How Can They Keep From Singing? University Singers and Humboldt Chorale’s Holiday Concert 

With a seasonal flavor and a diverse menu of songs, the University Singers and Humboldt Chorale present their shared winter concert on Sunday December 13 at Fulkerson Recital Hall.

 University Singers (pictured above) perform “a very jubilant setting of the hymn ‘How Can I Keep From Singing?’” said director Rachel Samet, “and a beautiful setting” of a Kentucky folk tune associated with Christmas, “Bright Morning Stars.”

 Their program also includes a Hebrew love song and a hymn by Baroque composer Georg Phillip Telemann based on Psalm 117, with string accompaniment. 

 Samet describes “Famine Song,” as “really powerful and expressive.” Composed by a quartet from Bloomington, Indiana called Vida, it was inspired by Sudanese basket weavers who endured famine.

 In keeping with the season, the Humboldt Chorale performs “December’s Keep” (Greg Gilpin’s arrangement of a Chopin prelude), “Ose Shalom,” the spiritual “Go Where I Send Thee” and Handel’s “Awake the Trumpet’s Lofty Sound.”

 The Chorale also performs the haunting “Ashokan Farewell,” best known from the Ken Burns PBS series The Civil War.

 “Our signature piece this concert is Randall Thompson’s well-known ‘Alleluia,” said Chorale director Elisabeth Harrington. “I wanted to challenge the group to the fullest with this a cappella piece.” 

The University Singers (an HSU group) and the Humboldt Chorale (students and community members) combine to sing "Tshotsholoza," often called the “second national anthem” of South Africa.

Humboldt Chorale and University Singers perform on Sunday December 13 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus. Tickets are $8, $5 seniors and children, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door.  Produced by HSU Music department.

University Singers & Humboldt Chorale: Program and Notes

University Singers:

VIDA, authors of The Famine Song

My soul is awakened -- music by Brad Burrill, poetry by Ann Brontë
Bright morning star -- Kentucky Appalachian tune, arr. Fred Squatrito
 Erev Shel Shoshanim -- music by Josef Hadar, lyrics by Moshe Dor, arr. Jack Klebanow
 Laudate Jehovam, omnes gentes (Psalm 117) -- Georg Phillip Telemann
Famine Song -- words and music by VIDA, arr. Matthew Culloton
How Can I Keep from Singing? -- arr. Gwyneth Walker (b. 1947)

University Singers are: (Soprano) Justine Bivans, Hope Botelho, Olivia Bright, Ana Ceja,  Ana Cruz, Lisa Ko, Jordan Kramlich, Michelle Latner, Gabriela Pelayo, Stephanie Price ,Cora Rickert, Kellie Ventura, (Alto) Berenice Ceja, Kaitlynn Deville, Jessica Golden,  Michelle Hy, Kylie Jenkins, Bree Marroquin, Ashlyn Mather, Allie Merten, Catherine Rippetoe, Taylor Shughart, Kira Weiss, (Tenor)  Ken Bridges, David Cadena, Will English ,Nick Hart ,Andrew Heavelin, Rich Macey, Victor Guerrero ,Angel Phommasouk, Raul Yepez ,(Bass) Devin Alcantara, Ethan Frank, Matthew Nelson, John Pettlon, Alberto Rodriguez, Luke Smetana, Daniel Szylewicz.

Humboldt Chorale:

“Awake the Trumpet’s Lofty Sound” from Samson by Georg Frederic Handel
 Alleluia by Randall Thompson
 “Ose Shalom” Traditional Hebrew text; music by Jeff Klepper, arranged by Joshua Jacobson
 “December’s Keep” based on the Prelude in C minor, Opus 28, No. 20 by Frederic Chopin; words and arrangement by Greg Gilpin
 “Ashokan Farewell” from the Soundtrack of the PBS Series “The Civil War,” a film by Ken Burns; words by Grian McGregor, music by Jay Ungar, arranged by Carole Stephens
 “Go Where I Send Thee” Spiritual, paraphrased by Maurice Gardner & Walter Matthews

University Singers and Humboldt Chorale:

