Happy Trails! Humboldt Chorale & U Singers in Last Concert of the School Year 

 The Humboldt Chorale ends the final concert of this school year by singing cowboy songs, most with a Humboldt County connection, in their shared concert with HSU University Singers beginning at 8 p.m. on Sunday May 11.

 “We’re starting with ‘Home on the Range’ and ending with ‘Happy Trails,’” said Chorale director Carol Ryder. For her, it’s “happy trails” in more ways than one. “Since it is my last semester at HSU, I thought it would be a great time to celebrate Humboldt County and my own roots in music.”

 "Happy Trails" is of course the tune by Dale Evans Rogers that she sang with cowboy singer, movie and TV star Roy Rogers. But most of the Chorale’s set features cowboy songs with music composed by HSU professor emeritus Jim Standard and current staff pianist John Chernoff. The lyrics are by Gwen Peterson, rancher and cowboy poet. “Gwen is a friend of Jim’s in Montana,” said Ryder,” and a pretty funny woman.”

 In addition to the songs, Humboldt County rancher, designer and HSU professor emeritus Gerald Beck reads from his autobiographical book, To Be A Horseman.

 In their half of the concert, the HSU University Singers perform Gabriel Faure’s complete Requiem. “The singers would like to dedicate the performance of the Requiem to the memory of the young people who tragically lost their lives in a traffic accident in April,” said director Harley Muilenburg.

 The University Singers will also perform 20th century American composer Randall Thompson’s setting of a Robert Frost poem, “Choose Something Like A Star.” Muilenburg dedicates the performance to Carol Ryder, in recognition of her retirement from HSU.

 The University Singers and Humboldt Chorale perform on Sunday May 11 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall at HSU. Tickets are $8/$5, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door.  Produced by HSU Music Department.

2014 University Singers: (not in order pictured; click image to enlarge) Ana Ceja, Berenice Ceja, Hope Botelho, Cat Clark, Emily Cornelus, Kinara Erickson, Alia Fix, Linnea Hillo, Katie Jumper, Stevy Marquez, Danielle Murray, Gabriela Pelayo, Jessie Rawson, Kallie Sorenson, Jessica Golden, Greata Goshorn, Michelle Green, Erica Luna, Katherine McCall, Skyler McCormick, Eve Ellen Mejla, Andrea Ortiz, Eiko Ujifusa, Steven Flores, Nicholas Hart, Victor Guerrero, Bryant Kellison, Kyle McInnis, David Paden, John Pettlon, Leonardo Simmons, Raul Yepez, Alex Albin, Neil Bost, Cliff Bruhn, Braxton Corbin, Charles Hollowell, Kristofer Lang, Joseph Mayer, Alberto Rodriguez, Justin Santos, Eric Taite, Chris Werner, Clayton Willis.

From the Duke to Britney with the Jazz Orchestra

 HSU Jazz Orchestra plays a Duke Ellington classic, a brand new arrangement of Horace Silver’s “Peace,” and a Britney Spears tango in Spanish. Sort of. It all happens on Saturday May 10 in Fulkerson Recital Hall. 

Duke Ellington’s Harlem was performed by the Jazz Orchestra in collaboration with the Humboldt Symphony in March, under the direction of Dan Aldag. “This time it’s just the band,” Aldag said, “with the version Ellington originally wrote for his own band.” 

Jazz pianist Horace Silver originally recorded his classic ballad “Peace” with a quartet. David Berger, arranger and conductor of his own jazz orchestra, did a band version. In March, Dan Aldag heard it played by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. “I liked it so much that I immediately contacted Berger and purchased.” The HSU Jazz Orchestra plays it for this concert. 

 Also on the bill is Chick Corea’s “Blue Miles” (arranged by Bob Washut) and “the rhythmically intricate” Alan Ferber track from his Grammy-nominated album March Sublime, called “Kopi Luwak.” 

