vocal soloists  Dylan Kinser, Katherine Johnson and James Gadd. 

Sing the Hallelujah Chorus with the Humboldt Symphony and Choirs

The Humboldt Symphony and a chorus comprised of the Humboldt Chorale and University Singers perform the ultimate big finish to their holiday concert: the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah, and the audience is invited to join in.

Plus, Hallelujah enthusiasts have two opportunities: on Friday evening, December 7 and Sunday December 9 in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

  The Symphony itself performs contrasting works by Hector Berlioz (big and bold) and Claude Debussy (short and delicate) before priming the holiday spirit with Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” in its original but seldom heard full orchestral version.

Then the community singers of Humboldt Chorale and the HSU University Singers join the Symphony for Franz Schubert’s Mass in G, featuring three vocal soloists: Dylan Kinser, Katherine Johnson and James Gadd. “Schubert looks back to his famous predecessors, J.S. Bach and Mozart in this work,” said Symphony conductor Paul Cummings. “Parts of this Mass are considered to be among Schubert’s best writing—and he was only 18 when he wrote it.”

Then the Symphony performs the overture to The Messiah by George Frideric Handel, and the choir joins in for two choruses: “Glory to God in the Highest” and “Hallelujah,” with the original orchestral instrumentation as Handel wrote it. “We’re excited to invite the audience to join us in the singing of the Hallelujah chorus at the end of the program,” Cummings said. “We hope to see everybody on their feet for what has become a great holiday tradition around the world.”

This holiday concert is performed on Friday December 7 and Sunday December 9 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. Humboldt Symphony is conducted by Paul Cummings, Humboldt Chorale is directed by Carol Ryder and University Singers are directed by Harley Muilenburg. Produced by HSU Music Department.

Media: Tri-City Weekly, Humboldt State Now, Arcata Eye

Concert Notes by Paul Cummings, Humboldt Symphony Conductor

We’re doing a program every other year now in which the orchestra combines with the University Singers and the Humboldt Chorale.   As in the past, we’re doing the orchestral portion of the program first, then the orchestra combines with the two choirs after intermission.

The orchestra will perform 3 pieces in the first half:

“March to the Scafford” by Hector Berlioz, the fourth movement from his Symphonie fantastique, one of his most famous compositions. It’s about an artist who in this movement has a vision about being marched to his own execution, because of his reckless behavior while in love. Berlioz is known primarily as one of the greatest orchestrators ever, and his use of the instruments in a wide variety of combination is really remarkable. It really comes through in every measure of this short piece.

   Petite Suite by Claude Debussy: This is 180 degrees from the previous piece. Berlioz is extraverted and even bombastic—as a composer he liked to have 200 musicians on stage. Debussy wrote in a much more intimate style. As the title suggests, this is four short movements, miniatures really, originally written for piano four hands. It has gained popularity in this orchestral form, even though it is still done for piano four hand as much or perhaps more. We’re hoping to bring on two pianists to play just the first movement, to give the audience a sense of how a piece can be transcribed from piano to orchestra and still be effective.

  Debussy is very economical in his writing, and yet there’s incredible variety in this suite, with its movements of two or three minutes each. Debussy doesn’t repeat ideas—he writes one and moves on to the next, which is really a challenge to play because it keeps the musicians on their toes.

Sleigh Ride by Leroy Anderson:  This is a lighter, fun piece that everybody knows, but maybe not in its original orchestral form. It’s usually heard in all sorts of later arrangements and transcriptions, but this is the form in which Anderson originally wrote this piece.

Then the orchestra combines with the choirs for works by two major composers:

Mass in G by Franz Schubert. In this composition, Schubert is looking back to his German predecessors J.S. Bach and Mozart, who also wrote settings for the Ordinary of the Mass. Schubert uses the same musical structures such as fugue and chorale and a traditional or common practice counterpoint.

The Credo in particular represents some of Schubert’s best writing—it’s a very haunting portion of the Mass, with some very profound, almost hypnotic music. It’s generally considered the greatest moments in this Mass.I find it especially amazing that Schubert wrote this profound music when he was only 18 years old, all in a five-day period in 1815.

We have three vocal soloists: Dylan Kinser, Katherine Johnson and James Gadd. Katherine in particular has a very demanding solo part and she does a terrific job. The orchestra uses only strings—no winds or percussion.

Finally, we perform three movements from Handel’s Messiah. The orchestra alone performs the Overture, and with the choirs we perform two choruses, “Glory to God in the Highest” and “Hallelujah.”

These are very well known excerpts from the Messiah. They involve a lot of Baroque counterpoint, but Handel’s music can be distinguished from that of his contemporary J.S. Bach by its more extraverted style. You hear fanfares and flourishes, and there’s less dense texture in the music of Handel as compared to Bach. That comes out really clearly in these two choruses. I’ve often thought that Bach could never have written the Hallelujah chorus in particular. It’s almost as if Handel wrote music for the outdoors, whereas Bach’s music seems much more formal and based indoors, inside the Cathedral.

We’re attempting to be faithful to Handel’s original score, including four bassons, two oboes, two trumpets, tympani and string orchestra. And we’re especially excited to invite the audience to join us in the singing of the Hallelujah chorus. We’ll provide the words, and we hope to see everybody on their feet joining us.

Big Band Jazz at HSU December 6 and 8

Jazz of different styles and from different eras get the big band treatment in two concerts by HSU ensembles: the AM Jazz Band on Thursday December 6 and the Jazz Orchestra on Saturday December 8.

The AM Jazz Band plays tunes by Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and Duke Ellington, as well as by John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet. They also feature an original composition by Armando Rivera called “Pescados Frescos.”

In their Saturday concert the HSU Jazz Orchestra performs a medley compiled by contemporary “free jazz” pioneer Carla Bley of two of her compositions plus an arrangement of a hymn by the iconoclastic American composer Carl Ruggles.

The concert also features tunes by Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk and gypsy jazz great Django Reinhardt. Though Benny Carter arranged his tune “Doozy” for big band in the 1980s, Jazz Orchestra director Dan Aldag calls it “a foundational piece” that has all the features of classic 1930s big band music, including room for several solos.

The AM Jazz Band performs on Thursday December 6 and the Jazz Orchestra performs on Saturday December 8. Both concerts begin at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7/3/free to HSU students with ID, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Directed by Dan Aldag, produced by the HSU Music Department. 

Media: Humboldt State Now, Arcata Eye.

AM Jazz and Jazz Orchestra Concert Notes by Dan Aldag, Director

On Thursday (Dec. 6) the AM Jazz Band is playing the usual assortment of jazz classics in a variety of styles: "Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West" by John Lewis (of the Modern Jazz Quartet); "Nardis" by Miles Davis; "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" by Charles Mingus; "Black Butterfly" by Duke Ellington, "Foot Pattin' Time" by Lou Donaldson and "Sweet Georgia Bright" by Charles Lloyd and one original composition for big band, "Pescados Frescos" by Armando Rivera.

On Saturday (Dec. 8) the HSU Jazz Orchestra performs:

A medley compiled and arranged by Carla Bley of "Exaltation", "Religious Experience" and "Major". The latter two are Bley's composition and "Exaltation" is a hymn tune written by the iconoclastic American composer Carl Ruggles as a memorial to his late wife.