Tshotsholoza -- traditional South African freedom song, arr. Jeffery L. Ames

Notes

"Bright Morning Stars"  "appears in Ruth Crawford Seeger's "American Folk Songs for Christmas" (Doubleday, 1953), where she credits it to "AAFS 1379 A1." In other words, she got the song from the Archive of American Folksong at the Library of Congress...The source is identified as "Kentucky." The song also appears on the Folkways LP of the same title (American Folk Songs for Christmas, FC 7553)...,

 In 1968, Robin Christenson rediscovered the song in the Seeger book and arranged it for four voices. [Her group]sang it at the 1968 Fox Hollow Festival, where it was picked up by many other singers. It rapidly entered the common repertoire... Meantime, it had also been widely sung in Kentucky."
Source: mudcat.org

“How Can I Keep From Singing?” appears in several contemporary Quaker songbooks, but its origins appear to be in a hymn written by Rev. Robert W. Lowry, an American Baptist minister in the 19th century. It was modified by, among others, folksinger Pete Seeger, whose source identified it as a Quaker hymn. In this form it became a hit song of sorts when recorded by Irish singer Enya in 1991. The notes to that album (Shepherd’s Moons) compounded the mistake by identifying it as a Shaker hymn. Ironically, it was the Seeger version that the Quakers adopted for their songbooks. However, versions of it appear in hymnals of several denominations. See Robert Lee Hall at American Music Preservation.com for a detailed history.

Alleluia:"To many music lovers, the name Randall Thompson brings first to mind the lofty sounds of his most famous anthem, based on the single word "alleluia"--whether heard in church service, choral concert, or academic ceremony such as Harvard Commencement.

The work was commissioned by Serge Koussevitsky and the trustees of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the spring of 1940 for the opening exercises of the new Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood... The date for the opening was July 8. Thompson had been preoccupied with another commission, but from July 1 to July 5 he was able to turn to Koussevitsky's request. [Director]Woody had his large chorus ready to rehearse, but opening day approached and no music arrived. On July 8, with 45 minutes to go, it appeared. Woody got his first look at the score and reassured his charges, "Well, text at least is one thing we won't have to worry about."

 Thompson's other works include three symphonies, two string quartets, and a scattering of instrumental pieces. But his writing for voice spans his whole life, from The Five Odes of Horace,written in 1924, to Twelve Canticles, written a year before his death. The Harvard undergraduate who, in trying out for the Glee Club, was unaccountably turned down by Archibald T. "Doc" Davison concluded: "My life has been an attempt to strike back."
---Harvard Magazine

"Ashokan Farewell"

"It’s haunting and mournful and hopeful and beautiful. It’s called “Ashokan Farewell,” and it’s the de facto theme song for the Ken Burns miniseries The Civil War, which premiered 25 years ago this week [of Sept. 25, 2015].

 “Ashokan Farewell” was not, as both its tune and the miniseries that made it famous would seem to suggest, written in the 19th century. It was written instead at the tail end of the 20th. And it wasn’t a Southern waltz; it was created in the style of a Scottish lament—and in celebration of a town, and a reservoir, in upstate New York. By a guy from the Bronx.

In the early 1980s, Jay Ungar and his wife and fellow musician, Molly Mason, were running the Ashokan Camp, a summer arts school specializing in fiddle and dancing, at the Ashokan Field Campus of SUNY New Paltz. Ungar composed the tune—Mason would later give it its resonant name—to commemorate the conclusion of the 1982 session of the camp.

Ungar had traveled through Scotland earlier in the summer, he told me, and he wanted to compose a tune in the style of a Scottish lament—something that would capture the sense of sadness that the camp, and all the camaraderie and community and joy it represented to him, would be ending. The song, Ungar remembers, “sort of wrote itself...”

“In writing it,” he says, “I was in tears, but I didn’t know why, or what was happening.” There was a kind of “tingling feeling,” he remembers, as the song took shape in his mind and on his fiddle. But when the song was written down—when Ungar was satisfied that he had made the tune what he wanted it to be—he kept it to himself. He wasn’t sure how others would react to it

. But when he was finally ready to share the tune, he was pleasantly surprised: It seemed to affect others as deeply as it had affected him. And so Ungar and Mason—and their group, Fiddle Fever—recorded the song, including it as part of their 1983 album Waltz of the Wind. The inclusion meant that the song would need a name. Mason suggested “Ashokan Farewell.” Ungar liked that. It was simple, but elegantly evocative.
--Atlantic September 25, 2015


Tshotsholoza
" A South African song sung in a variety of settings and for a variety of reasons. The song began as an old miner's song, sung by those who toiled in the diamond and gold mines of South Africa. As with many types of a folk music, there are many different versions and variations of the song that have developed over time so it is impossible to say exactly what the meaning of the song is, however, the general idea is of freedom (perhaps at the end of the work day or from the hard labor entirely) and speaks about a train coming and taking them away.

