115 Axes and 400 Years of Music

From a suite composed in Shakespearian England to a trip down the Manhattan radio dial, the HSU Symphonic Band covers 400 years of music in its December 1 program at Fulkerson Recital Hall.

The earliest piece is the William Byrd Suite: “Byrd wrote this music in the era of Shakespeare and Henry VIII for a keyboard instrument called the virginal, “HSU Assistant Professor of Music Paul Cummings explained. “That instrument has a very soft sound. But in the 20th century, another British composer, Gordon Jacob, arranged it for orchestra and turned it into a very powerful piece.” The HSU band played selections from this suite in its first concert this year.

"Council Oak" is by a contemporary American composer, David Gillingham, commissioned in Florida to commemorate the struggles of the Seminole American Indian tribe: much of the tribe was forced to march west on the infamous “Trail of Tears,” while some resisted and remained in the Florida Everglades. “The Council Oak is the tree under which tribal elders would gather,” Cummings said. “In this piece, it’s as if the tree is telling us a story about the history of the Seminole, their culture, their joys and their suffering as they tried to survive and keep their culture alive.”

When composer Timothy Broege was driving in New York and scanning the FM band, he was struck by the variety of the music he was hearing in snatches, and this experience became the basis for his Symphonia #5.

“The mix he heard included ragtime, Gregorian chant, Dixieland, big band jazz, mellow New Age and so on, “Cummings said. He incorporated all of them into this piece, which reflects the actual experience of scanning the dial. “Including a little static, and some rise and fall, as some stations come in loud, some come in soft.” Broege was particularly interested in the contrast of sacred music, and the “profane” forms, and how they combine in our lives—“sometimes resolving, sometimes going their separate ways.” The Symphonia is subtitled “The Sacred and Profane.”

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