"Manteca" by Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo. This is one of the first Afro-Cuban jazz compositions, written for Gillespie's big band in 1947. We're playing the same arrangement that Gillespie's band recorded.

"Manoir De Mes Reves", composed by Django Reinhardt and arranged for Gerry Mulligan's Concert Jazz Band by Bob Brookmeyer.

"Tijuana Gift Shop", a Charles Mingus composition written for his album Tijuana Moods. We're playing the arrangement done for the Mingus Big Band by Michael Phillip Mossman.

"Bemsha Swing", written by Thelonious Monk and arranged by the legendary Bill Holman for his own band about ten years ago.

"Doozy", by Benny Carter, one of the architects of the jazz big band through his writing for Fletcher Henderson's band in the early 1930s. "Doozy" comes from later in Carter's long career. He first recorded it in a small group in 1961. He arranged it for big band in the late 1980s, and that is the version we'll be playing.

Annual Holiday Concert with Madrigal and MRT Singers

The HSU Madrigal Singers present their annual holiday show of 16th century English hits, followed by the Mad River Transit Singers creating some spontaneous jazz combustion in their joint concert on Sunday December 2 at Fulkerson Recital Hall.

The Madrigal Singers perform traditional works by Henry Purcell, John Dowland and Ralph Vaughan Williams as well as madrigals by Thomas Weelkes, Thomas Morely and Robert Jones—all beginning with “Fanfare for Christmas Day.” As usual the 28 singers will be in full Elizabethan costume, singing in various combinations: for example, four Ladies combine on Purcell’s “What Can We Poor Females Do?” Harley Muilenberg conducts and John Chernoff performs keyboard accompaniments.

Then the MRT Singers take over for an eclectic program, focusing on music of well-known vocal jazz arrangers. Among the tunes they perform are “Spontaneous Human Combustion” by Richard Greene and Joe Finetti, a vocal arrangement of Paul Simon’s “Baby Driver,” and Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia On My Mind.” They will also celebrate the salvation of Big Bird with the “Sesame Street” song.

Singers will be accompanied by a rhythm section of Steven Workman on bass, Dylan Williams on drums, and John Chernoff on piano, who also promises a solo or two.

The Madrigal Singers and MRT perform their holiday concert on Sunday December 2 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Directed by Harley Muilenburg, produced by the HSU Music Department.

Media: Tri-City Weekly, Humboldt State Now

Members of the Fall 2012 Madrigal Singers:

Cayla Crofts, Ana Cruz, Rebecca Ashbach, Jacqui Hernandez, Shawny Hard,Erin Corrigan, Michaela Presler, Daniela Godinez, Savannah Bouton, Cynthia Stuart, Kristin Mack, Robyn Strong, Elena Tessler, Georgia Sack, Rosemary Torres,Natalie Whiting, Jason (JD) Garza, James Adams, Ken Montalvo, Dylan Kinser, John Pettlon, Kris Lang, James Gadd, Edress Nassir, Clint Rebik, Kobe Thompson, Matt Walton and Greg Willis. (Not necessarily in order of photo above.)

Fall 2012 MRT Singers are:

 Jacqui Hernandez, Anna Coleman, Katrina Beck, Trina Garrett, Hannah Fels, Kathleen Johnston, Dani Godinez, Jessie Rawson, Sandy Lindop,Tina Toomata, Steven Eitzen, Raymond Alvarez, Dolan Leckliter, David Vaughan, Alberto Rodriguez, Jerry Olofsson, Joseph Welnick. (Not in order pictured.)

Calypso Band and Percussion Ensemble in the Groove

Humboldt State Calypso Band performs a steel band classic and the HSU Percussion Ensemble features dramatic rhythms of a Balinese chant in their joint concert on Saturday December 1 in the Van Duzer Theatre.

The world-famous composition Ketjak by Akira Nishimura is the Percussion Ensemble’s featured work. “Nishimura’s composition is based on the famous Balinese ‘Monkey Chant,’ said Percussion Ensemble director Eugene Novotney,” where 100 men sit in a concentric circle and chant ‘Ketjak’ in complex interlocking rhythm while characters play out the dramaturgy of the famous Ramayana. This virtuosic piece captures the deep emotion of the Monkey Chant in a dramatic percussive orchestration that pushes the 17-player ensemble to the limits of their technique and musicality.”

The Ensemble also plays works by John Cage, Michael Udow and Lynn Glassock. The first half of the show concludes with traditional Mandeng drumming of West Africa, presenting a classic from Ghana using only indigenous instruments.

Then the Calypso Band takes over with its high-energy dance music, emphasizing Panorama compositions of the Caribbean Carnival in Trinidad and Tabago. The evening includes the Panorama steel band classic, “Pan in A Minor.” “This piece has driving rhythmic energy with a distinct minor key harmonic foundation,” Novotney said, “which makes the piece both unique and infectious in its energy and its groove.”

The HSU Percussion Ensemble, HSU World Percussion Group and the Humboldt State Calypso Band perform on Saturday December 1 at 8 p.m. in the Van Duzer Theatre on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $7/3, with first 50 HSU students free, from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Directed by Eugene Novotney and Howard Kaufman, produced by HSU Music Department.    

Media: Humboldt State Now , Tri-City Weekly

A Bugler’s Holiday with the Symphonic Band

It’s a bugler’s holiday with the HSU Symphonic Band on Friday November 30 at Fulkerson Hall, but there’s more. It’s also a tribute to gum-suckers, a dramatic sunset, a visit to Electric Park, a Mexican anthem and a rare demonstration of the art of “the smear.”

Leroy Anderson’s Bugler’s Holiday—a holiday favorite since the 1950s--centers the Band’s holiday concert, with solos by three student trumpeters: Jesse Burns, Andrew Henderson and McKenna Smith. “The audience should be very impressed with their playing,” commented conductor Paul Cummings. “They are really terrific.”

Percy Grainger learned to write band music in the U.S. Army Band in World War I, but he remembered the folk melodies of his Australian boyhood. He combined the two in “The Gum-Suckers March,” named for a local habit in Victoria, Australia of sucking on eucalyptus leaves. “It has a lyrical section but it’s mostly raucous,” Cummings said. “It’s a challenging piece for all the instruments, and not your typical march.”

When composer Robert Bennett as a boy walked past the dance hall in the turn-of-the-century amusement park called Electric Park, he heard snatches of popular tunes of the time. This music is reflected in his Suite of Old American Dances, the main work on the program. “The five movements show the music moving from dances like the waltz and the western one- step to ragtime, as popular music was becoming more influenced by jazz,” Cummings said. Bennett went on to become the legendary arranger for 1940s-60s Broadway musicals.

  “Zacatecas,” is a late 19th century march written by Genaro Codina to win a muncipal band concert, but its popularity grew to such proportions that it is now considered the second national anthem of Mexico.

  The only slow piece on the program is “Dusk” by contemporary American composer Steven Bryant, which reflects on the dual nature of the sunset, it’s “dramatic stillness.” “It’s the contrast of the calmness of that time of day with the intense fiery hues of the sky,” Cummings explained.

