podium with the Boston Pops, The Cleveland Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia. His extensive North American conducting appearances include San Francisco, Seattle, Edmonton, Pittsburgh, Vancouver, Ottawa (National Arts Centre), Detroit, Milwaukee and Calgary.

On stage, Mr. Reineke has created programs and collaborated with a range of leading artists from the worlds Hip Hop, Broadway, television and rock including: Common, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Sutton Foster, Megan Hilty, Cheyenne Jackson, Wayne Brady, Peter Frampton and Ben Folds, amongst others. In 2017 he was featured on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” leading the National Symphony Orchestra – in a first for the show’s 45-year history – performing live music excerpts in between news segments.

As the creator of more than one hundred orchestral arrangements for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Mr. Reineke’s work has been performed worldwide, and can be heard on numerous Cincinnati Pops Orchestra recordings on the Telarc label. His symphonic works Celebration Fanfare, Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Casey at the Bat are performed frequently in North America, including performances by the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic. His Sun Valley Festival Fanfare was used to commemorate the Sun Valley Summer Symphony’s pavilion, and his Festival Te Deum and Swan’s Island Sojourn were debuted by the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops Orchestras. His numerous wind ensemble compositions are published by the C.L. Barnhouse Company and are performed by concert bands worldwide.

A native of Ohio, Mr. Reineke is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio, where he earned bachelor of music degrees with honors in both trumpet performance and music composition. He currently resides in New York City with his husband Eric Gabbard.

Resource from: https://barnhouse.com/composer/steven-reineke/

A Mother of A Revolution

About the Music

This piece is a celebration of the bravery of trans women, and in particular Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson. Marsha is credited with being one of the instigators of the famous Stonewall uprising of June 28,1969 — one of the pivotal events of the LGBTQ liberation movement of the 20th century — which is commemorated annually during the worldwide Gay Pride celebrations. Existing as a trans woman, especially a trans woman of color, and daring to live authentically, creating space for oneself in a transphobic world, is one of the bravest acts I can imagine. Over 20 trans women were murdered in the United States in 2018 alone. There is no demographic more deserving and, frankly, long overdue for highlighted heroism and bravery. The disco vibe in the latter half of the piece is meant to honor club culture, a sacred space held amongst LGBTQ persons in which to love, live, mourn, heal, strategize, connect, disconnect, and dance in defiance of those outside forces who would seek to do LGBTQ persons harm simply for daring to exist and take up space.

We pump our fists to honor the life, heroism, activism, and bravery of Marsha P. Johnson, to honor the legacy of the Stonewall revolution, to honor the memory of the trans lives violently ended due to fear and hatred, and in honor of trans women worldwide who continue to exist Unapologetically and who demand to be seen.

This piece was commissioned by the Desert Winds Freedom Band, under the direction of Dean McDowell, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.

Resource from: https://www.windrep.org/Mother_of_a_Revolution,_A

About the Composer

Described as “elegant, beautiful, sophisticated, intense, and crystal clear in emotional intent,” the music of Omar Thomas continues to move listeners everywhere it is performed. Born to Guyanese parents in Brooklyn, New York in 1984, Omar moved to Boston in 2006 to pursue a Master of Music in Jazz Composition at the New England Conservatory of Music after studying Music Education at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He is the protégé of lauded composers and educators Ken Schaphorst and Frank Carlberg, and has studied under multiple Grammy-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider.

Hailed by Herbie Hancock as showing “great promise as a new voice in the further development of jazz in the future,” educator, arranger, and award-winning composer Omar Thomas has created music extensively in the contemporary jazz ensemble idiom. It was while completing his Master of Music Degree that he was appointed the position of Assistant Professor of Harmony at Berklee College of Music at the surprisingly young age of 23. He was awarded the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award in 2008, and invited by the ASCAP Association to perform his music in their highly exclusive JaZzCap Showcase, held in New York City. In 2012, Omar was named the Boston Music Award’s “Jazz Artist of the Year.” Following his Berklee tenure, he served on faculty of the Music Theory department at The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Now a Yamaha Master Educator, he is currently an Assistant Professor of Composition and Jazz Studies at The University of Texas at Austin.

Omar’s music has been performed in concert halls the world over. He has been commissioned to create works in both jazz and classical styles. His work has been performed by such diverse groups as the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble, the San Francisco and Boston Gay Mens’ Choruses, and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, in addition to a number of the country’s top collegiate music ensembles. Omar has had a number of celebrated singers perform over his arrangements, including Stephanie Mills, Yolanda Adams, Nona Hendryx, BeBe Winans, Kenny Lattimore, Marsha Ambrosius, Sheila E., Raul Midon, Leela James, Dionne Warwick, and Chaka Khan. His work is featured on Dianne Reeves’s Grammy Award-winning album, “Beautiful Life.”

Omar’s first album, “I AM,” debuted at #1 on iTunes Jazz Charts and peaked at #13 on the Billboard Traditional Jazz Albums Chart. His second release, ” We Will Know: An LGBT Civil Rigths Piece in Four Movements,” has been hailed by Grammy Award-wining drummer, composer, and producer Terri Lyne Carrington as being a “thought provoking, multi-layered masterpiece” which has “put him in the esteemed category of great artists.” “We Will Know” was awarded two OUTMusic Awards, including “Album of the Year.” For this work, Omar was named the 2014 Lavender Rhino Award recipient by The History Project, acknowledging his work as an up-and-coming activist in the Boston LGBTQ community. Says Terri Lyne: “Omar Thomas will prove to be one of the more important composer/arrangers of his time.”