“The second half of the concert features works by current and former students,” Aldag said. Current trumpeter McKenna Smith sings her original tune, “Be Like Ella,” with the band. She also contributes a spoken word piece to “Pink,” a tune first recorded by the Bobby Sanabria Big Band.

 But the big collaboration revolves around the 2004 global pop hit “Toxic” as recorded by Britney Spears. “Dan Fair, who graduated last year, wrote an arrangement which turns it into a tango,” Aldag said. “One of the band's trombonists, Spanish major Bret Johnson, translated the lyrics into Spanish, and the band's baritone saxophonist, Lauren Strella, sings them.” You'll just have to be there.

 HSU Jazz Orchestra performs on Saturday May 10 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall at HSU. Tickets are $8/$5, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Directed by Dan Aldag, produced by HSU Music Department.

Humboldt Symphony Features Concerto Competition Winner

 Humboldt Symphony performs Alexander Borodin’s most popular symphony, plus Grieg’s piano concerto and a festive work by Spanish composer Joaquin Turina in two concerts at HSU, Friday evening May 9 and Sunday afternoon May 11 in Fulkerson Recital Hall. 

 Nineteenth century Russian composer Alexander Borodin’s romantic and melodic works influenced later classical and stage musical composers. Humboldt Symphony performs his Symphony No. 2, which became his most popular “because of its vividly rugged harmonies, deft orchestration, and a seemingly inexhaustible fund of energetic, passionate, and above all, Russian themes,” according to former Washington Post classical music critic Andrew Lindemann Malone. 

 The Piano Concerto in A minor by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg begins with what has been called one of the most familiar openings in the concerto repertoire. Like Borodin, he employs folk themes from his native country. The Humboldt Symphony features piano soloist Ryan McGaughey, winner of this year’s Concerto Competition.

 La Procession du Rocio by 20th century Spanish composer Joaquin Turina celebrates a fiesta and ceremonial march. Compared favorably to similar works by Ravel and Debussy, it was so well received by its first audience in 1913 that Turina—who was also conducting it—had to immediately lead the orchestra in playing it again.

 Humboldt Symphony performs on Friday May 9 at 8 p.m. and again on Sunday May 11 at 3 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall at HSU. Tickets are $8/$5, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door.  Conducted by Kenneth Ayoob, produced by HSU Music Department.

Humboldt Symphony Additional Notes

Alexander Borodin Symphony No. 2
Notes by Andrew Lindemann Malone

"Symphony No. 2 in B minor took a long while to compose, as Borodin fit it in between labors on other works and his efforts as a scientist to ensure that women had access to chemistry courses. It was begun in 1869, but the piano score was not complete until 1875, and the orchestral version was not performed until 1877.

That version was revised in 1879 after a poorly received premiere. Yet posterity has made the Symphony No. 2 not only Borodin's most popular symphony, but the most popular symphony written by any member of the nationalist Mighty Handful (Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Mili Balakirev, and Borodin), because of its vividly rugged harmonies, deft orchestration, and a seemingly inexhaustible fund of energetic, passionate, and, above all, Russian themes.

 A program for all but the second movement of the symphony has survived, as Borodin told it to critic Vladimir Stassov. The sonata-form first movement depicts a gathering of Russian knights; it opens with a strong, noble theme played on unison strings, as brasses and winds provide dark color and essay a chivalric-sounding contrasting theme. After a few repetitions of the opening music, a second theme enters, based on motifs from the folk songs "The Terrible Tsar" and "The Nightingale" and distinguished by its easy lyricism.

The development section introduces a gallop rhythm that affects fragments of the themes and lends a knightly feel to the proceedings, leading into a recapitulation whose longer notes and thicker orchestration make it even more emphatic than the exposition. The Prestissimo scherzo that follows uses a sustained brass chord to modulate from B minor to F major (a remote key), and then launches into a succession of quick, bright, lightly scored melodies.

