Complete Director's Notes and Other Information for the Live CD and CD In Two Sessions
Director's Recording Notes for In Concert: Live Performances, 2010-2011
This recording was compiled from the three full-group performances of the Kenyon Symphonic Wind Ensemble during the 2010-11 academic year. As the year wound down, there was some discussion among the members of the ensemble that it would be worth exploring the possibility of making a recording. As it turned out, the semester seemed to be reluctant to give up the time needed for such an endeavor-everyone was just so busy that adequate time for a recording session was not available. However, there was a thought running through many in the ensemble that some of the works we had performed in concert were played with enough quality that perhaps a collection of live work could be assembled and released. A selection committee comprising a number of SWE members was quickly organized, and the performance recordings chosen for inclusion were re-mastered by Soundwaves (http://www.soundwaves.org).
The director wishes to thank the members of the recording selection committee:
Laura Snoddy '11
Marta Stewart-Bates '11
Stella Ryan-Lozon '12
Aaron Stone '14
No concert performance can be called truly perfect. Unlike session work, where splicing multiple takes and other forms of editing can remove mistakes, recordings of live performances must carry their flaws in order to maintain their integrity. As a result, this disk contains ample evidence of imperfection. This evidence takes several forms, from mistakes made by players to sounds made by audience members. In particular, there was a very talented "coughist" in the audience during our fall concert, and his (or perhaps her) ability to cough at low dynamic points in the program earns our respect. Such are the challenges and travails of live performance!
William Schuman (1910-92) began his composing career at the age of sixteen. Although regarded, during his lifetime, as among the preeminent America composers, Schuman ultimately became better known for his efforts in music education, which included service as president of the Juilliard School, president of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and chairman of the MacDowell Colony. His output includes a number of symphonies and other works for orchestra, as well as several compositions for concert band, the most notable being George Washington Bridge and the work on this program, Chester. This work is based on a popular fuging tune of the same title by the colonial era American composer William Billings (1746-1800). Schuman introduces this tune first in the woodwinds, then the brasses, after which it becomes the subject of a number of daring variations. Schuman pushes the envelope, employing polytonality, rhythmic complexity, and colorful orchestration to breathe vibrancy into Billings' tune. At one point, the clarinets are pushed into their extreme upper register, an area of the instrument in which good intonation is almost impossible to achieve. Schuman knew this, and deliberately set the orchestration in such a way that the old tune is presented in a recognizable yet edgy context. Schuman's modern interpretation of the colonial-era tune seems to evoke the same sense of modernity that post-war America felt in general-rooted in its history and true to its ideals, but also changing, developing, and exploring.
Percy Grainger (1882-1961) was a native of Australia, although he spent the years after 1914 as a resident of the United States. He is particularly known for his extensive study of traditional music of the British Empire; in contrast to other composers who employed melodies or other techniques adapted from traditional music, Grainger attempted to notate as much of the "folk" character as he could, so as to retain some of the qualities of the performances he had recorded. He also eschewed the use of Italian terminology in favor of using "plain English"; for instance, in Children's March: "Over the Hills and Far Away," Grainger employed "feelingly" instead of "dolce," and "louden lots" instead of "molto crescendo." Over the Hills and Far Away reveals Grainger's particularly astute ability to construct wonderfully expressive counter-melodies, which then support a rich harmonic fullness. The work features just three major thematic ideas, and yet from this paucity of musical material Grainger weaves a fairly long work. Its success stems from Grainger's imaginative orchestration-he never seems to miss getting the most imaginative timbre possible for just the right moment. Saxes, clarinets, brasses . . . they all get their turn with the themes. What makes Children's March more interesting, however, is the often subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) web of accompanying motives and imaginative countermelodies. Grainger generates additional variety and interest through a relatively complex dynamic scheme. At some points a portion of the ensemble is specified to play softer while other instruments have been marked to play at stronger dynamic levels. While many of Grainger's compositions are built from traditional tunes, the themes used in Children's March just sound like they came from the English countryside. Not only is this work completely original in its thematic material, it is also one of a handful of Grainger's works that was composed, from the outset, for band.