 The version of the song presented in this arrangement draws text from both Zulu and Ndebele dialects and is translated as: "Go forward, go forward on those mountains; the train is coming from South Africa. You are running away on those mountains; the train is coming from South Africa."

 The song became a rallying cry for freedom as the apartheid system of government was brought to an end and Nelson Mandela was released from prison. Since then it has seen even more widespread use in popular culture and has served as musical "battle cry" for South African sports teams from rugby to soccer. The song received particular notoriety in 2010 when it was prominently featured in the World Cup games hosted in South Africa."
Diversity website

Jazz Orchestra All Billy Strayhorn Tribute

 HSU Jazz Orchestra honors Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington Orchestra arranger and composer, celebrating the centennial of his birth with an all-Strayhorn program, including a never before-performed arrangement, on Saturday December 12 at Fulkerson Recital Hall. 

Strayhorn was a classically trained musician from Pittsburgh who composed, co-composed or arranged much of Ellington’s music for nearly 30 years. His best-known tune is “Take the ‘A’ Train,” Ellington’s theme song.

"Strayhorn didn't receive nearly the acclaim and fame that Ellington did,” Jazz Orchestra director Dan Aldag said. “Strayhorn was a shy, quiet man who was happy to remain in the shadows, in part because staying out of the public eye allowed him to live openly as a gay man at a time when most gay men were deeply closeted.” 

“We're playing everything exactly as Strayhorn wrote it,” Aldag notes. “Parts were either copied from the original Ellington band parts or painstakingly transcribed from Ellington recordings.” 

So in addition to “Take the ‘A’ Train” and other famous pieces, the Jazz Orchestra plays Strayhorn tunes that the Ellington band never recorded.

Even the familiar “Lush Life” is performed in an early and unrecorded arrangement. “I believe our performance will be the first done with a vocalist—Olivia Bright—singing Strayhorn’s remarkable lyrics,” Aldag said. 

The concert includes the last two pieces that Strayhorn wrote for Ellington, before his death in 1967. In addition to vocalist Olivia Bright, performers featured on various tunes include pianist Max Marlowe, guitarist and vocalist Kenneth Bozanich, alto saxophonist Kyle McInnis, trombonist Craig Hull and trumpeter Andrew Henderson.

The HSU Jazz Orchestra performs on Saturday December 12 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus. Tickets are $8, $5 seniors and children, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door.  Produced by HSU Music department.

Jazz Orchestra: Director's Notes

Notes by Dan Aldag

The Jazz Orchestra concert celebrates the centennial of Billy Strayhorn, who was born on Nov. 29th, 1915. Strayhorn is best known as the composer of the song "Lush Life" and "Take The 'A' Train", the Duke Ellington Orchestra's theme song, but Strayhorn composed or arranged a wealth of material for the Ellington band from 1939 until his death in 1967.

 The Ellington/Strayhorn relationship was an extraordinarily complex one. Ellington is almost universally recognized as the greatest jazz composer of all time, and he also employed a composer who was perhaps his equal for over half of his career.

Strayhorn didn't receive nearly the acclaim and fame that Ellington did, partly because it was Ellington's name in lights, partly because Ellington was given credit for some of Strayhorn's work, but also because the two men, as close as they were, had very different temperaments.

 Ellington was a charming, charismatic showman who basked in the public's attention. Strayhorn was a shy, quiet man who was happy to remain in the shadows, in part because staying out of the public eye allowed him to live openly as a gay man at a time when most gay men were deeply closeted.

 We're playing everything exactly as Strayhorn wrote it. Parts were either copied from the original Ellington band parts or painstakingly transcribed from Ellington recordings.

We'll play "Take The 'A' Train" and "Lush Life", of course, with the latter in an arrangement that Strayhorn may have written for the Ellington band the night he first met Ellington. The Ellington band never recorded it, though. It has been recorded recently as an instrumental, but I believe our performance will be the first done with a vocalist (Olivia Bright) singing Strayhorn's remarkable lyrics.