The Trio takes a graceful, winding theme (also derived from the abovementioned folk songs) and runs it through various keys. The Andante third-movement portrays a legendary minstrel named Bayan, and evokes the sound of his zither in the opening bars with harp and pizzicato strings. At first, a warm horn melody dominates, but soon a struggle develops between a nervous, minor-mode motive introduced on the woodwinds and the opening melody.

Finally, the opening melody enters triumphantly in the strings, and leads into a coda that brings back the minstrel evocation; this in turn leads directly into the Allegro finale. This finale depicts a jubilant crowd, using an appropriately buoyant main theme (decorated with generous percussion) and a second theme that begins as a quiet lyric, but soon expands into a celebration itself. A new development theme recalls the symphony's opening music, but this soon yields to a supremely joyous, unstoppable elaboration of the two main themes, whose momentum propels the music through the recapitulation and the coda. Borodin's Symphony No. 2 deserves its exalted position in the annals of the Mighty Handful's orchestral music."

Edvard Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor First Movement
Note by Don Anderson © Copyright 2014 Toronto Symphony Orchestra

"The first movement boasts one of the most familiar openings in the entire concerto repertoire. Much of its memorability springs from its very simplicity. The movement proper wears a rather melancholy expression, although warmth is amply present as well. A long, taxing solo cadenza near the end says about all there is to say, so Grieg follows it with only the briefest of summings-up. Grieg tapped into the rich heritage of the folk song for much of his music and helped chart a path of Norwegian nationalism and a moving away from Germanic models."

Joaquin Turina – La Procession du Rocio
Note by Joseph Stevenson 

 "This was the first orchestral work by Joaquin Turina. At its premiere in Madrid under the baton of in March 1913, it proved so popular that it had to be repeated on the spot. It is an exotic and colorful portrait of a fiesta in the composer's native Seville, equal in brilliance and orchestral magic to similar works by Ravel or Debussy. The first movement quickly shows scenes from the festival, opening with a seguidilla, then a coplas (oboe) and soleares (viola), before closing with a rather tipsy fandango. The other movement is the religious procession itself, a ceremonial march with interruptions for religious hymns. At the end, church bells peal out and trumpets play the Spanish royal anthem."

AM Jazz Band Gets Bluesy

 AM Jazz Band gets bluesy for their concert on Thursday May 8 in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

 On the blue side is “All Blues” by Miles Davis, as well as “Blues in the Closet” by jazz bassist and composer Oscar Pettiford, and “Blue Bossa” by trumpeter and composer Kenny Dorham. Dorham’s jazz standard was first recorded by Joe Henderson. 

 Also on the program are jazz standards by Sonny Rollins (“Doxy”) and hard bop trumpeter Lee Morgan (“The Sidewinder.”) “A Child Is Born” is the most famous tune by jazz trumpeter Thad Jones, known for his Count Basie Band arrangements as well as his own jazz orchestra. 

 The AM Jazz Band performs on Thursday May 8 at 8:30 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall at HSU. Tickets are $8/$5, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Directed by Dan Aldag, produced by HSU Music Department.

Madrigal and MRT Singers: From Dowland to a cappella Jazz

 Madrigal Singers highlight songs of John Dowland and Mad River Transit adds a cappella jazz to its offerings in a shared spring concert on Sunday May 4 in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

 John Dowland is perhaps the most famous of the madrigal era composers, especially after Sting recorded an album of his songs. The Madrigal Singers perform solo selections accompanied by HSU alumnus Jason Hall on guitar. “Jason’s superb guitar playing will provide an insight into the Elizabethan Madrigal style of music,” said director Harley Muilenburg.

 In various combinations, the Madrigal Singers perform other Renaissance era songs, including Peter Warlock’s “Pretty Ring Time” and settings by Henry Purcell, Gabriel Faure and Benjamin Britten, with John Chernoff accompanying on keyboards.