Now about that smear. “It’s a little known genre for wind band—a style of light march music in which the trombones use their slide to create melodic effects that cannot be done on any other instrument—at least not very easily,” Cummings said. Five trombonists display the smear technique in the most famous example of this genre, Henry Fillmore’s “Lassus Trombone.” “Lassus” stands for molasses, as in smooth as molasses... or as a slide trombone.

  The HSU Symphonic Band performs on Friday November 30 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $7/$3/free to HSU students with i.d. from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Conducted by Paul Cummings, produced by the HSU Music Department. 

Media: Humboldt State Now, Arcata Eye

Conductor's Notes by Paul Cummings

Zacatecas (1892) by Genaro Codina

Zacatecas is a state in Mexico where Genaro Codina was born and raised, and never left. The municipal band had a composition contest, and Codina won it with this march. Since then it’s become amazingly famous in Mexico. It’s known as Mexico’s second national anthem.

Dusk (2004) by Steven Bryant

This is our one and only slow piece on the program—and it’s a very, very slow piece. The tempo marking is a quarter note equals 48 beats a minute--so slow that some metronomes don’t even go down to that speed. It’s a challenge to play.

 This piece attempts to capture the spirit of sunset. In the introduction to the score he writes, “This simple chorale-like work captures the reflective calm of dusk, paradoxically illuminated by the fiery hues of sunset. I’m always struck by the dual nature of this experience, as if witnessing an event of epic proportions silently occurring in slow motion. Dusk is intended as a short, passionate evocation of this moment of dramatic stillness.” That’s one of the best descriptions of a piece by a composer I’ve ever read.

Bryant is a living American composer in his 40s, gaining national recognition mostly because he includes electronica in his works for acoustic instruments. This particular piece doesn’t do that, but that’s his claim to fame.

Gum-Suckers March (1914) by Percy Grainger

We do a lot of Grainger’s music, as do most collegiate wind bands, because he’s written more for wind bands than any other composer. He was born in Australia, went to Europe and lived for awhile in England. He started out as a concert pianist—he was famous for performing the world premiere of Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor. But he emigrated in the United States towards the end of World War I, and joined the U.S. Army Band, which he where he learned how to write for wind band.

Gum-Suckers March incorporates an Australian folk song in the middle of it—something Grainger did in other pieces. This folk song is the one lyric moment. Otherwise it is a raucous piece, and a challenging one for all the instruments. Its Australian roots are in the title as well as the folk melody. Gum-suckers refers to the people from the state of Victoria in Australia, and the local habit of sucking the leaves of eucalyptus trees for their flavor, until the leaf turns kind of gum-like.

Bugler’s Holiday (1954) by Leroy Anderson

This is a famous piece from 1954, often done around the holiday season. It features three soloists who will be out in front of the band. I know the audience will be impressed with them—they are really terrific. It’s a delightful, toe-tapping piece—not really pop music, but sort of light Americana. It’s sort of in the vein of Victor Herbert and his operettas. It’s the type of piece that the John Philip Sousa band did on their tours, mixed in with marches, opera arias and transcriptions of orchestral overtures.

Suite of Old American Dances (1949) by Robert Bennett

This is by far the most substantial work on the program—a five movement work, with each movement centered on a particular dance that was popular in America in the early 20th century.

  Bennett’s original title for this suite was “Electric Park,” because when he was growing up in Kansas City he often went to the amusement park of that name. He recalled spending many hours, walking past the dance hall there and hearing a little combo inside playing these various dances. Later he wrote, “I had a nice name for it but you know how publishers are. They know their customers and we authors never seem to.” The publishers made him change it to Suite of Old American Dances.

The five dances are the Cakewalk, the Schottische-- a Scottish waltz which is actually more similar to a polka in 2/4 time, the Western One-Step, Wallflower Waltz and Rag. It’s a wonderful piece, with lots of demanding rhythmic playing because Bennett uses jazz rhythms that were coming into vogue in the first decade of the 20th century.

  Bennett is probably best known as the greatest Broadway arranger who ever lived. He worked with all the great composers of the 40s, 50s and into the 60s. He took their scores—often just a lead piano sheet—and fully orchestrated them for the Broadway pit orchestra. Oklahoma, Showboat, Kiss Me Kate, Sound of Music, Camelot, Porgy and Bess, Annie Get Your Gun, My Fair Lady and a lot more--he really knew how to write for a small pit ensemble, and his concert band pieces are great.

Lassus Trombone (1915) by Henry Fillmore

This is a piece from the little known genre for wind band called “the smear.” No one should be too upset if they didn’t learn about it in music appreciation class, because it’s a style of light march music in which trombones use their slide to create wonderful melodic effects that cannot be done on any other instrument—at least not very easily.

Since trombones can produce an infinite range of pitches within one partial of the harmonic series, it’s capable of doing smears-- the technical term is glissando. So this piece is based on this technical capability. Other instruments call do glissando but they basically go pitch by pitch in the equal tempered chromatic scale. The trombone doesn’t have to bother with the equal tempered chromatic scale because it can produce every micro pitch in between the standard 12 notes of the chromatic scale.

We have five trombonists out in front of the band displaying their smear technique for one and all. Fillmore wrote a number of smears but this one is by far the most famous. John Philip Sousa performed it daily for years with his band. You’ll hear it—along with Bugler’s Holiday—in almost every municipal band concert in the summer, in hundreds of small towards throughout the United States.

Somebody asked Fillmore what the title meant, and he said “Why, molasses, of course. I thought of molasses on bread for breakfast, dinner and supper.”

Operation: Rhythmic Tornado-- Alex Espe, Aaron Loughlin, Ian Taylor, Josh Foster, Justin Bertolini, Thatcher Holvick-Norton. One of five jazz combos performing in two shows Nov. 11.

Choose Your Jazz in Two Shows at Fulkerson Hall

  There may be no such thing as too much jazz, but this fall there was too much for one Jazz Combos concert—so Fulkerson Recital Hall will host two separate shows with a total of five combos on Sunday November 11.

The 7 p.m. show features two groups: the all-acoustic La Musique Diabolique (Drew McGowan, violin; Dan Fair and Kris Lang, guitars; Steven Workman, bass) and Tafkatdaq (Nev Mattinson, vibes; Jason Hall, guitar; Matt Engleman, bass; and Tyler Burkhart, drums.)

Three other combos perform for the 9 p.m. show. The Monday Sextet features Claire Bent on vocals, Danny Gaon on bassoon, Ari Davie on trumpet, Aber Miller on piano, Brian Hennesy on bass and Kevin Amos on drums. The Monday trio is Joe Welnick (piano,) Keith Brown (bass) and Matt Cox (drums.) The electric Operation: Rhythmic Tornado (Justin Bertolini, trumpet; Josh Foster, trombone; Aaron Laughlin, guitar; Alex Espe, piano; Ian Taylor, bass; Thatcher Holvick-Norton, drums) completes the evening.

  “If there's a theme to the evening,” said Jazz Combos director Dan Aldag, “it's eclecticism. There are tunes from the 1930s to 2012 played in styles from the gypsy jazz in the style of Django Reinhardt to swing and bebop, jazz-rock fusion and post-modern. Several groups also show the influence of the pop music that all the students listened to as they grew up.”