 We'll do one other vocal, with our usual guitarist, Kenneth Bozanich, putting down his instrument to sing "Flamingo" in the 1940 arrangement that first brought Strayhorn attention.

 We're performing two rare works that were written for the Ellington band but never recorded by them. "Tonk" is basically a short piano concerto Strayhorn designed to showcase Ellington's instrumental abilities. Our pianist, Max Marlowe, will take the soloist's role. "Pentonsilic", which dates to 1941, is a stunning 12-minute work that demonstrated that even at the start of his career, Strayhorn had a complete mastery of form and development.

 "Chelsea Bridge" is a lovely 3-minute tone poem inspired by a Whistler painting. "Midriff" is a zesty swinger with a very well-designed architecture underlying it.

In the Fifties and Sixties, Ellington and Strayhorn wrote a number of suites, album-length collections of short pieces unified around a single idea. We're playing Strayhorn pieces from two of those suites. "Half the Fun" comes from the Shakespeare-inspired Such Sweet Thunder, and "Isfahan" is part of the Far East Suite. The latter features the band's lead alto saxophonist, Kyle McInnis.

 Ellington and Strayhorn also collaborated on an arrangement of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, and we'll perform the "Overture" from that.

 The concert will include the last two pieces Strayhorn composed for the Ellington band, "The Intimacy of the Blues" and "Blood Count". "Intimacy..." is a small-group tune that will spotlight the band's lead horn players, McInnis, Craig Hull on trombone, and Andrew Henderson on trumpet. "Blood Count", composed while Strayhorn was in the final stages of the cancer that killed him, is a heart-wrenching, albeit mostly subdued, raging against the dying of the light that will once again feature McInnis.

The concert will end on a life-affirming note, however, with the joyous "Raincheck", first recorded by the Ellington band in 1941, and re-recorded by them on Strayhorn tribute album they recorded shortly after the composer's death, ...And His Mother Called Him Bill.--Dan Aldag

Additional links:
official Billy Strayhorn website
Strayhorn bio at Black Past.org
and at Pittsburgh History

AM Jazz Band Plays Blue Monk and More

The AM Jazz Band is playing arrangements of six jazz standards: "Ran Kan Kan" by Tito Puente; "Blue Monk" by Thelonious Monk; "Johnny Come Lately" by Billy Strayhorn; "Naima" by John Coltrane; "Cantaloupe Island" by Herbie Hancock; and "St. Louis Blues" by W.C. Handy.

The AM Jazz Band performs on Thursday December 10 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus. Tickets are $8, $5 seniors and children, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door. Directed by Dan Aldag, produced by HSU Music department.

                                            Fall 2015 Madrigal Singers
A Madrigals Welcome, Mad River Transit's Christmas Lullaby

HSU Madrigal Singers go all a cappella and Mad River Transit jazz singers offer a contemporary Christmas Lullaby on Sunday December 6 in Fulkerson Recital Hall. 

 Within their traditional program of mostly English madrigals (plus one surprise), new director Rachel Samet has challenged the Madrigal Singers in two ways: with a completely unaccompanied program, and with a step beyond the usual four part harmonies, to a few selections in five parts.

 Among the songs are a Shaker tune, “Welcome, Welcome Every Guest,” and madrigals of varied mood, from a lament by John Bennett to a playful tune by John Farmer and a John Dowland love song. 

 The Madrigal Singers also pair a Renaissance song by Thomas Morley (“My bonny lass she smileth”) with a contemporary take by the famous contemporary master of parody, P.D.Q. Bach (“My bonny lass she smelleth.”) 

 Then the Mad River Transit singers take over with their program of jazz, blues and popular music. They   anticipate the holidays with “Christmas Lullaby” by contemporary musical theatre composer Jason Robert Brown, from his show Songs for a New World. 

 A traditional African-American spiritual (“Soon Ah Will Be Done”) is given what Samet describes as a “fresh and exciting arrangement” by Philip Kern. “Bim Bam” by Joao Gilberto provides a bossa nova beat. 

Except for an a cappella version of the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine,” MRT is accompanied by a rhythm section of piano, bass and drums.

This is the first concert with Rachel Samet as choirs director. “I’m very excited to be working with all these groups,” she said. “I’m impressed with what students have accomplished over a semester and excited for where they can go.” 

