Songs, Dances and Krumping with the Symphonic Band

“If music had to be classified into only two categories,” said HSU Symphonic Band director Paul Cummings, “song and dance may be the best choices.”

The Symphonic Band concert on Friday, November 30 features outstanding works in each category, including a premiere. And they’re not just krumping around.

Krump is a work commissioned by the Symphonic Band as a member of a consortium of 10 university bands, and it will be performed at HSU for the first time. Composed by Scott McAllister of Baylor University, "Krump" refers to a popular dance form known as clown-dancing or “krumping,” that emanates from south central Los Angeles.

Cummings describes McAllister’s approach as drawing on “popular styles and genres, while using traditional media such as concert band and orchestra. Krump exemplifies this proclivity for borrowed style. Just as dancers at a krumping competition display their solo dancing skills for an audience, several instrumentalists in the Symphonic Band will play solos in the Hip-Hop musical style associated with krump dancing.”

Krump isn’t the only dance on the card. Earlier in the evening, the band plays two others: the Candide Overture by Leonard Bernstein, and The Solitary Dancer by Warren Benson.

Cummings confesses that he believes Bernstein was at his best when composing for the stage. “Though not as famous as the music from West Side Story,” Cummings said, “Candide is one of his crowning achievements.”

Based on the novel by Voltaire, the Broadway musical Candide had a powerhouse pedigree: besides music by Bernstein, the book was by playwright Lillian Hellman, lyrics by poet Richard Wilbur (and additional lyrics by Dorothy Parker), directed by the legendary Tyrone Guthrie. Though it’s first Broadway run in 1956-57 wasn’t very successful, its revival in 1974 ran for two years, and a second Broadway revival in 1997 topped 100 performances.

The overture to Candide, Cummings said, “is one of Bernstein’s most frequently performed works by both bands and orchestras. It is also one of Bernstein's most difficult works,” mostly for its tremendous speed. “ Don't get too close to the clarinets,” Cummings warned. “There are sparks shooting off of their keys!”

Warren Benson’s The Solitary Dancer is a dance of a different kind. An attempt to combine a fast tempo and soft volume level, it sweeps along at a swift pace but is, as Cummings described it, “quite understated and subtle. Rarely are more than ten instruments playing at once, and rarely do they enter or stop en masse.” By featuring wind and percussion solos, Cummings said, Benson emphasizes “the solo dance he depicts.”

The “song” aspect of the program is represented first by another selection from Leonard Bernstein’s score for Candide: Make our Garden Grow. “As thrilling as the overture is, this piece is equally compelling in its serenity,” Cummings said. Beginning with the solo for English horns that opens the piece, “it expresses Candide's resolve to find meaning in life through cultivation of the earth.”

Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral by Richard Wagner, Cummings said, “presents a melody of great depth while employing instrumentation that is best described as a wall of sound.” Fans of brass instruments are apt to be pleased by this song, Cummings suggested. “For brass, “Elsa’s Procession” is about as good as it gets.”

“Song and Dance,” a program by the HSU Symphonic Band is presented on Friday, November 30 at 8 PM in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students and seniors, from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. HSU students free with ID.

Media: Arcata Eye, Eureka Times Standard Northern Lights.