Jazz Combos perform at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $7/$3/free to HSU students with i.d. from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Directed by Dan Aldag, produced by the HSU Music Department. 

Media: Humboldt State Now, Arcata Eye

 The Cornet section of Humboldt Bay Brass Band. Back, left to right: Chris Cox, Sean Gill, Tom Cover, Leon Hamilton, & Ryan Brown. Front, left to right: Fredéric Bélanger, Molly Harvis, Victoria Sacramento, and John Ferreira. Similar to an orchestra, the cornet section is one-third of an entire brass band.

Heroes and Warriors with the Humboldt Bay Brass Band

The Humboldt Bay Brass Band salutes veterans and the Olympics in its “Heroes and Warriors” concert on Saturday, November 10 in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

The concert will include several familiar tunes, including the Colonel Bogey March from The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Bugler’s Dream, which includes the famous theme used by ABC for its Olympic coverage. It is played on natural (no valve) signal trumpets by the group within the band, Trumpet Consort von Humboldt, which performed it this summer at the international symposium of the Historic Brass Society in New York.

  Other selections carrying forward the themes include Old Comrades, a quick-step march by William Rimmer, Heroes and Warriors by contemporary British composer Rodney Newton and Requiem and Prayer by Anton Bruckner, which Humboldt Bay Brass Band director Gilbert Cline describes as “calm and reflective.”

The Light Cavalry Overture by Franz von Suppe is another well-known tune, familiar from numerous soundtracks and advertisements. In addition, four cornet soloists combine on “Bugler’s Holiday,” the 1950s hit by Leroy Anderson, and the band plays a brass version of the Dave Brubeck Quartet classic, “Take Five.”

Humboldt Bay Brass Band performs on Saturday November 10 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $7/$3/free to HSU students with i.d. from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Directed by Gilbert Cline, produced by the HSU Music Department. 

Media: Humboldt State Now, Arcata Eye, Tri-City Weekly

The Program
Humboldt Bay Brass Band
with brief notes by director Gilbert Cline


 Light Cavalry Overture by  F. von Suppe

 Classic that references veterans of collective ancestry.

The Golden Hinde (tone poem) by Drake Rimmer

In music, describes voyages of Sir Francis Drake. A golden hinde is a doe. "The Golden Hind or Hinde was an English galleon best known for its circumnavigation of the globe between 1577 and 1580, captained by Sir Francis Drake. She was originally known as the Pelican, but was renamed by Drake mid-voyage in 1578.

The Dam Busters by Eric Coates

Music from the 1955 movie of the same name, about a British air operation in World War II. Begins with the sound of four-engine heavy bombers. Ends with the addition of pipe organ.

Colonel Bogey by Kenneth Alford

Used in the 1957 British World War II movie, Bridge on the River Kwai. Be prepared to whistle along!

Take Five by Dave Brubeck

The classic cool jazz tune, written by a great Californian, joining world dance music with jazz. Complete on this concert with jazz solos.

A L’Etendard by  F. Buhle / Bugler’s Dream by Leo Arnaud

The themes heard on ABC sports from the 1960s but here with the complete first suite. Based on the 1830s cavalry signal trumpet theme by Buhle.

 Heroes and Warriors by Rodney Newton

Exciting single movement work featuring timpani, and mini-fugues.

Requiem and Prayer by Anton Bruckner

Beautiful; calm; vocal in nature; reflective.

Old Comrades by William Rimmer

A “quick step” march, tempo 140 beats per minute!

Bugler’s Holiday by Leroy Anderson

The famous 1950s American hit, here featuring four cornet soloists!

The Humboldt Bay Brass Band:

E-flat Soprano Cornet: Chris Cox; B-flat Cornets: Fréderic Bélanger, Ryan Brown, Tom Cover, McKenna Smith, Sean Gill, Victoria Sacramento, John Ferriera, Leon Hamilton, & Molly Harvis; Flügelhorn: Gary Ross; Tenor Horns: Matt Morgan, Anwyn Halliday, & Spencer Hitzeroth; Baritone Horns: Toshi Noguchi & William Zoller; Trombones: George Epperson, Matthew Brown, & Corey Tamondong; Euphoniums: Phil Sams & Joshua Perkins; Basses (tubas): Jerry Carter, Ryan Egan, Matt Farquar-Leicester, Wilson Bowles, and Joyce Carter. Percussion: Grace Kerr, Nev Mattinson, & Dylan Williams, & Molly Newkirk; Organ: Joe Welnick.

photo (l to r, back to front): HSU Guitar Ensemble members Greg Willis, director Nicholas Lambson, Rory Urquhart, Justin Santos, Dan Fair, Jason Hall, Jerry Olofsson, Kris Lang, Nigel Gunn.

  Guitar Ensemble Explores the 20th Century

The HSU Guitar Ensemble explores twentieth century music in its fall concert on Friday November 9 in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

Students Charlie Sleep and Justin Santos perform the Tango Suite by Astor Piazzolla. “He revitalized the old tango style and incorporated more modern harmonies,” said Ensemble director and HSU professor Nicholas Lambson. “Piazzolla’s music is extremely passionate, seductive and fiery.”

The quartet of Jerry Olofsson, Greg Willis, Tyler Vaughan and Rory Urquhart plays John Duarte’s Little Suite.  Duarte’s background was in jazz, and his style is “essentially a mixture of the traditional and the decidedly modern. Little Suite is an excellent example.”

Members of the Ensemble perform three works by famous composers who didn’t write for guitar, though “the guitar would have suited them very well.” Jason Hall and Dan Fair play Debussy’s Reverie, Kris Lang and Nigel Gunn play Arabian Dance by Bartok, and a quartet of Sleep, Santos, Olofsson and Lang perform Pavane for a Dead Princess by Ravel.

A quartet of Hall, Olofsson, Lang and Fair will play the most unusual work on the program: Mbira, written by William Kanengiser for “prepared” guitar, with instruments altered in ways analogous to John Cage’s “prepared piano.” Lambson recalls that his own student quartet wrote to Kanengiser and his Los Angeles Guitar Quartet to obtain this unpublished music. “Performing this piece was a highlight of my studies,” he said, “and I hope the same is true for the quartet playing it on November 9.”

   HSU Guitar Ensemble performs on November 9 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $7/$3/free to HSU students with i.d. from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Directed by Nicholas Lambson, produced by the HSU Music Department.

Media: Humboldt State Now, North Coast Journal, Arcata Eye

The Program
 HSU Guitar Ensemble Concert November 9, 2012
Nicholas Lambson, Director

Tango Suite by Astor Piazzolla
Performed by: Charlie Sleep and Justin Santos

Little Suite by John Duarte
Jerry Olofsson, Greg Willis, Tyler Vaughan, Rory Urquhart

Reverie by Claude Debussy, Arranged by Laurindo Almeida
Jason Hall and Dan Fair

Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess) by  Maurice Ravel  
Charlie Sleep, Justin Santos, Jerry Olofsson, Kris Lang

Arabian Dance by Bela Bartok
Kris Lang and Nigel Gunn

Mbira by William Kanengiser
Jason Hall, Jerry Olofsson, Kris Lang and Dan Fair


Concert Notes by Nicholas Lambson, Director

Last academic year, the HSU Guitar Ensemble focused on music from Spain. In the spirit of these themed concerts, which explore the various genres that the guitar belongs to, we are now going to focus on music from the 20th century. While I definitely enjoy music from all time periods, the 20th century to me is the most interesting. Within this 100-year period, there are a multitude of styles ranging from atonality to Rock. While it is not possible to include every 20th century style in one concert, our program is certainly diverse.