 Madrigal Singers and MRT perform on Sunday December 6 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus. Tickets are $8, $5 seniors and children, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door. Produced by HSU Music department.

This year’s Madrigal Dinner will be held in the Kate Buchanan Room at HSU on December 10 at 6 p.m. as an evening of fancy hors d’ouvres and song. Tickets are $10 general, $5 students.

Media: Mad River Union, North Coast Journal, Humboldt State Now, Eureka Times-Standard Urge

Madrigals & MRT: The Program

Madrigal Singers

Welcome, Welcome Every Guest:  from Southern Harmony (Shaker tune)
 Come again, sweet love doth now invite by John Dowland
 Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all alone by John Farmer
Weep, o mine eyes by John Bennett
My bonny lass she smileth  by Thomas Morley
My bonny lass she smelleth  by P.D.Q. Bach

Madrigal Singers: (Sopranos)Tonya Bills, Camille Borrowdale,  Ana Ceja,  Ana Cruz, Lisa Ko, (Altos) McKinlee Burkhardt, Jenna Donahue, Rayden Marcum, Renee Ramirez,  Rosemary Torres,  (Tenor) William English,  Victor Guerrero,  Kyler Hanson,  Dustin Kemp, David Vaughan,  (Bass) Luis Cardenas, Matthew Flint,  Joseph Mayer,  Edrees Nassir,  John Pettlon, Alberto Rodriguez, Jimmy Sanchez.

                                                 
Mad River Transit

Blue Skies by Irving Berlin, arr. Steve Zegree
 God Bless the Child  by Arthur Herzog, Jr. and Billie Holiday, arr. Steve Zegree
 Take the A Train by Billy Strayhorn, arr. Steve Zegree
Bim Bam by Joao Gilberto, arr. Kirby Shaw
Yellow Submarine by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, arr. Mark Brymer
Christmas Lullaby from Songs for a New World by Jason Robert Brown, arr. Mac Huff
 Soon Ah Will Be Done: traditional African-American spiritual, arr. Brian Tate Anything Goes by Cole Porter, arr. Philip Kern

Mad River Transit Singers: (Soprano) Olivia Bright, Michelle Latner, Kayla LeClair,  (Alto) McKinlee Burkhardt, Catherine Rippetoe, Skyler McCormick, (Tenor) David Cadena, Joshua Roa, Noah Sims,  (Bass) Mark Berman, Jimmy Sanchez, Corey Tamondong.

Calypso Band Greatest Hits Plus Marimba and We Got the Beat 

 A youth group’s return, a marimba classic and some of the Calypso Band’s greatest hits are featured in an all-percussion concert on Saturday December 5 at the Van Duzer Theatre. 

 We Got the Beat is a group of student percussionists (grades 2 through 7) from Fresno. They perform all over California, and last played at HSU in April 2012. “They bring energy, excitement, and a high level of musicianship,” said HSU percussion professor Eugene Novotney, “and will fill everyone’s hearts with the joy of music.” 

 The Humboldt State Marimba Band performs “Omphalo Centric Lecture,” a marimba quartet composed by Australian percussionist Nigel Westlake. Premiered in 1986, this piece is played regularly around the world. Describing it as “captivating” and “mesmerizing,” Novotney said “it explores the beauty of the sound of the marimba in its full range and capacity.” 

 The concert’s first half concludes with the World Percussion Group morphing into a 30-piece samba band playing Samba Maracutu from Northern Brazil, on instruments from the region.

The second half belongs to the Humboldt State Calypso Band, which gears up for its 30th anniversary this spring with some of its greatest hits from past shows, as well as new tunes never heard before at HSU. Included in the mix are three Panorama classics as well as the band’s signature high-energy Calypso dance music. 

 The all-percussion concert is Saturday December 5 at 8 p.m. in the Van Duzer Theatre at HSU. Tickets are $10 general, $3 students, seniors and children from the HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door.  Directed by Eugene Novotney and Howard Kaufman. “We Got the Beat,” directed by Brenda Myers, also plays a pre-concert set beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Media: Eureka Times-Standard Urge, Mad River Union, North Coast Journal, Humboldt State Now

Calypso Band & Percussion Concert Notes

Notes by Humboldt State percussion program director Eugene Novotney

The concert will start with a energizing set by the youth percussion group, We Got the Beat. We Got the Beat is a fun and interactive, hands-on, musical experience for young student musicians from 2nd to 7th grade based in Fresno, California.