Resource from: https://www.omarthomas.com/about

Overture to La Clemenza di Tito, K.621 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Symphony No.2 in C minor, Op.17 (second movement) – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Though by some margin the shortest of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies, it should still be considered among the great Russian symphonies’ corpus. Tchaikovsky had begun the work in Ukraine. His younger sister Alexandra Ilinishna, known in the family as Sasha, had married Lev Davidov in 1860, and the Davidov estate at Kamenka, near Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, became a home away from home for Tchaikovsky, a place where he could always find the warmly nurturing family life for which he longed, but that he could not establish on his own. It was at Kamenka that he began the symphony and where he heard some of the Davidov servants sing the tunes he used. Working in an uncommonly sunny mood, he continued to write at Kiev and on his summer travels with his brother Modest, and he completed the score in Moscow, where he had to return to resume his teaching duties at the Conservatory.

In his letters that fall, Tchaikovsky laments his loneliness, missing the meat pastries, the pelmeny, at his father’s house and wishing that the Davidovs might move to Moscow. But in what he says about his new symphony he is optimistic. He played the finale at a Christmas party at the Rimsky-Korsakovs and recounts how he was nearly torn to pieces by the enraptured company, his hostess insisting that he should make a piano duet arrangement immediately. The premiere too went well, and on February 5, 1873, he was able to tell his father, “My symphony was played here last week with great success. I was called for many times and cheered repeatedly. The success was so great that the symphony will be played again at the tenth concert, and a subscription has been started to make me a present. Also I received 300 rubles from the Musical Society. . . . I am delighted with all the success and the material profit that has accrued from it.”

This is a symphony without any really slow music, nothing slower at any rate than the not terribly slow Andante sostenuto of the introduction. Where we might now expect a slow movement, Tchaikovsky gives us a march, music he recycled from Undine, an opera he began and abandoned in 1869. This is like a slightly exotic path off the main road that leads from Schubert to Mahler. Tchaikovsky uses it as the anchor of a simple but charming rondo, whose second episode, a clarinet tune with flute accompaniment, is another Little Russian song, “Spin, o my spinner.” The movement ends with a “disintegrating” coda of the kind invented by Beethoven for the funeral march of the Eroica.

Source from Michael Steinberg, San Francisco Symphony

Symphony No.3 in C major, op.52 (second movement) – Jean Sibelius

If Sibelius’ first two symphonies may be broadly classified as belonging to “national romanticism,” the Third seems to evade any such categorization. It clearly is a work of transition. Most commentators have observed in it a tendency towards a kind of ‘classicism.’ It probably is the first movement (Allegro moderato), with its clear-cut formal design and effortless grace of orchestration, that is responsible for this view. The second movement (Andantino con moto, quasi allegretto), which recycles a simple theme in the manner of a folk song, does not conflict with the impression left behind by the first. The third movement (Moderato-Allegro ma non tanto, con energia), on the other hand, does not seem to fit into this picture. It is utterly problematic in form and leaves many questions unanswered.

The first musical ideas that ended up in the Third Symphony are from a time previous to the first reference to the work in Sibelius’ correspondence in September 1904. Real work on this composition began late in 1906 and the first performance took place under the composer’s baton in Helsinki on September 25, 1907. As revealed by the sketches, Sibelius worked on several compositions simultaneously, each being at a different phase in its development. When the most active phase of the Third Symphony was at hand he had finished Pohjola’s Daughter and left unfinished two other projects, ‘Luonnotar’ and ‘Marjatta.’ It seems that there is a connection between these abandoned projects and the Third Symphony. At one instance it is explicit: the choral-like material of the second movement stems from the ‘Luonnotar’ project.

A relation to the ‘Marjatta’ oratorio is more speculative, but there is reason to believe that the religious content of the oratorio is somehow reflected in the Symphony. It has been pointed out, incidentally, that the passages featuring a hymn or chorale topos are exceptionally numerous in the Third Symphony and that such passages can be found in all three movements. Hidden programmatic reasons may also lie behind the fact that the Third Symphony only has three movements. It is not out of the question, although by no means proven, that the movements spiritually correspond to the birth, funeral, and resurrection of Christ in the Marjatta libretto. In this case the hymn-like concluding section of the Finale could be interpreted as the expectation and hope of Christ’s resurrection and its actual happening.

Source from Dr. Ilkka Oramo, L.A Phil.

Symphony No.104 in D major (fourth movement) – Joseph Haydn

Biographies

in alphabetical order

Tsai Performance Center -- Saturday, March, 19 20221

All-Campus Orchestra / Concert Band Concert – 03.19.2022

Rosters

Boston University Concert Band Spring 2022

Boston University All-Campus Orchestra Spring 2022

Program Notes

Transcendent Journey

Fog

Eternity in an Hour

Hymn for the Innocent

Goddess of Fire

A Mother of A Revolution

Overture to La Clemenza di Tito, K.621 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Symphony No.2 in C minor, Op.17 (second movement) – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Symphony No.3 in C major, op.52 (second movement) – Jean Sibelius

Symphony No.104 in D major (fourth movement) – Joseph Haydn

Biographies

Dr. Jennifer Bill

Fernando Gaggini

Mark Miller