Astor Piazzolla is a fascinating musician and composer from Argentina. He is universally loved by performers and audience members, and it is very common to see his works on programs by professionals and students alike. Piazzolla studied with the great Nadia Boulanger, as did many other great composers of the day including Aaron Copland. Boulanger is a somewhat rare figure in that she is very well known as a pedagogue, although she was also a fine composer. I believe that one of her greatest strengths was the ability to discover her students’ own musical voice and cultivate that. With Copland, it was American music; with Piazzolla, it was Tango music.

Piazzolla revitalized the old tango style and created Tango Nuevo which incorporated more modern harmonies, scales, and other contemporary compositional techniques. Stylistically, Piazzolla’s music is extremely passionate, seductive, and fiery. The Tango Suite was written for the famous Assad Duo who are brothers and come from a large musical family in Brazil. The Assad brothers tour extensively and are considered by many to be the preeminent guitar duo in the world right now, perhaps of all time. One of the members, Sergio, is a faculty member at my alma mater, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The suite has three movements, and the Andante is the second lyrical movement. While it is not as flashy as the other movements, it is a fine example of the kind of passion that Piazzolla is known for.

John Duarte is an interesting figure in the guitar world. While he did not have a traditional musical education, he studied Jazz guitar, studied on his own, and was proficient on other instruments as well. Playing bass, he sat in with Jazz greats Coleman Hawkins and Django Reinhardt. He was also well connected with other such guitar luminaries as Ida Presti and Andres Segovia, who was the most highly esteemed guitarist of the time. Segovia was so influential that any other composers and musicians that he associated with and respected were in turn respected by the international community.

 John Duarte was a gifted composer and musician, but he was also an academic and a socialite. He has written countless articles for all of the top guitar publications, wrote liner notes for major artists, and contributed to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. He frequently hosted gatherings which brought together various other important composers and performers in the guitar world. These meetings culminated in various collaborations and allowed for a free exchange of ideas. Segovia was certainly present at of many of those meetings, and met the number of other composers that he would go on to work with, creating new repertoire for the guitar. Segovia and Duarte became friends as well as professional collaborators. Duarte composed the music for Segovia's wedding. Duarte’s style is essentially a mixture of the traditional and the decidedly modern.

The nature of his Little Suite is an excellent example of this. The dance suite was a fixture of instrumental music in the Baroque era, though the dances themselves came from individual nations in Europe during the Renaissance. By using the form of the suite, Duarte draws upon historical and somewhat familiar music, and indeed the two movements that we will be performing, the Anglaise and the Gigue, very clearly recall dances that are hundreds of years old. However, Duarte frequently plays with the listener’s expectations by incorporating very modern elements.

For example, in the Anglaise, Duarte alters what would otherwise be a very traditional musical device used in the Renaissance and Baroque. There is a short melody that is passed around the group, which normally would be repeated exactly by each member using the same notes but staggered by a measure or two, or it would be repeated up or down a perfect fourth/fifth. Instead, Duarte has each member repeat the same melody only a note apart. After all the members enter, a cluster of notes is formed which was a very modern practice and indeed. Often the effect is one of surprise, where dissonance is introduced suddenly in an otherwise traditional passage. Other times, Duarte walks us gently into a modern idiom, which blurs the distinction between the two. A final interesting note on this work – the first movement has the interior voices harmonizing in 2nds! This, along with the clusters, definitely makes the work sound very modern and very tense. This clash is resolved later in a more traditional way in the Gigue, which is another iteration of the mix of traditional and modern in this work.

Half of the pieces on this program are actually arrangements for guitar, which is a very common occurrence. The guitar has a complicated relationship with the musical community. It exists somewhere between folk/popular music and classical. I've often felt this to be its greatest strength, and occasionally also its greatest weakness.

 Case in point, the next three composers on our program did not write for the guitar, though they were some of the most influential composers of all time and in many ways the guitar would have suited them very well. I believe that good arrangements are based on the idea that the music will translate well to the new instrument or instruments. I believe this to be the case with the following works.

We will be performing works by the two main French Impressionist composers, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Claude Debussy is credited with being the father of the style. He was a great innovator who inspired, or at least influenced, every composer that followed to some extent. He tested and defied convention through his progressive use of harmony, timbre, form, and expression. He also stands as one of the great composers for the piano, and has helped define the entire genre as Chopin did before him.

 Reverie is a famous work that is a good representation of his style. The harmonies in particular are very progressive and utilize harmonic extensions, as well as Debussy’s usual synthetic scales here and there. The arranger, Laurindo Almeida, was a classical and jazz guitarist who specialized in Latin American music. In addition to touring extensively, he has done a number of arrangements and has also published a method book.

Maurice Ravel is the other main composer in this style. Debussy and Ravel were contemporaries and were similar in many ways, but they were not terribly close and were quite different. Both composers were influenced by exoticism, their national heritage, and used progressive harmonic techniques among other things, but they did so in their own ways. Ravel was particularly interested in blues and jazz, and incorporated their traits into his own language. He also invested his time into other “exotic” works evocative of distant lands, his Bolero being an extremely famous example.

  One of Ravel’s most famous works is the Pavane for a Dead Princess, which was dedicated to his patron, the Princess de Polignac, and is meant to evoke a Spanish court of the past when a Pavane might have been danced. It was originally composed for piano, though it has been arranged many times. Ravel was himself a master at orchestration and arranging, and orchestrated this work himself, along with many others. His orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is a fine example, and is so famous and convincing that many do not realize that it was originally a piano work.

 This arrangement is for guitar quartet. I find that Impressionist works are nearly impossible to pull off on solo guitar because of the thick textures required. Reverie is able to get by with two guitars, but I believe the Pavane works much better with four.

Bela Bartok holds a special place in the annals of music history. He was a master composer, ethnomusicologist, and a pedagogue. He is considered to be the first real musicologist. From an early age, he was inspired to travel to remote villages in Eastern Europe to study the music of the people there. He transcribed melodies and later did field recordings to allow for further study. This love for non-Western music is clearly represented in many of his works.

 However, Bartok was also a progressive Western composer who pushed the boundaries of harmony, melody, rhythm, and form. It is not uncommon to see both sides in his music, and that is the case with Arabian Dance. This piece actually comes from his 44 Violin Duets. The works translate extremely well to the guitar in many respects including the keys used. With this particular piece, everything remains intact except for a long, sustained bowed note in the original. Bartok evokes the Arabian aspect by using the augmented 2nd throughout the work, heightened by a semi-ornamented melodic style. Bartok also subverts the meter with melodies that do not “fit in-between the lines.”