 Led by percussionist Brenda Myers, "We Got the Beat" performs on a wide variety of percussion instruments and in many musical styles. They have performed throughout the state of California for events such as the California Music Educator’s Convention in Sacramento, the National Association of Music Merchants Trade Show in Anaheim, the Big Fresno Fair, and at the Oakland Day of Percussion with Pete Escovedo. They bring energy, excitement, and a high level of musicianship, and will fill everyone’s hearts with the joy of music.

In addition to starting the show, WGTB will be presenting a pre-concert set at 7:30pm as the crowd enters the theatre.

 The HSU Marimba Band will follow WGTB, and they will be featuring a truly virtuosic marimba piece entitled, Omphalo Centric Lecture, composed by the Australian composer Nigel Westlake. This piece is both captivating and mesmerizing, and it explores the beauty of the sound of the marimba in its full range and capacity.

 The first half of the show will conclude with the World Percussion Group, directed by Professor Howard Kaufman. The WPG will be presenting an authentic arrangement of Samba Maracatu from Northern Brasil on all traditional instruments. This arrangement is as good as it gets, and will feature a 30+ piece samba band playing authentic instruments from Brasil filling the room with pulsating sound.

The second half of the concert will showcase the festive island sounds of the Humboldt State Calypso Band. This fall, the Calypso Band is gearing up for their 30th anniversary by playing their “greatest hits” from the past 30 years of shows at HSU, as well as some new tunes never before heard at HSU.

The band will feature three Panorama compositions on this show - Ray Holman’s, “If We Really Want,” Boogsie Sharpe’s, “Misbehave,” and Andy Narell’s, “Coffee Street” - as well as a full mix of Calypso dance music. Many student steelpan soloists will be featured throughout the evening, and the Calypso Band’s performance is guaranteed to get you up on your feet!

The Humboldt State Calypso Band prides itself in maintaining an accurate and authentic connection to the roots of the steel band movement and the innovative musicians of Trinidad, the island on which this unique percussion phenomenon was born. The band is dedicated to the performance of traditional and contemporary music from the Caribbean, Africa, Brazil, and the United States.

 In addition to its regular performances at Humboldt State and throughout Northern California, the band has undertaken tours to San Francisco, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Santa Rosa, Sacramento, Stockton, Fresno, Oakland, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Eugene, OR and Seattle, WA. Founded in 1986 by the band’s director, Eugene Novotney, the Calypso Band is celebrating its 30th anniversary at Humboldt State this spring, and holds the distinction of being the first ensemble of its kind in the entire California State University System.

    The Force Awakens at Fulkerson Hall 

 It’s not the new movie, but it is the signature music: HSU Symphonic Band plays two movements of the Star Wars Suite on Friday December 4 at Fulkerson Recital Hall.

 Just weeks before The Force Awakens, fans can warm up with “Yoda’s Theme” and the main Star Wars theme. 

 “It’s hard to find a good arrangement of Star Wars,” said Symphonic Band director Paul Cummings. “But this is a very challenging and exciting version of John Williams’ film music, in the definitive arrangement for college wind band by Donald Hunsberger.” 

 “This is very well written music, using the forces of the wind band in effective ways,” Cummings said. 

 These two movements are a preview in another sense as well, since the Symphonic Band will perform the entire Star Wars Suite in its spring concert, and also take it on tour to northern California junior colleges and high schools in April. 

 The December 4 concert also features Illyrian Dances by Guy Woolfenden, who for several decades wrote incidental music for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The title is taken from the fantasy locale of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” a play written to be performed as part of England’s Christmas celebration. 

 “It’s very dramatic,” Cummings said, “with a lot of variety, by a very gifted melodic writer.” 

 The Band also performs two classic keyboard transcriptions: the six-movement William Byrd Suite (“very tuneful music by one of the great English composers of the period”) and a Fantasia by J.S. Bach, both from eras in which the modern wind band did not yet exist.

 “The Bach piece was written for organ,” Cummings said, “and a good wind band can sound like a pipe organ. It’s is a rare opportunity for our band students to perform a work by one of the greatest composers of western music.” 