Eric Whitacre (b.1970) quickly established himself among the new "hot shots" of the wind ensemble composition world. A former student (at Juilliard) of John Corigliano, Whitacre has won numerous prizes, the most recent being the 2004 ASCAP Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, "a prize given annually to the most promising new voice in musical theater." Best known for one of his earlier works for wind band, Ghost Train, Whitacre has received considerable acclaim for his more recent Godzilla Eats Las Vegas!, which he describes as "a wild theatrical piece for wind symphony." Godzilla Eats Las Vegas! is an example of a tone poem, a single-movement work composed for large ensemble and based upon an extra-musical program. The genre was made popular by Richard Strauss during the late nineteenth century, through such masterpieces as Ein Heldenleben and Don Quixote. Whitacre's program for Godzilla Eats Las Vegas!, written in the form of a film screenplay rough draft, is provided below as specified in the composer's instructions. While Godzilla is a blast to play and the composer's sense of humor is certainly apparent, Whitacre employed quite a number of compositional techniques often associated with avant-garde art music. This work was composed for the University of Nevada (Las Vegas) Wind Symphony.
Godzilla Eats Las Vegas!
Advance Copy Script
***Part One***
Fade Up
It is a Bright and Sunny day as the sequined curtain rises on Tinsel Town,andthe excitement of a new day filled with the possibility of The Big Payoff is practically palpable. The band kicks off the show in high gear and all is well as we suddenly hear:
Cut to Desert
A lone shakuhachi flute ushers the arrival of something really VERY bad.
Cut Back to Band
A relaxed rhumba, showgirls blissfully jiggle.
Cut to Military Command Center (stock footage)
Morse code signals the confirmation of approaching doom.
Cut Back to Band
The players finish off their third set and head for the bar; outside we hear:
Slow Zoom
Oh no, oh no, oh no, it's
Close Up
Godzilla! Glorious Godzilla!
Various Quick Cuts (stock footage)
Godzilla destroys cars, screaming tourists, etc.
Cut Back to Band
The band, quasi Greek Chorus, calls for Godzilla to Mambo.
Godzilla, Full Frame
Godzilla mambos, casually crushing hysterical Vegans without missing a step.
Extreme Close Up
A tiny terrier barking bravely, then:
Cut Back to Godzilla
Demolishing everything in his path . . . not even the doggie escapes!
Wide Pan
As Godzilla heads down the strip, searching relentlessly for:
Close Up (stock footage)
Frank Sinatra (stomped!)
Close Up (stock footage)
Wayne Newton (stomped!)
Close Up (stock footage)
Liberace (stomped!)
Various Cuts
The Village Gods destroyed, Godzilla continues his carnage until the City of Sin is leveled!
***Part Two***
Fade Up
A fearless army of Elvises (Elvi) appear in the distance, formation marching through the littered streets
Various Close Ups
The Elvi attack, using bombers, missiles, etc.
Extreme Close Up
One wicked laugh from Godzilla and the Elvi scatter like mice!
Quick Cut (stock footage)
The Sphinx (Sphinxtress?) seduces the Reptile, who instantly falls in love and begins to:
Wide Shot
Tango with her.
Split Screen
As they dance, the Elvi slowly regroup and head for the:
Quick Cut (stock footage)
Pirate ships at Treasure Island
Action Sequence (montage)
The Elvi approach the dancing monster and launch a ferocious volley of cannonballs directly at him.
Quick Close Ups
The cannonballs find their mark, and Godzilla:
Wide Shot
Falls to the ground, annihilated. The Elvi are triumphant!
Crossfade
The lounge is open again, and the city of Las Vegas toasts the victor. The scene climaxes with:
Various Cuts (stock footage)
People happy, tearful, etc. Stock footage, stock music.
Slow Fade Out and Fade Up
A dark, ominous, and VERY familiar sound . . .
Slow Zoom
Godzilla lives! Godzilla lives! Complete terror (possible sequel?).
Wide Shot
The Show is over. The End.
Fade to Black
For forty years, from 1971 until the spring of 2010, Loris Chobanian (b. 1933) served as Composer-in-Residence and Professor of Guitar at Baldwin-Wallace College. Born in Mosul, Iraq to Armenian parents, Chobanian graduated from Baghdad College, a school that was administered by Boston Jesuits. After following his father's footsteps by working in the oil industry, Chobanian moved to the United States in 1960, whereupon he studied composition at Louisiana State University and Michigan State University. Chobanian has accepted commissions from many organizations, including the Cleveland Ballet, The Ohio Chamber Orchestra, The American Wind Symphony Orchestra, the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony. Colors was commissioned in 2003 by the membership of the Ohio Private College Instrumental Conductors Association (OPCICA).