 The Mad River Transit singers perform their program of ballads, blues and swing accompanied by a three-piece rhythm section, ranging from Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen to James Taylor and Theolonius Monk. New this year is a student-led a cappella group called Syncopations, which performs two songs recorded by Take Six: “Gold Mine"and "Get Away Jordan.”

The MRT rhythm section is John Chernoff (piano), Ian Taylor (bass) and Thatcher Holvick-Norton (drums.)
 
Madrigal Singers and Mad River Transit perform on Sunday May 4 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $8/$5, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Directed by Harley Muilenburg, produced by HSU Music Department.

Madrigal & MRT Singers: Additional Notes

John Dowland was above all the composer of lute songs, publishing his first collection of airs in 1597, followed by a second in 1600 and a third in 1603. He left over 80 secular songs of moving intensity.

 Melancholy was all the rage in Elizabethan England, and John Dowland was the most stylish composer of sad-themed music of his time. "Semper Dowland, semper dolens" was his motto, and much of his music is indeed exquisitely dolorous. Although he was a talented singer, Dowland mainly followed a dual career as a composer and lutenist. He was the period's most renowned and significant composer of lute solos, and ayres and was a gifted writer of consort music. —‘Dowland, semper dolens’ (‘Dowland, always grieving’)—Dowland had a reputation as being a cheerful man, despite his reputation for composing exquisitely melancholy music.

The Madrigal Singers (not in order pictured; click photo to enlarge) are: Tiffany Casparis, Ana Ceja, Stevy Marquez, Linnea Hill, Robyn Strong, Elena Tessler, Kellie Ventura, Erin Corrigan, Danielle Dias, Jessical Golden, Hannah Kelly, Rebeca Ramos, Rosemary Torres, Rae Marcum, Fidel Garcia, Evan Goldsborough, Victor Guerrero, JoeBoy Kitzerow, John Pettlon, Raul Yepez. Dylan Kinser, Jason Hall, Edrees Nassir and Jeremy Rodda.

 Mad River Transit (not in order pictured; click image to enlarge):Hannah Fels, Trina Garrett, Sandy Lindop, Laura Doughty, Kelsey Goldstein, Danielle Murray, Lorena Tamayo, Olivia Bright, Jo Kuzelka, Jessie Rawson, Michelle Green, Kenneth Bridges, Steven Eitzen, Jason Garza, Kyle McInnis, Kobe Thompson, Raymond Alvarez, Dolan Leckliter, Christopher Parreira, Alberto Rodriguez, Corey Tamondong and Braxton Corbin.

Calypso Band and Percussion Ensemble Present Rhythmic Premieres

 The Humboldt State Calypso Band has been around for 28 years, but has never performed a full-length panorama piece composed by one of its own members. At least not until Saturday May 3 at the Van Duzer Theatre. 

 Matt Norman’s “Pandemic,” composed in the classic Panorama style, will premiere that night. That’s in addition to the usual high-energy dance music the Calypso Band always provides. 

 Earlier in the evening, the HSU Percussion Ensemble performs another world premiere: a work by HSU alum Dante De Silva called “Engine Room,” commissioned to celebrate the HSU centennial.

 Director of both ensembles Eugene Novotney calls it “an epic work. Almost every percussion instrument that HSU has in its inventory will be on stage for this performance.” 

 “The piece is both beautiful in its melodic approach, and at times, barbaric in its rhythmic interplay,” Novotney said. “It is a true masterwork for percussion instruments in both its concept and in its vast scope, and it is destined to be a major addition to the repertoire for percussion.”

 The Ensemble also performs “Piru Bole,” a classic composition by John Bergamo, the American percussionist and composer from California Institute of the Arts who died in October. In 1987 he performed this piece on the Fulkerson Recital Hall stage with the HSU Percussion Ensemble. 

 A suite of traditional Mandeng drumming from West Africa and a special presentation of Brazilian samba by the HSU World Percussion Group completes the first half of the concert. 