 The HSU Symphonic Band performs on Friday December 4 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus. Tickets are $8, $5 seniors and children, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door.  Produced by HSU Music department.

Media: Eureka Times-Standard Urge, Mad River Union, North Coast Journal, Humboldt State Now

Symphonic Band: Director's Notes

Notes edited from an interview with Paul Cummings, director.

Star Wars Suite:
Yoda's Theme
Main Star Wars Theme
by John Williams

We're doing a very challenging and exciting version of Star Wars by John Williams, the great film composer. It's hard to find a good arrangement of Star Wars--it's been hacked up and deranged by a multitude of people, but Donald Hunsberger has made the definitive arrangement for college wind bands.  That's the version we're going to do.

In this concert we'll play the final two movements, then the entire suite in the spring semester.  We're also going to take it on tour to various high schools and junior colleges in April.

The fourth movement is Yoda's Theme--very majestic music in keeping with the legendary trainer of the Jedi.  The last movement is the main Star Wars theme, representing the triumph of the Force. This is well-written music, using the forces of the wind band in very effective ways.

Hunsberger was the conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble from 1965 to 2001, and a professor at the Eastman School of Music.  This is one of several arrangements he did.  This version of Star Wars is definitely the most challenging one out there.  With the new Star Wars movie featuring some of the characters in the original coming out in just a few weeks, we decided to play it for this concert.

Illyrian Dances
by Guy Woolfenden

The composer was the main musical director for the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1963 until 1998.  He wrote all the incidental music for their productions.  When you're writing incidental music you become very good at your craft, just from the sheer volume of music you have to produce.  It has to fit the scenic and dramatic context as well. This particular piece is very dramatic in nature.

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night takes place in Illyria, which is basically an imaginary land.  "What excited me was the resonance of Illyria itself, and the romance of all faraway, make-believe places," the composer wrote. "Illyria is a never-never land, and the idea of inventing dances for such a place intrigued me."

The three movements of this piece are in fact dance forms: Rondo (which goes back to the medieval period), Aubade (a dawn or morning song) and then a Gigue (a lively dance that goes back to the Renaissance at least.)

There are some rhythmic challenges but Woolfenden is very much a British composer--he writes very tuneful music, a very gifted melodic writer.  He's a good orchestrator, he knows how to write for the instruments.  There's great variety in textures--some passages with the full band but more often alternation of many instruments with just a few, so you'll hear chamber music but also full ensemble playing.

Fantasia in G Major
by Johann Sebastian Bach
transcription by Richard Franko Goldman and Robert L. Leist

Bach didn't write band music.  The medium of the wind band--consisting as it does today of brass, woodwinds and percussion--did not exist in Bach's lifetime.  So band students don't get to play any Bach, unless we do arrangements like this.

Richard Franko Goldman had his own band in New York.  It was his father's band, and he was associate conductor beginning in 1937.  In 1956 he became conductor, and the Goldman Band of New York City played its last concert in 1984. It was a very famous band in and around New York.  Goldman was a great band leader and great arranger.  He commissioned and premiered a lot of band music.

This Fantasia is all one continuous movement.  A Fantasia is a through-composed form, meaning that it does not have a lot of sectional repetition.  Instead it just evolves over the course of the piece.  It's rather a free form, so the composer does not have to fit a prescribed structure.

This was an organ piece originally, so it works well for band.  A good wind band can sound like a pipe organ, so doing music originally written for organ makes a lot of sense.  The challenge is to keep the air flowing through the wind instrument so you do simulate the sound of a big church organ.

One reason we're doing this is to give our band students the opportunity to play music by J.S. Bach, one of the greatest composers of western music.

The William Byrd Suite
1.  Earl of Oxford March
2. Pavana
3. "Jhon come kisse me now"
4. The Mayden's Song
5. Wolsey's Wilde
6. The Bells

We performed a couple of these movements in October, and now we're doing all six. William Byrd was one of the foremost English composers of the Renaissance, known mostly for his sacred choral music.  But he did write secular music for a keyboard instrument of his time, the virginal, the English equivalent of the harpsichord.  These pieces were collected in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book but were forgotten until the 20th century, which is when Gordon Jacob rediscovered them.

Jacob selected these six out of some 70 Byrd pieces and arranged them for wind band. The Suite is now a classic in the wind band literature.  Like the work of most English composers, these pieces are very tuneful.