While this work possesses many characteristics associated with avant-garde composition, links to "old" can easily be found. Certainly, the use of tone clusters and other experimental techniques are to be found in significant numbers, but Colors also possesses many characteristics typical of older concerto types. First, like the oldest concertos dating from the early Baroque period, much is made of contrast. The varied timbres and pitches of the percussion soloists (in the Baroque this group of soloists would have been referred to as the concertino) are often starkly contrasted with the timbres and melodic ideas of the remainder of the ensemble (the ripieno, in eighteenth-century parlance). The concertino and ripieno are often placed in opposition to one another, but they also collaborate at times, just as Vivaldi and Bach sometimes required of their musicians in the concerto ritornello. People familiar with older forms of the concerto genre will also note the inclusion of a cadenza, traditionally placed just before the coda. And while the melodic material is quite different from the styles of Mozart and Beethoven, the way Chobanian connects and develops his ideas bears considerable similarity to the classical era masters. The "accompanying" winds are also a source of contrast, in that the brasses are often pitted against the woodwinds, the brasses playing with strength and the woodwinds responding with wit. At one point about three-quarters of the way through the work, the percussion soloists are answered by the clarinets, flutes, and oboes, which are then answered by the saxes, other low reeds, and horns (now playing slide whistles). Additionally, the work features much variety: there is dissonance and tenderness, bombast and understatement, harsh timbres and delicate sounds, motivic/gesture-based ideas and relatively traditional sounding counterpoint. While many aspects of the work were completely specified by the composer, other elements are left more flexible. For example, Chobonian specifies that "the percussionists should use their imagination to arrange, according to the pitch order of the instruments, a colorfully contrasting mixture of cow bells, temple blocks, wood blocks, and similar sounding sources of sound, such as metal plates, wood boards, etc.," and "tom-toms could include other similar sounding instruments such as conga drums, timbales, etc."
Like Chobanian, Fisher Tull (1934-94) was a long serving faculty member at an academic institution, in his case Sam Houston State University, in Huntsville, Texas. Having joined that faculty in 1957, Tull was appointed Director of the Department of Music in 1965. Tull seems to have been a Texan through and through. A native of Waco, Tull earned all three of his academic degrees (including his doctorate in composition) at the University of North Texas, where he was a student of the widely respected Samuel Adler. Of the composers featured on this program, Tull seems to have possessed the widest array of talents, being a composer, educator, conductor, trumpeter (jazz and classical), and administrator. He served in many different capacities, devoting time to both the Board of Directors and the Commission on Undergraduate Standards of the National Association of Schools of Music, higher education's principal music education accreditation body. Sketches is far from Tull's only work for winds, as his slightly earlier Toccata (1970) won the highly esteemed Ostwald Prize, the top honor the American Bandmasters Association awards to composers. Tull's works are typical of the wide range of stylistic and technical approaches post-World War Two composers employed, in that one can find sweeping melodies, energetic rhythmic figures, complex (and often dissonant) harmonies, and a highly developed sense of tone color. Tull's orchestration compares well with his more popular contemporaries, such as Morton Gould, William Schuman, and Vincent Persichetti.
Sketches on a Tudor Psalm displays many different techniques and evokes a wide range of emotions, but perhaps it is just as important for illuminating Tull's willingness to take risks. This composition is based on a melody composed by the English Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis, a monophonic tune (one of nine) which he contributed to the 1567 Anglican Psalter. This tune was also used as a basis for composition by an early twentieth-century English master, Ralph Vaughan Williams. The Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, composed by Vaughan-Williams for a large string orchestra in 1910, is considered one of the great compositions of the twentieth century. Like Vaughan Williams, Tull set Tallis' theme in ways that evoke great power and tenderness, but the Texan seems willing to push the envelope just a bit more, setting the tune in variations that are more dissonant and of a wider range of mood, to include tension, hostility, and even wit. Tull uses the range of timbres available in the winds and percussion to both go darker and brighter than Vaughan Williams. While Tull's setting will forever be overshadowed by Vaughan Williams' string orchestra composition, we found Sketches to be a work possessing great beauty and strong emotions.
