Madrigal and MRT Singers Concert

Madrigal Singers

 Come Away, Sweet Love by Thomas Greaves
 Say Love Is Ever Thou Didst Find by John Dowland
 A Fancy of Folksongs
 1. Green Bushes conducted by James Gadd
2. O No, John! conducted by Daniela Godinez

 Down Among the Dead Men by anon
 Take O Take Those Lips Away by Emma Lou Diemer
 I Know A Young Lady by Orlando di Lasso

Madrigal Singers  (not in order shown): Daniela Godinez, Ana Ceja, Rebecca Ashbach, Kayleigh Lindquist, Natalie Whiting, Robyn Strong, Danielle Murray, Julia Whelpton, Rosemary Torres, Kenneth Bridges, James Gadd, Fidel Garcia, Jason Garza, James Adams, JoeBoy Kitzerow, Edrees Nassir, John Pettlon, Christian Rosales, Joseph Saler, Matt Walton and Greg Willis.

 Humboldt Tones 
Discipline by Bobby McFerrin
 Love is More Thicker Than Forget arr. Kerry Marsh
 Land of Pure Imagination arr. Greg Murai
We Love You Madly by Terry Winch

 The Humboldt Tones are Olivia Bright, Sandy Lindop, Jessie Rawson, Laura Emerson, Lorena Tamayo, Kenny Bridges, Nick Durant, Alberto Rodriguez, Corey Tamondong and Joseph Welnick.

 Mad River Transit 
 Knock Me a Kiss arr. Steve Zegree
 Norwegian Wood by Lennon-McCartney arr. Harley Muilenburg
 Everything I Have Is Yours by Burton Lane
All the Cats Join In arr. Kirby Shaw
And So It Goes arr. Bob Chilcott Spain arr. Rare Silk
Because by Lennon-McCartney arr. Kerry Marsh
Vine Street Bar and Grill arr. Sharon Broadly

Mad River Transit Singers: Oliva Bright, Trina Garrett, Dani Godinez, Hannah Fels, Katie Wolter, Jacqui Hernandez, Jessie Rawson, Lorena Tamayo, Steven Eitzen, Cristian Lesko, Ken Montalvo, Maxime Tanti, Alberto Rodriguez, Jason Hall, Dolan Leckliter, Jerry Olofsson and Eric Taite.

 Rhythym Section: Joseph Welnick, John Chernoff, Piano
 Steven Workman, Bass
 Dylan Williams, Drums

Springing Percussion at the Van Duzer Theatre

Important work in the percussion ensemble repertoire, plus Bantu music from Cuba and calypso dance rhythms are all featured in the shared HSU Percussion Ensemble, World Percussion Group and Calypso Band spring concert on Saturday May 4 in the Van Duzer Theatre.

 Edgard Varese’s preeminent Ionisation requires 14 performers playing over 47 instruments, and is an “ extremely revolutionary work” according to Percussion Ensemble director Eugene Novotney. 

“Other composers wrote solely for percussion before Varese composed Isonisation,” Steve Smith noted in the New York Times in 2010, “but none with his sophistication and subtlety.” The piece is in conventional sonata form, but (Smith writes) “Varese’s use of timbre, texture and density, rather than melody and harmony, as organizational tools pointed the way towards more radical future propositions like musique concrete and electronic music.”

 Another work for multiple and unusual instruments (including Chinese water gong and prepared piano) is Second Construction by John Cage. In addition to works by Nigel Westlake and others, the Ensemble also performs a cult classic by HSU alum and founding member of the Mr. Bungle group Trey Spruance, as featured on the hit album Disco Volante.

 The World Percussion Group performs a suite of traditional Mandeng drumming from West Africa as well as Cuban "Bantu" folkloric music. Then fresh from acclaimed concerts in Los Angeles, the Calypso Band takes over with its authentic rhythms and high energy dance music from the Caribbean.

 HSU Percussion Ensemble, World Percussion Group and Calypso Band perform on Saturday May 4 at 8 p.m. in the Van Duzer Theatre on the HSU campus in Arcata. $7/$3 students & seniors, with first 50 HSU students admitted free. Tickets: 826-3928 or at the door. Directed by Eugene Novotney and Howard Kaufman, produced by HSU Music Department.