  Mbira is a very special work in many ways. There are few works like it for any instrumentation, mostly because of the style and the prepared guitar techniques used. Mbira was composed by a member of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, William Kanengiser, which they recorded. While I was earning my undergraduate degrees, my guitar quartet decided to write and ask for a copy of the score since it had not been published. They graciously sent us the score, and performing that piece was a highlight of my studies, and I hope that the same is true for the quartet playing it on November 9th.

  An mbira is an African thumb piano, also sometimes called a kalimba. A small wooden box is held in both hands, and the thumbs press on small metal tines that are similar to piano keys to make sound. Not only does this work employ some African musical devices, it requires the performers to alter the sound of the guitar to mimic the mbira.

 A strong representation of African music is achieved through the use of syncopation, cross-rhythms, and rhythmic layering. To achieve the mbira effect, the players “prepare” the guitar strings by crimping staples around pairs of strings. Most players crimp one staple around the first two strings, placed close to the bridge, though one guitar adds another staple to the third and fourth strings. American experimental composer John Cage is famous for his prepared piano works (among other things), where various objects are placed directly on the strings of the piano to achieve new timbres. There are a number of prepared guitar works out there as well which can use alligator clips, bottle caps, and fishing line sinkers to name a few. I hope to do another piece that uses all of those techniques next semester, but until then this prepared guitar piece definitely achieves the desired effect of making the guitar sound like an mbira!

Opera Workshop Puts the Comic Back in Opera

HSU Opera Workshop puts the comic back in opera with a series of spoofs on Friday and Saturday, November 2 and 3 in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

Famous opera characters visit a TV talk show in a spoof by Milton Granger to discuss the topic “My Dad Works for My Boyfriend.” The three characters from Verdi’s Rigoletto bring operatic passion to the subject. The Workshop also performs scenes from Granger’s zany Peter Rabbit in the Garden of Doom.

Composer Seymour Barab provides more musical mirth, including some four-part harmony on 1950s tunes, as well as deconstructing the hysterics of Bizet’s Carmen in a staged excerpt from his Opera Plotz. 
  

The Opera Workshop, directed by Elisabeth Harrington, performs on November 2 and 3 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $7/$3/free to HSU students with i.d. from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Produced by the HSU Music Department.  

Media: Tri-City Weekly, Humboldt State Now, Arcata Eye

International Singer Returns to Arcata for Halloween Concert at HSU

Fresh from a “vividly dramatic” performance in Manhattan lauded by the New York Times, mezzo-soprano (and Arcata High grad) Hai-Ting Chinn returns home to perform a recital of spooky songs from the classical repertoire on Halloween night, October 31 at the HSU Fulkerson Recital Hall.

She was known as Allison Chinn when she sang with the Redwood Coast Children’s Chorus and Humboldt Light Opera, and when she graduated from Arcata High. She took her middle name “Hai-Ting” as her professional name.

Now an international performer of classical and contemporary opera, she is currently featured in the world tour of the Philip Glass opera Einstein on the Beach. In mid-October she performed Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire in New York to widespread praise.

  As an advocate for classical music in accessible settings, she sang on the Wendy Williams syndicated talk show. “Chinn has it all: breathtaking beauty, poise, and a voice of pure gold,” wrote David Cote in Timeout New York.

For HSU on Halloween, “I'm planning a fun little art-song recital of spooky songs from the standard repertoire (Dowland, Schubert, Schumann, Fauré, Mahler, Barber) about witches, ghosts, and the grim reaper, plus a whole set about the moon,” she said. Chinn will also perform the song cycle La Courte Paille by 20th century composer Francis Poulenc—“it’s one of my personal favorites.” She will be joined by soprano and HSU Music professor Elisabeth Harrington for two duets, including Rossini’s “cat duet,” especially for Halloween.

Hai-Ting Chinn performs in a Guest Artists Concert on Wednesday October 31 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $8/$3 from HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door. Produced by the HSU Music Department.

Media: Humboldt State Now, Tri-City Weekly, Arcata Eye

Hai-Ting Chinn Biography

American Mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn performs in a wide range of styles and venues, from Purcell to Pierrot Lunaire, Cherubino to The King & I, J.S. Bach to P.D.Q. Bach.

 In the title role of the Wooster Group's production of Francesco Cavalli's La Didone, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival, the Scotsman newspaper called her "glorious, poised, and poignant," and during the New York City production at St. Ann's Warehouse, Timeout New York said of her: "Chinn has it all: breathtaking beauty, poise, comic timing and a voice of pure gold."

Hai-Ting is currently featured in Philip Glass and Robert Wilson's Einstein On The Beach, which will tour the world through March 2013. Other operatic roles include Hansel in Hansel and Gretel with Lyric Opera of San Diego, Aloès in Chabrier's L'Étoile with New York City Opera, Dorabella in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte with Dell'Arte Opera, Poppea in Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea with OperaOmnia, and Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with the New York Opera Society.

 She has been heard as soloist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Israel Philharmonic, and St. Luke's Chamber Players; in J.S. Bach's St. John Passion with the Orchestra of St. Ignatius Loyola, as Dido in Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with the Rebel Baroque Orchestra, in the Waverly Consort's Christmas Story, in P.D.Q. Bach's Liebeslieder Polkas with Peter Schickele, with the New York City Opera's educational touring company as Hansel in Hansel and Gretel and in the title role of The Little Prince (Rachel Portman, 2003), and as Lady Thiang in The King & I on London's West End.  She was also heard as soloist with the New York Collegium and in Mozart's Requiem with the Colonial Symphony, and she appeared in Jonathan Miller's production of Bach's St. Matthew Passion at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

She sings with new- and early-music ensembles including the Proteus Ensemble, New York Collegium, L'antica Musica New York, the Tiffany Consort, Bachworks, Sequitur, the Locrian Chamber ensemble, the New York Virtuoso Singers, and the VOX vocal ensemble. She has roles in new operas and other works including Du Yun's Zolle at the New York City Opera VOX festival and Angel Bones at the Mann Center in Philadelphia, Jonathan Dawe's Cracked Orlando, Matthew Schickele's Marymere, Conrad Cummings's The Golden Gate, Yoav Gal's Moshe, Gregory Spear's Paul's Case, and Stefan Weisman's Darkling, which was released by Albany Records in 2011.

Hai-Ting is known in New York City as an advocate of classical music in unusual and accessible settings. She starred in the Wooster Group's first opera, La Didone (music of Francesco Cavalli), an experimental retelling of the Dido and Aeneas story set in and against a Sci-Fi movie from the 1960s. She performed the roles of Medea in Cavalli's Giasone and Poppea in Monteverdi's Coronation of Poppea in a nightclub (Le Poisson Rouge in Manhattan's West Village, productions by OperaOmnia) and Nicklausse/The Muse in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann at an active shipping dock on the Brooklyn waterfront (a production by Vertical Players Repertory in collaboration with the Brooklyn stevedores).

 She has also performed at more than 25 New York public schools with the New York City Opera's educational outreach program, and she has given classical recitals in New York rock and cabaret venues such as Tonic and Barbès.

Ms. Chinn grew up in Northern California and holds degrees from the Eastman and Yale Schools of Music. Her web page contains more information and links to videos.