Frank Ticheli (b.1958) is among today's top composers of music for wind ensemble. He has composed for a wide variety of technical levels, with some works (including his settings of Amazing Grace and Shenandoah) accessible to a wide range of schools. He has also composed works calling for considerable technical ability, compositions requiring top quality musicians, in particular Postcard and Blue Shades. Blue Shades grew from an earlier attempt to combine jazz and blues techniques within a more classical milieu, Playing with Fire, which was composed for traditional jazz band and orchestra. Blue Shades imposes considerable technical demands on the full ensemble; that we were able to perform the work from start to finish and with great passion and style, after just four rehearsals, remains a source of pride for the 2010-11 SWE.
However, the recording selection committee deemed our Winter Concert performance of the work as not good enough to include in this recording. From a standpoint of CD time, the Ticheli was too long to include unless another work was deleted, and the committee felt that our performances of the Chobanian, Whitacre, Tull, Grainger, and Schuman were of a higher quality. However, the SWE was extraordinarily proud of the soloists in that performance-first-year bass clarinetist Gracie Donley and senior clarinetist Evan Pease. Both performed their quite challenging solos splendidly. The committee was so impressed that it was determined that while the entire work should not be a part of this recording, perhaps the solos could be excerpted and included. With the help of Soundwaves, this was made possible.
About the Ensemble
The Kenyon College Symphonic Wind Ensemble is dedicated to playing music of the highest caliber within a collaborative, noncompetitive environment. It seeks to develop member creativity, leadership ability, discipline, and collaborative skills. The ensemble performs a wide variety of music, ranging from the traditional concert band repertoire to much smaller, one-on-a-part works for chamber winds. The group's performed repertoire list includes works from the Renaissance through the 21st century. In order to facilitate the development of leadership and group collaborative skills, part assignments within sections (e.g. 1st, 2nd, 3rd clarinet) are rotated, so that all students have opportunities to lead as well as follow. The ensemble is open to all Kenyon students and interested members of the local community.
The Symphonic Wind Ensemble was established as the Kenyon College Concert Band in 1994 under the direction of Dr. Jane Ellsworth. From August 1995 the group has been under the direction of Professor Dane Heuchemer. The ensemble rehearses three hours per week; if you are interested in joining the group, please contact the director. The group typically performs four programs per academic year, including full ensemble concerts in October, December, and April, and a chamber winds program in February. Information on the ensemble can be found at http://www.kenyon.edu/x32904.xml. In November 2008, the Symphonic Wind Ensemble released its first "studio recording," entitled In Two Sessions. Reflecting work done by the ensemble during two sessions in April and May of 2008, this recording was made possible by a Kenyon College Teaching Initiative Grant.
About the Conductor
Dr. Dane Heuchemer, Associate Professor of Music, joined the Kenyon College faculty in 1995. Prof. Heuchemer holds a bachelor of music (trumpet) from the University of Northern Colorado, a master of music (conducting) from Ithaca College, and a Ph.D. (musicology) from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. At Kenyon, Prof. Heuchemer teaches music history and directs the Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Early Music Ensemble. His research interests include sixteenth-century Saxony, court musical patronage, early music performance practices, music of the Weimar Republic, music history pedagogy, and jazz. His current primary scholarly project focuses on several sixteenth-century town music collections that are currently among the holdings of the Sächsische Landes- und Universitäts-Bibliothek in Dresden, Germany. He is also working on a study of the United States military occupation of Korea following World War Two, a project inspired by his late father's military service. As a guest conductor, Prof. Heuchemer has directed numerous ensembles, including the Ohio Private College Instrumental Conductors' Association (OPCICA) Honor Concert Band. A player of Baroque (valveless) trumpet and Renaissance cornetto, he was recently featured as soloist with the Muskingum Valley Symphonic Winds, and he has since served both as principal trumpet and associate rehearsal conductor for that ensemble. Prof. Heuchemer also serves as orchestra conductor for MTVArts (a Mt. Vernon community theater company) and is the trumpet instructor and brass choir director for the North Central Ohio Adult Music Camp. He has twice served as OPCICA president, and just completed service as a member of the external review committee for Marietta College's McCoy Professor Program. Prof. Heuchemer is also under contract as a "Professor" with The Teaching Company.
