Program Notes

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Dance of the Jesters (1873/1997) - 5'

Dance of the Jesters is a prime example of Tchaikovsky’s keen sense of musical nationalism. Originally composed as incidental music for the ballet The Snow Maidens, the dance forever captures the color and zest of Russian folk dance music. The ballet about the Snow Maiden, the daughter of Father Frost, tells of her forbidden love with a human, Misgir, who is already betrothed to Coupava. The Snow Maiden follows him southward with plans to interrupt his wedding but tragically melts under the rays of the southern sun.

- Program note by Ray Cramer

 

Ingrid Stölzel - Musica Ignota (2020) - 5’

Musica Ignota was a winning selection from the 2023-2024 LSU Inclusive Repertoire Initiative.

The famous Rhineland mystic, nun, healer, and composer, Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) hardly needs an introduction. Recent popular and scholarly discoveries of her music as well as correspondences and writings on natural healing have made her famous to the public at large. Her extraordinary achievements, all the more astonishing considering the burden of being a woman in a medieval monastic world, have made her something of an international cult figure. My composition Musica Ignota draws inspiration from Hildegard’s music as well as her lesser-known invented language system entitled Lingua Ignota (Latin for “unknown language”). To write in this imaginary language, she used an alphabet of 23 letters and created a glossary of over 1000 beautiful, unknown words, presumably intended as a universal language for mystical purposes. The opening to the glossary in the Wiesbaden Riesencodex disarmingly states that Lingua Ignota is “an unknown language brought forward by the simple human being Hildegard (Ignota lingua per simplicem hominem Hildegardem prolata).” Having grown up in the Rhineland myself, I have long been fascinated by Hildegard von Bingen and it is my hope that the “unknown music” brought forth in Musica Ignota, serves to honor her life and work.

- Program note by the composer

 

Jennifer Jolley - Lichtweg/Lightway (2017) - 6’

Lichtweg/Lightway is a wind ensemble piece based on Keith Sonnier’s light installation in Connecting Level 03 in Terminal 1 at the Munich Airport. Bright fluorescent neon lights line the walls of a typical airport walkway to both guide travelers to where they are going and to help them cope with the stress of being in transit.

In this piece, I musically portray the rhythmic placement of red and blue light emanating from this neon installation by creating a constant eighth-note ostinato that is heard throughout the piece. Just as the panes of glass, mirrors, and aluminum sheets refract and scatter the colorful neon light, this ostinato is diffused amongst the different colors in the ensemble.

- Program note by the composer

 

Björk Guðmundsdóttir - Overture from Dancer in the Dark (2000) - 3’

Dancer in the Dark tells the story of Selma Jezkova (played by Björk), a Czech immigrant to the United States in 1964. She has a congenital disease that is making her go blind, so she is working as hard as she can (at the local factory) with the limited sight she has left to provide for her 12-year-old son, who will eventually develop the same condition unless she can raise the money for an expensive medical procedure for him. Her only diversion is her love for musicals: she lapses into daydreams involving musical numbers at several points throughout the film, often to her detriment. Nothing goes as Selma plans, yet she does her utmost to protect her son as her vision fades.

 

Andrew David Perkins - Asylum (2017) - 6’

The Traverse City State Hospital in Traverse City, Michigan, (previously known as the Northern Michigan Asylum) is the last Kirkbride Building in the state. Completed in 1885, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1985. Dr. James Decker Munson was a firm believer in the "beauty is therapy" philosophy. Patients were treated through kindness, comfort, pleasure, and beautiful flowers provided year-round by the asylum's own greenhouses and the variety of trees Munson planted on the grounds. Restraints, such as the straitjacket, were forbidden. Also, as part of the "work is therapy" philosophy, the asylum provided opportunities for patients to gain a sense of purpose through farming, furniture construction, fruit canning, and other trades that kept the institution fully self-sufficient.

IChanges in the law and mental health care philosophies brought on the decline of the institution, and it was closed in 1989. Over the next decade, the community struggled with plans for reuse of the hospital grounds, until 2000, when the Grand Traverse Commons Redevelopment Corporation secured an agreement to renovate the historic buildings. Their efforts have led to the gradual but successful preservation and re-use of the former Building 50 as part of The Village at Grand Traverse Commons, a residential and commercial development. The beautiful complex now houses condominiums, stores and shops, bakeries, art galleries, and gourmet restaurants.

Asylum is a tone poem that attempts to reflect the complex beauty, pain, and healing of both the people who lived and worked here, as well as the incredible architectural achievement of the Kirkbride building itself.