 In addition to “Pandemic,” the Calypso Band selections in the second half include “Fire Down Below” by Boogsie Sharpe and two pieces by steelband legend Ray Holman: “If We Really Want” and “We Just Can’t Go On Like This.”

 Humboldt State Calypso Band and Percussion Ensemble perform on Saturday May 3 at 8 p.m. in the Van Duzer Theatre on HSU campus. Tickets are $10/$8 seniors and students, $3 HSU students, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door.  Directed by Eugene Novotney and Howard Kaufman, produced by the HSU Music Department.

From the Renaissance to the Blues with the Symphonic Band

 The HSU Symphonic Band follows the centuries from the Renaissance to the blues in its spring concert on Friday May 2 in Fulkerson Recital Hall. 

 “This program is designed to show the full breadth and depth of the wind band,” said Symphonic Band director Kenneth Ayoob.

 It begins with a Renaissance keyboard piece (“Ballo de Granducca” by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck) given the wind band treatment, and makes it way to “Blue Shades” by contemporary American composer Frank Ticheli. “While not a strict blues, this work is heavily influenced by the blues in harmony and melody,” Ayoob said. “Many shades of blue are depicted as well—from bright blue, to dark, to dirty, to hot blue.”

 In between are works by John Phillip Sousa (“Fairest of the Fair”), Percy Grainger (“Children’s March”) and Richard Strauss (“Allerseelen.”) 

 The centerpiece is the Morceau Symphonique by 19th century French composer Alexandre Guilmant which features trombone soloist and HSU music major Craig Hull, winner of this year’s wind instrument concerto competition. 

 The Symphonic Band performs on Friday May 2 in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $8/$5, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. An HSU Music Department production.

Symphonic Band Concert Additional Notes

Felix Alexandre Guilmant (1837- 1911)
According to a website dedicated to his memory which includes a list of recordings, he was "one of the greatest organists in the late nineteenth century...  Guilmant was world famous in his day and made three concert trips to the United States of America... Guilmant was a great improviser and a well-known teacher. .. His own oeuvre [as a composer] is large: 94 opus numbers and many unpublished or unnumbered works."

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562 -1621)
According to Classical Net, "he is widely considered to be the greatest of Dutch composers" and "one of the major figures in the transition from Renaissance to Baroque compositional styles."   "Sweelinck was one of the great transitional figures in Western music, known for his formal rigor and theoretical knowledge of the most influential compositional schools of the time."

The piece "Ballo del granduca" refers to an Italian dance composed by Emilio de Cavalieri to be performed at the marriage of Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany.  Other composers did their versions of this dance.

Percy Grainger (1882 –1961)
Grainger was a composer, arranger and a popular pianist of his day.  Born in Australia, he relocated to the United States in 1914.

"Children's March (Over the Hills and Far Away)"demonstrates Grainger's"thorough understanding and effective scoring for wind band... obviously influenced by his period of service in the U.S. Army between 1917/19, having enlisted as a bandsman (2nd Class) in the Coast Artillery Band. A brilliant and extravagant example of this ability is embodied in the Children's March 'especially written to use all the forces of the Coast Artillery Band which I was serving in 1918.' This is one of his earliest wind compositions which required a piano as a n integral part of the ensemble."--Eric Banks. "Children's March is considered to be one of Grainger's most memorable contributions to the band literature."--Dana Perna.

John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) 
While Sousa "wrote an incredible number of marches, the one I love is The Fairest of the Fair. He wrote it in 1908 – the only work he composed that year. He wrote this for the Boston Food Fair, and the story goes that he was inspired by a lovely lass he saw, but never met."--Lori Sutherland

Richard Strauss (June 1864 – 1949)

Strauss is considered a leading exponent of late German Romanticism.  In 1962 pianist Glenn Gould called him "the greatest musical figure who has lived in this century."  "Allerseelen " is a love song he composed in 1885, which remains "among the most popular he wrote."