Director's Program Notes for In Two Sessions
W. Francis McBeth is Professor of Music and Composer in Residence at Ouachita University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. A conductor as well as composer, McBeth has won a number of notable awards, including the Howard Hanson Prize from the Eastman School of Music and the Edwin Franko Goldman Award from the American School Band Directors Association. McBeth has composed a number of works for band, many of which have become standards in the repertoire. Of Sailors and Whales was composed in 1990 as a commission from the California Band Directors Association, and the work was premiered that year by the California All-State Honor Band. A suite comprising five musical "sketches" of key characters from Melville's Moby Dick, Of Sailors and Whales is an example of "program music," an approach to composition in which a work is based upon an extra-musical plot. In this instance, McBeth is basing his own composition on another artist's work.
It has become somewhat customary to preface the performance of each movement with the reading of an excerpt from Moby Dick. This performance, however, is also something of a departure in that Prof. Baumann was given no prescribed instructions on what excerpts to select. Rather, Prof. Baumann was given carte blanche to select whatever readings he felt appropriate to each of McBeth's character sketches. Jonathan Tazewell, Associate Professor of Drama, did the same for the Symphonic Wind Ensemble's Family Weekend concert on October 20, 2007, thus ensuring that each performance of the work was a unique artistic collaboration.
Dmitri Shostakovich, Soviet composer, is among the most notable figures in twentieth-century music. The requirements of his government, mandated through a style often referred to as Socialist Realism, encouraged a relatively conservative, traditional approach to composition. This Shostakovich did, while also finding ways to make some relatively bold moves, and his output contains quite a number of more adventurous experiments. Shostakovich is primarily remembered today for his fifteen symphonies, but his operas and string quartets are finally receiving some well-deserved scholarly and performance attention. Musicians typically find his works to be quite a challenge, both in terms of their technical demands and the physical endurance required for a successful performance, and Festive Overture is no exception. Composed for orchestra in 1954, this work received its American premiere in the following year, and the work quickly became a staple in the symphonic repertoire. It also caught the attention of the concert band world, and the work was first arranged for winds in 1958. It is an ideal concert opener, full of excitement and containing a number of memorable melodies.
A native of Odessa, Missouri, H. Owen Reed earned bachelor degrees in music and French, as well as a masters degree in composition, at Louisiana State University. While earning his doctorate in composition at the Eastman School of Music, he studied with Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers, and upon completing his degree Reed joined the faculty of the Michigan State University. Though holding a significant faculty post and already having studied with two very notable composers, Reed sought additional training in composition with Roy Harris, Bohuslav Martinu, Leonard Bernstein, Arnold Schoenberg, and Aaron Copland. As a composer, Reed maintained an interest in the folk music styles of a number of regions, including many locales in Latin America. A Guggenheim Fellowship funded six months of composition and folk music study in Mexico, and he returned to that country in 1960. In addition, Reed has devoted time to the study of musics of the Caribbean and Norway, as well as Native American music of New Mexico and Arizona. Reed served on the Michigan State faculty until his retirement, in 1976, after 37 years of service. Currently a resident of Green Valley, Arizona, Reed has won many honors and Fellowships, including being awarded the 1994 American Bandmasters Association Edwin Franco Goldman Memorial Citation for conspicuous service in the interest of bands and band music.
Reed's La Fiesta Mexicana is among the most challenging works in the concert band repertoire, as well as one of the most enjoyable pieces to play and/or conduct. While he was not the first composer to employ music or musical style elements from Mexican music within an art music framework (Copland's El Salón México, for example, was completed in 1936), Reed's work is arguably the best manifestation of this usage. In a 2001 interview, the composers described the origins of the work and his motivations for its composition:
In 1948 I was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. The project? To write what would be the first symphony for band. . . After hearing much infectious music in Mexico City, Cuernavaca and Chapala, and reading Stuart Chase's Mexico, I decided to write a Mexican folksong symphony, a three-movement work somewhat depicting a typical fiesta. I immediately became a Freshman theory student taking melodic dictation on transcribing to notation the march, "El Toro," played at the bull fights, the Mass sung at the cathedral in Chapala, the "Aztec Dance" which I obtained from Señor Aceves who had done research on the music of the Aztecs, and finally a most popular Mexican tune played by the Mariachi, "El Son de la Negra."