Additional links:

NY Post review of "Mosheh"
The Jewish Daily Forward review of "Mosheh"

Student soloists Ana Cruz, Rachel Kamradt and Anna Coleman

Students in the Spotlight for Humboldt Symphony Concert

Humboldt Symphony features three student instrumental and vocal soloists, plus a piece by a student composer in its concert on Saturday October 27 in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

The student work is Prelude and Dance for the Day of the Dead by Justino Eustacio Perez, an HSU senior studying composition with Brian Post. The Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated on November 1.

Three student soloists are featured in excerpts from Bach cantatas that center on oboe and voice. Vocalists Ana Cruz and Anna Coleman (both studying with HSU professor Elisabeth Harrington) each perform a solo aria, and Rachel Kamradt plays solo oboe on both excerpts.

“Rachel is a graduating senior planning to study oboe in graduate school next year, “said Symphony conductor Paul Cummings,” so we want to feature her as a soloist before she goes away. These excerpts are exquisite writing for the oboe, but also very challenging to play. Bach brings out the beautiful lyric quality of the instrument. In the arias the oboe and the vocalists are basically performing duets together.”

The Symphony also performs Our Town by Aaron Copland, based on his score for the 1940 film version of Thorton Wilder’s famous evocation of Americans life. “It’s a wonderful slow piece,” Cummings said, “and you can certainly hear the Copland style, with beautiful writing for strings and woodwinds.”

  In a different mood, Carmen Suite #1 features familiar melodies from Bizet’s most popular opera, including the toreador march. “This suite is full of drama,” Cummings said, “with famous passages in each movement, beautifully played by our students.”

The Humboldt Symphony performs on Saturday October 27 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $7/$3/free to HSU students with i.d. from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Produced by the HSU Music Department.  

Media: Arcata Eye, Humboldt State Now.

Humboldt Symphony Concert Notes
 by conductor Paul Cummings

We’re playing a piece by a student composer written just last year by a senior studying with Brian Post, Justino Eustacio Perez. It’s called Prelude and Dance for the Day of the Dead. It’s an interesting piece, highly technical writing with a lot of dissonance, very challenging for the musicians.

  Our Town by Aaron Copland: Copland was asked to write the soundtrack of the 1940 film of Thorton Wilder’s play. This piece draws upon passages from the film. As a concert piece it was first played in 1944 by the Boston Pops, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. It’s a wonderful slow piece, and you can certainly hear the Copland style. There’s beautiful writing for the strings and particularly woodwinds. It follows the traditional form of a slow piece: it starts out very calmly with a very soft dynamic level, and builds in intensity to a midsection where everyone is playing at full volume, very thick texture, and then it unwinds itself, and comes back to the soft and peaceful opening style. It’s got that traditional arch form.

We’re doing two sets of excerpts from cantatas by J.S. Bach—Cantata #12 and #21. In each one we’re doing the symphonia, or first movement, as well as an aria for solo voice with continuo, which is bass line and keyboard instrument filling out the harmony. We have two solo voices: Anna Coleman and Ana Cruz, both students of Elisabeth Harrington. Each does a solo aria movement. The common theme is that the primary instrument is the oboe. Our oboe soloist is Rachel Kamradt, a graduating senior planning to study oboe in graduate school next year, so we want to feature her as a soloist before she goes away.

 These four movements are really fantastic examples of Bach’s writing for oboe, especially from his early period in Weimar, his first major job. This is exquisite writing for oboe—also very difficult. The movements are all slow but still very challenging. They feature the beautiful lyric quality of the instrument. The aria movements are basically duets between the oboe and the singer.

Bizet’s Carmen Suite #1 has five movements. It’s drawn from the opera that made Bizet quite famous. The music in this suite is full of classic solo excerpts that are played by musicians in auditions for symphony orchestras all over the world. For example, the flute solo with harp accompaniment in the third movement is very famous. In the fourth movement there’s a famous bassoon duet, beautifully played by our students. Then the very famous toreador march in the last movement.

The music is full of drama, and evokes the spirit of Carmen, who is a classic femme fatale figure from 19th century opera. This music is now seen as some of the most quintessential Spanish music ever written, even though it was written by a French composer.

Old Homecoming Days with the Symphonic Band and Jazz Orchestra

The HSU Symphonic Band celebrates home and family for Homecoming and Family Weekend in a joint concert with the Jazz Orchestra on Saturday October 20 in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

The Symphonic Band features Old Home Days, a suite by American composer Charles Ives that fondly recalls his childhood home in Connecticut.  “It has a lot of variety,” said conductor Paul Cummings, “including a slow movement that’s based on one of Ives’ first compositions—a memorial he wrote as a teenager for the family dog.”  There’s also an upbeat evocation of two marching bands playing different tunes as they pass by in a parade.  “Besides suggesting a childhood experience,” Cummings said, “this is an important part of Ives’ musical aesthetic: taking it all in, rather than just the neat and tidy sounds.”

The American nostalgia theme continues with a movement from Robert Russell Bennett’s Suite of Old American Dances that suggests the changing popular music of the early 20^th century in a waltz flavored with Ragtime. “It’s got a beautiful lightness to it,” Cummings said. Bennett is best known for arranging many of the classic 1940s to 60s Broadway shows, from Showboat to Camelot. "He really knew how to write for a pit orchestra, and his concert band pieces are great," Cummings said. 

The band also plays Footsteps by Dana Wilson, the Pentland Hills march by James Howe and Homage to Perotin by Ron Nelson—“a very exciting piece that really features the brass.  We have terrific brass and percussion sections this year, so we want to show them off,” Cummings said.

The HSU Jazz Orchestra plays the other half of the program, which includes a Mike Tomaro arrangement of “I Mean You” by Thelonious Monk, as well as tunes by Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson and Freddie Hubbard.  The ensemble, directed by Dan Aldag, also plays an original piece composed collectively in the 1930s Count Basie Orchestra tradition.  

The HSU Symphonic Band and Jazz Orchestra perform on Saturday October 20 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $7/$3/free to HSU students with i.d. from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door.  Produced by the HSU Music Department. 

Media: Arcata Eye, Tri-City Weekly, Humboldt State Now.

Notes on Jazz Orchestra program by Director Dan Aldag

"I Mean You"--a Thelonious Monk tune in a new arrangement by Mike Tomaro that incorporates a New Orleans second-line feel.

"One By One"--Wayne Shorter composed this for Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers during his time in that band. Our arrangement is by Mark Taylor.

"Recorda Me"--written by Joe Henderson for his debut album Page One. The title, which means "Remember Me", is Portuguese--an appropriate language for a Bossa Nova. We're playing a new arrangement by Eric Richards.

"The Intrepid Fox"--a fast and complex tune by Freddie Hubbard, also arranged by Eric Richards.

An as-yet-untitled original composed collectively by the band in the tradition of the "head charts" played by the Count Basie Orchestra of the 1930s. Each of the horn sections came up with one or more riffs to serve as melodic material. Further riffs were developed to serve as backgrounds to solos, and over several weeks of rehearsal, the arrangement took shape without anything ever being written down.

Notes on Symphonic Band program by Conductor Paul Cummings

We open with a march: Pentland Hills by Major James W. Howe.  It’s a concert march that quotes several Scottish folk tunes.