- Program note by the composer

 

Michael Daugherty - Niagara Falls (1997) - 10’

Niagara Falls, a gateway between Canada and the United States, is a mecca for honeymooners and tourists who come to visit one of the most scenic waterfalls in the world. The Niagara River also generates electricity for towns on both sides of the border, where visitors are lured into haunted houses, motels, wax museums, candy stores, and tourist traps, as well as countless stores that sell "Niagara Falls" postcards, T-shirts, and souvenirs.

This composition is another souvenir, inspired by my many trips to Niagara Falls. It is a ten-minute musical ride over the Niagara River with an occasional stop at a haunted house or wax museum along the way. Its principal musical motive is a haunting chromatic phrase of four tones corresponding to the syllables of Niagara Falls and repeated in increasingly gothic proportions. A pulsing rhythm in the timpani and lower brass creates an undercurrent of energy to give an electric charge to the second motive, introduced in musical canons by the upper brass. The saxophones and clarinets introduce another level of counterpoint, in a bluesy riff with a film noir edge. My composition is a meditation on the American Sublime.

- Program note by the composer

 

Keaton Garrett - Power Dynamics (2020) - 7'

A power dynamic is the relationship created when different people/organizations interact with each other where one side has more power than the other. Power dynamics govern most if not all human interaction in this way – they are present when people communicate and interact socially and professionally – how students interact with their teachers, peers with each other, workers with employers, people with their families, as well as populations and their governments. We should always be aware and skeptical of who/what has the power in any given situation, what that means in terms of larger societal implications, why it got that way in the first place, and take further steps to redistribute power and resources.

This piece attempts to question traditional power dynamics of the wind ensemble medium and tradition in a few different ways, mainly through subversion of expectations in orchestration, form, and musical material. Every choice of orchestration was informed by questioning who would usually get this kind of importance in the ensemble, and then asking why and if a different sound could instead be desired. As a pocket concerto for wind ensemble, every player has an important and soloistic part at some point; however, I decided to restructure the most traditionally powerful roles away from the wind players completely, and instead have three of the most underused/underrepresented members of the wind ensemble act as the instigators for the musical material––the harp, double bass, and pianist.

The piece begins and ends from this small trio of instruments, and the compositional processes which happen in between lead to a power struggle of sorts between the trio, wind ensemble, percussion, and conductor - all fighting to hold onto power. The way the music progresses from that point asks the audience, what happens when you redistribute the power away from people (instruments in this case) with it to those who don’t have it? In places where you don’t have power, do you recognize it and question why that’s the case? In places where you do hold the power, are you leveraging it to be more open and inclusive?

- Program Note by composer

 

Paul Hindemith - Symphony in B flat (1951) - 18’

Paul Hindemith was a multifaceted artist, excelling as a composer, conductor, violinist, violist, teacher, and theorist. His career began at Dr. Hoch’s Conservatory in Frankfurt, where he supported himself by performing in various capacities. He served in the German Army during World War I but continued composing and formed his own string quartet. In the 1920s, he became a key figure in the Donaueschingen Music Festival.

Hindemith's teaching career started in 1927 at the Academy of Music in Berlin. Despite being a member of the Amar Quartet and gaining a reputation as an expressionist composer, the Nazi Party disapproved of his work in the 1930s. In 1940, he emigrated to the United States, where he taught at Yale University and composed prolifically.

During his time in the U.S., Hindemith was approached by the U.S. Army Band Commander to guest conduct and compose for the band. The result was the Symphony in B-flat, a groundbreaking work for concert band. Completed in 1951, it premiered on April 5 of that year, showcasing Hindemith's mastery of counterpoint and dramatic flair, solidifying its place as one of the most significant pieces in 20th-century band music.

- Program Note by Lawrence Williams

 

Leonard Bernstein - Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (1967/2008) - 23’

Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story" was initially premiered in 1957, exploring the modern-day tensions of rival social groups in New York City. The project faced crises but eventually became a hit on Broadway, running for nearly two years. In 1961, Bernstein extracted nine sections from the score, creating the "Symphonic Dances" for a fundraising concert. The dances feature popular musical favorites from "West Side Story," such as "Somewhere" and "Maria." Jack Gottlieb provided a summary of the sections, connecting them to the musical's narrative. The Symphonic Dances were first performed in 1961, conducted by Lukas Foss at Carnegie Hall.The composition showcases Bernstein's ability to balance his diverse talents as a composer, conductor, and media personality, and it remains a significant part of American theater history. Paul Lavender masterfully transcribed the work for winds in 2008.

- Program Note by Lawrence Williams