The work is filled with energetic rhythms, bright colors, and memorable tunes. Giannini's symphony (discussed below) is based on forms employed since the eighteenth century, and the major musical interest in that work resides in how ideas are developed and flow into the next section. Reed's symphony, on the other hand, often presents a plethora of ideas within a relatively brief time. Instead of presenting his material in a logical framework, Reed often presents his ideas in layers, each made distinct through orchestration and rhythmic contrasts. Each of the three movements is programmatic in the sense that specific musical and cultural environments are presented. The notes to the score include the program:
I. Prelude and Aztec Dance—the tolling of the church bells and the bold noise of fireworks at midnight officially announce the opening of the fiesta. Groups of Mexicans from near and far slowly descend upon the huge court surrounding the old cathedral—some on foot, some by burro, and still others on bleeding knees, suffering out of homage to a past miracle. After a brave effort at gaiety, the celebrators settle down on their serapes to a restless night, until the church bells and fireworks again intrude upon the early quiet of the Mexican morn. At midday a parade is announced by the blatant blare of the trumpets. A band is heard in the distance. The attention is focused on the Aztec dancers, brilliantly plumed and masked, who dance in ever-increasing frenzy to a dramatic climax.
II. Mass—The tolling of the bells is now a reminder that the fiesta is, after all, a religious celebration. The rich and the poor slowly gather within the walls of the old cathedral for contemplation and worship.
III. Carnival—Mexico is at its best on the days of the fiesta, a day on which passion governs the love, hate, and joy of the Mestizo and the Indio. There is entertainment for both young and old—the itinerant circus, the market, the bull fight, the town band, and always the cantinas with their band of mariachis—on the day of days: fiesta.
A Russian composer who opted to remain in his homeland and work within the parameters of the Soviet style (which eventually developed into a concept called Socialist Realism), Pavel Tchesnokov studied at the Moscow Conservatory, graduating just in time for the October Revolution in 1917. He subsequently took courses with Sergei Taneyev and Ippolitov-Ivanov before securing an appointment as professor of choral conducting at the Moscow Conservatory. Tchesnokov's entire compositional output is limited to choral music, secular as well as sacred. The arrangements for concert band performed on this program take advantage of the composer's command of the passionate Russian style; sections calling for an assertive, confident interpretation are balanced by lyrical contrapuntal lines, which present the performers with fruitful opportunities to explore the expressive side of music.
The 1950s and early 1960s were a time of considerable importance to the concert band. Following the 1952 founding of the Eastman Wind Ensemble, other academic institutions quickly organized elite groups of wind and percussion players. Composers then responded, and a number of notable symphonies for concert band emerged, including works by Vincent Persichetti, Morton Gould, and Alan Hovaness. Vittorio Giannini's Symphony No. 3 is among the most notable of these works. A native of Philadelphia, study in Milan was followed by matriculation at the Juilliard School. Early compositional successes followed, and (beginning in 1932) Giannini won three consecutive Prix de Rome. Active in many genres, Giannini served on the faculties of the Juilliard School, Manhattan School, Curtis Institute of Music, and the North Carolina School for the Arts. The late romantic style he employed in his early works was succeeded, in the 1940s, by an interest in neo-classicism; Symphony No. 3 reflects not only this trend, but also the post-war American interest in lush orchestrations and powerful melodies, sometimes referred to as neo-romanticism. Composed in the standard four-movement format, Symphony No. 3 was a yearlong project for the Kenyon College Symphonic Wind Ensemble—work during the first semester concentrated on the initial movement, an essay in sonata-allegro form. During the second semester, the ensemble concentrated on the second and fourth movements. The second movement is a lyrical exploration of a sentimental melody, and its romantic nature is supported by Giannini's effective orchestration, particularly with the writing for solo oboe. The finale is a sonata-rondo, a combination of two popular structures employed in music during the Classical era, the sonata-allegro and rondo forms.