We feature Old Home Days, a suite by Charles Ives, in which he looks back fondly on his childhood in Danbury, Connecticut.  There’s a lot of variety in these five movements...The last movement—“London Bridge is Falling Down”—features some classic bitonality: two different keys happening simultaneously.  One part of the brass section is playing in F major while another part is playing simultaneously in E major—a half step away from each other, which creates this huge dissonance.  But that’s one of the hallmarks of his music. It also suggests the effect of two marching bands passing in a parade playing different pieces at the same time.  This evokes an experience of his childhood but also is an important part of his musical aesthetic: taking it all in, representing that as real music, rather than just the neat and tidy sounds.   Ives wrote this as songs for solo voice with piano, and it was arranged for band by Jonathan Elkus, the former band director at UC Davis who is an expert on Ives.

Footsteps by Dana Wilson is meant to describe the effect of slowly creeping footsteps, which start out in a very gentle pulse then gather momentum and volume and drama.  The composer says in the score “Footsteps can suggest everything from gently walking to mysterious uncertainty to massive marching.” He compares it to Bolero, which starts out with snare drum playing very softly but relentlessly, and builds momentum gradually.  Dana Wilson is a well known composer, still living, he teaches at Ithaca College in New York, won a lot of prizes and had his music performed by wind ensembles all over the world.

We’re also playing the fourth movement of Suite of Old American Dances by Robert Russell Bennett.  This movement is “The Wallflower Waltz.”  In general, Bennett is attempting to capture the spirit of Americana, with music and dance and culture of the early part of the 20^th century, 1900-15.  The movements of this piece reflect the styles of that time, and the waltz was prominent among them. But this waltz is not typical—there are jazz inflections, which was a real influence in the early 20^th century, including some ragtime sounds.  It’s got a beautiful lightness to it, often just flute and piccolo playing as a duet. 

Our last piece is “Homage to Perotin” by Ron Nelson.  Perotin was a medieval composer, so his works represent some of the earliest music in western culture.  This is the second movement of Nelson’s Medieval Suite. Each movement focuses on one composer. Nelson writes that he isn’t transcribing their works, but he uses them “as a sort of launching pad” to evoke characteristics of that period’s music, including the use of Gregorian chant.  It’s a very exciting piece, with lots of dissonance.  It really features the brass.  We have terrific brass and percussion sections this year, so we want to show them off.  

Cindy Moyer and Daniela Mineva Play Beethoven and Debussy

Violinist Cindy Moyer begins her project of playing all 10 Beethoven violin sonatas in an HSU Music Faculty Artist Series concert with pianist Daniela Mineva on Saturday, October 13 in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

She starts with the first one—the Sonata in D Major for Piano and Violin, which Beethoven wrote when he was 29. “While it’s an early piece, it is clearly recognizable as mature Beethoven,” Moyer said. “The first movement is stormy and dramatic, while the last movement is lilting.” She plans to play the other nine violin sonatas over the course of several future recitals.

Also on the program are the Sonata for Violin and Piano by Claude Debussy. “This is the 150th anniversary of Debussy’s birth, so playing his only violin sonata seems appropriate,” Moyer said. “It combines Debussy’s typical dreamy, ethereal style with some more direct and energetic sections."

Witold Lutoslawski was a leading 20th century composer and, with Chopin, one of the greatest Polish composers ever, Moyer notes. Written late in his career in 1984, the Partita for Violin and Piano combines traditional and experimental elements, assuring a unique performance each time. “While the harmonies are definitely modern, I hope listeners will find the piece exciting, dramatic and interesting to listen to.”

Moyer and Mineva also combine on From My Homeland by 19th century Czech composer Bedrich Smetana.  Based on folk melodies, "this piece features sweeping, lyrical melodies contrasted with fast and flashy sections," Moyer said.

Moyer plays one solo selection: Fantasia No. 7 by George Philipp Telemann. “He wrote this at about the same time as Bach composed his famous solo violin pieces. But this is on a much more intimate scale, and is much easier to understand on a first hearing.”

The Faculty Artists Series concert with Cindy Moyer and Daniela Mineva is Saturday, October 13 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $8/$3 from HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door. Produced by HSU Music Department. 

Media:  Humboldt State Now , Tri-City Quarterly

Cindy Moyer and Daniela Mineva: The Program

 

Sonata in D Major for Piano and Violin, Op. 12, No. 1: Ludwig van Beethoven
          Allegro con brio
         Tema con Variazioni:  Andante con moto
         Rondo:  Allegro

Partita for Violin and Piano: Witold Lutoslawski

         Allegro Giusto                      
         Ad Libitum
         Largo
         Ad Libitum
         Presto

Fantasia No. 7 in E-flat major for Solo Violin: George Philipp Telemann

         Dolce              

         Allegro

         Largo
         Presto

Sonata for Violin and Piano: Claude Debussy

         Allegro vivo       (1862-1918)
         Intermède:  fantasque et léger
         Finale:  Très animè
 

From My Homeland:  Bedrich Smetana

         Moderato                     
         Andantino - Moderato

  

Program Notes: Cindy Moyer

 
Sonata in D Major for Piano and Violin: This is Beethoven’s first violin sonata, written in Vienna when he was 29, before his first symphony or his first string quartets.  (I’m working on a project of playing all 10 of the violin sonatas over the course of a number of recitals.)  While it’s an early piece, it still is clearly recognizable as mature Beethoven – the first movement is stormy and dramatic, while the last movement has a typical lilting Rondo theme. 

Partita for Violin and Piano: Lutoslawski was one of the leading composers of the 20^th century, and (with Chopin) one of the greatest Polish composers ever.  The Partita was written in 1984, so it’s still a relatively new piece.  The piece uses several unusual compositional techniques – in three sections, Daniela and I are told what notes and (approximately) what rhythms to play, but are also instructed that we are not to synchronize our parts in any way.  The result is that each time we play these sections, the parts combine in unique ways;  we can guarantee that you will hear a one-of-a-kind performance at the recital.  Most of the piece is written more traditionally. While the harmonies are definitely modern, I hope listeners will find the piece exciting, dramatic, and interesting to listen to. 

 Fantasia No. 7 in E-flat major for Solo Violin: Telemann wrote a set of 12 Fantasias for solo violin.  Frequent concert-goers may be familiar with Bach’s monumental Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin.  While the Telemann pieces are written at the same time, they are composed on a much more intimate scale – and are much easier to understand on a first hearing. 

 Sonata for Violin and Piano: This year is the 150^th anniversary of Debussy’s birth, so playing his only violin sonata seems appropriate.  (Next January is the 100^th anniversary of Lutoslawski’s birth. So actually our concert is about 3 ½ months before Lutoslawski’s 100^th birthday and a month and a half after Debussy’s 150^th.)   The sonata combines Debussy’s typical dreamy, ethereal style with some more direct and energetic sections. 

 From My Homeland: Smetana was a Czech composer in the generation before Dvorak.  From My Homeland uses Czech melodies – or at least melodies that are similar to Czech folksongs.  The piece features sweeping, lyrical melodies contrasted with fast and flashy sections.