Sonata-allegro form, which Giannini utilized for the first movement, comprises three major sections. Two contrasting themes (linked by transition) are generally introduced in the exposition. Melodic content from the exposition, or perhaps new material, is featured in the development, a section comprising a series of modulations (key changes) that provides the composer with an opportunity to showcase harmonic ingenuity. The opening themes are then reprised in the recapitulation, and the form often ends with a short concluding section, called the coda. In use since the Classical era, the sonata-allegro form remained a standard first-movement structure for instrumental music throughout the nineteenth century and was commonly employed (particularly by neo-classicists) in the twentieth century. Giannini's use of the form in this work harkens back to Haydn, Mozart, and (in particular) Beethoven. The exposition introduces two contrasting ideas, a bold opening idea and a lyrical, tranquil second theme. Like Beethoven in some of his string quartets, Giannini employed fugue for his development, in this case introducing the "subject" (taken from transitional material employed in the exposition) by the second, then third, and finally first clarinets before moving through the rest of the ensemble; here, Giannini shows off his compositional skills by moving through a series of keys before transitioning to the recapitulation. The recapitulation follows formal convention, theme A being once again linked by transition to theme B, although the instrumentation is modified (the lyrical B theme is shifted from the low brasses to the high woodwinds). In an approach reminiscent of Beethoven's famous Fifth Symphony, Giannini expanded his coda into a second development section, reprising his fugue—but the imitative play between instruments is rather abruptly curtailed by a reappearance of the opening idea and the concluding harmonies. The finale of this symphony is similar in structure to the first movement, with the exception of the more frequent appearance of the opening melodic theme group. Returning to the A and B theme concepts described above, the sonata-allegro can be described as ABXAB (with the X indicating the development section). The traditional rondo form would be along the lines of ABACA; such was the form used by such composers as Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. The sonata-rondo form is a hybrid of the two, and can be described as ABAXABA. The fourth movement includes themes and techniques that recall works by earlier masters; one of the themes employed in transitional sections paraphrases the popular French song Frère Jacques, which was parodied by Gustav Mahler in his Symphony No. 1; trills appearing in the woodwinds later on hint at the finale (Dance of the Witches' Sabbath) of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.
About the Ensemble
The Kenyon College Symphonic Wind Ensemble is dedicated to playing music of the highest caliber within a collaborative, noncompetitive environment. It seeks to develop member creativity, leadership ability, and collaborative skills. The ensemble performs a wide variety of music, ranging from the traditional concert band repertoire to much smaller, one-on-a-part works for chamber winds. The group's performed repertoire list includes works from the Renaissance through the 21st century. In order to facilitate the development of leadership and group collaborative skills, part assignments within sections (e.g. 1st, 2nd, 3rd clarinet) are rotated, so that all students have opportunities to lead as well as follow. The ensemble is open to all Kenyon students and interested members of the local community.
The Symphonic Wind Ensemble was established as the Kenyon College Concert Band in 1994 under the direction of Dr. Jane Ellsworth. From August 1995 the group has been under the direction of Prof. Dane Heuchemer. The Symphonic Wind Ensemble rehearses three hours per week; if you are interested in joining the group, please contact the director. More information on the Symphonic Wind Ensemble can be found on its at http://www.kenyon.edu/x32904.xml.
About the Recording
This CD represents the Symphonic Wind Ensemble's initial experience in a studio/session recording environment. A Kenyon College Teaching Initiative Grant is supporting this recording project. The repertoire included in this compact disc was performed in the ensemble's 2007-08 concert programs, and it was recorded on April 24 and May 1, 2008, in Kenyon's Rosse Hall Auditorium. To access more information on this project, including the director's notes on the repertoire included on this CD, please visit the ensemble's website: http://www.kenyon.edu/x32904.xml.
About the Conductors
Katie Woods '09 is a music and mathematics major originally from Knoxville, Tennessee. She currently studies conducting with Prof. Dane Heuchemer and French horn with Kimberly McCann. She is a three-year veteran of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble and has been involved with the OPCICA Honor Band, Knox County Symphony, and French Horn Ensemble. In the fall of 2007, she won a Franklin Miller Award for conducting the Symphonic Wind Ensemble Brasses during the Matriculation Day ceremonies. She has worked for the past three years with high school bands throughout the southeast directing rehearsals and writing and arranging various aspects of their fall marching band shows. Katie is also very involved in various aspects of campus life, serving as Head Community Advisor for Kenyon's Residential Life Division. Kate was awarded the 2007-08 Music Department's David B. Perry Community Service Music Prize.
Dane Heuchemer is the James D. and Cornelia W. Ireland Associate Professor of Music at Kenyon College. Having joined the faculty in 1995, Prof. Heuchemer holds a Bachelor of Music (Trumpet) from the University of Northern Colorado, a Master of Music (Conducting) from Ithaca College, and the Doctor of Philosophy (Musicology) from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. At Kenyon, Prof. Heuchemer teaches music history and directs the Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Early Music Ensemble. His research interests include sixteenth-century Saxony, court musical patronage, and early music performance practices. His current primary scholarly project focuses on several sixteenth-century town music collections that are currently among the holdings of the Sächsische Landes- und Universitäts-Bibliothek in Dresden, Germany. He is also working on a study of the United States military occupation of Korea following World War Two, a project inspired by his late father's military service. As a guest conductor, Prof. Heuchemer has directed numerous ensembles, including the Ohio Private College Instrumental Conductors' Association (OPCICA) Honor Concert Band. He also takes advantage of opportunities to perform on natural trumpet and cornetto.
About the Guest Narrator
Fred Baumann, the Harry M. Clor Professor of Political Science, came to Kenyon as director of the Public Affairs Conference Center and part-time teacher of Political Science in 1980, entering the department as a full-time member of the faculty in 1986. He teaches courses in the history of political philosophy, politics and literature, diplomatic history and statesmanship as well as PSCI 101-102. The author of Fraternity and Politics: Choosing One's Brothers, Baumann is currently working on a book on the status of political humanism. He is an associate editor of the journal Interpretation, and has chaired both the Faculty Affairs Committee and the Tenure and Promotion Committee, and he has also served as secretary of the faculty. Baumann received the Senior Faculty Trustee Teaching Award and was invited to give the Founders' Day talk.
The Kenyon College Music Department
The Department of Music at Kenyon aims to increase a student's sense of the richness and importance of music in the human experience. Learning how to listen to and study music can expand and enrich students' interior lives; making music individually can enhance their own creativity; and making music together touches the communal aspects of life. Students learn to synthesize information, to think critically, to formulate and communicate ideas (written, verbal, and musical), to use quantitative skills and analyze data, to coordinate musical thought, emotion, and physical movement, and to work creatively.
The department teaches courses in music-reading and composition, the performance of music (public and private), the history and sociology of music, and music theory. Students majoring in music acquire expertise in all these areas of music; non-majors in one or more areas. Students who graduate with a major in music will be prepared for a career in music and all other students will gain music experiences that prepare them for an enriched life.
Kenyon College
Kenyon is one of the nation's finest liberal arts colleges, a small school where academic excellence goes hand in hand with a strong sense of community. We bring together 1,600 young men and women to study with nearly 200 professors on an exceptionally beautiful hilltop campus in central Ohio. Our curriculum is rooted in the traditional liberal arts and sciences, and enriched by interdisciplinary programs. We set high academic standards and look for talented students who love learning. Small classes, dedicated teachers, and friendly give-and-take set the tone. Kenyon welcomes curiosity, creativity, intellectual ambition, and an openness to new ideas. We see learning as a challenging, deeply rewarding, and profoundly important activity, to be shared in a spirit of collaboration.
Our greatest strength is our faculty, outstanding scholars who place the highest value on teaching. Close interaction with students is the rule here: professors become mentors and friends. Requirements are flexible enough to allow for a good deal of exploration. Other notable strengths include our distinguished literary tradition, many opportunities for research in the sciences, and programs connecting students to our rural surroundings. The Kenyon experience fosters connections of all kinds—to classmates and teachers and friends, to the life of the mind, to global perspectives, to our own unique traditions and history, and to a place of inspiration.
Internet Resources For More Information
Kenyon College: http://www.kenyon.edu
Kenyon College Music Department: http://www.kenyon.edu/music.xml
Kenyon Symphonic Wind Ensemble: http://www.kenyon.edu/x32904.xml
Contacting the Director: heuchemerd@kenyon.edu