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

Percussion Ensemble, World Percussion Group & Calypso Band Concert Notes by Eugene Novotney

As the centerpiece of this concert, the Humboldt State Percussion Ensemble will be performing an extremely revolutionary work by Edgard Varese entitled Ionisation. Written in 1931, Ionisation is widely considered to be the most important composition in the entire history of the percussion ensemble repertoire.

 Featuring 14 performers playing over 47 different instruments, the sound mass and texture fields heard in the piece are both colorful and dense. As well as a grand piano and all of the standard instruments of the percussion family, Varese also calls for Afro-Cuban instruments such as maracas, guiros, cow bells and bongos, and exotic instruments such as gongs, sleigh bells, castagnettes, a glockenspiel, a lion's roar, two anvils, and, perhaps the most unique of all, two hand crank sirens. The low-pitched siren used by the Humboldt State Percussion Ensemble is the exact Sterling type II hand crank fire siren that Varese specified in his 1931 score. The high-pitched siren is an authentic combat field siren issued by the US military and made by the Federal Electric Company in Chicago, Illinois.

 Often considered a radical futurist, Varese claims that he was interested in sound for sound's sake alone, and for that reason, considered all sounds as valid. As early as the 1930s, Varese heard the sound of the siren as a result of the modern world, and as such, he used it as a musical instrument in his composition. Many scholars have noted that Varese’s ideas and experiments with sound, which predated the invention of the first synthesizer by almost 40 years, had an extensive effect on the development of electronic music.

The Percussion Ensemble will also be presenting one of John Cage’s most famous and innovative works from the 1940’s entitled  Second Construction. This highly experimental work calls for percussionists playing traditional Western percussion instruments combined with exotic instruments from around the world, including Balinese Gongs, Indian Oxen Bells, African Pod-Rattles, and Chinese Temple Bells. One of the more unusual instruments employed is Cage’s infamous “water gong,” where the percussionist submerges a Chinese “Feng” gong in water to alter and manipulate its pitch.

 Also featured in this work is Cage’s famous “Prepared-Piano,” an instrument created by taking a classical grand piano and adding nuts, bolts, washers, rubber, and other objects to the piano strings and sound-board. The effect creates an instrument that sounds more like an electronic synthesizer than an acoustic piano, and the effect is both stunning and surprising.

Another special feature on the first half of the show will be a fascinating performance of the Mr. Bungle hit,
Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz, composed by HSU alumni and Mr. Bungle founding member, Trey Spruance. Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz was featured on the 1995 Mr. Bungle album entitled, Disco Volante, and soon became a cult classic. This arrangement calls for 18 percussionists playing almost every percussion instrument imaginable, and will be sure to bring down the house.

 Additional works on the concert include Nigel Westlake’s Kalabash, Michael Udow’s Strike, and Austin Wrinkle’s Wart Hog #3. The first half of the show will end with a suite of traditional Mandeng Drumming from West Africa, and a special presentation by the HSU World Percussion Group of the the folkloric “Bantu” music of Cuba.

 The second half of the show will feature the festive dance music of the Humboldt State Calypso Band. One of Humboldt County’s favorite ensembles, the Calypso Band will feature several high-energy dance compositions from the Caribbean in their set. 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, Cuba and the United States. The band has just returned from their spring tour, where they played to packed houses and standing ovation audiences in Fresno and Los Angeles.

From Led Zep to Rome with the HSU Symphonic Band

The clarinet is a versatile instrument—but can it really sound like an electric guitar? Blake McGee, visiting clarinetist from the University of Wyoming, will put it to the test when he plays with the HSU Symphonic Band on May 3.

 McGee performs on Black Dog by Scott McAllister, a symphonic band interpretation of the iconic Led Zeppelin song of that title. “The composer calls for the clarinet to take the part of the lead singer, and also perform solos in Jimi Hendrix fashion,” said HSU Symphonic Band conductor Paul Cummings. “It’s pretty clear from the first measures that the clarinet is imitating a rock and roll guitar.”

 McAllister, a composer and clarinetist who currently teaches composition at Baylor University, “is known for using rock music as the basis for his work,” said Cummings. “He’s definitely a composer who takes in all of modern culture and tries to reflect that in his work.”

 For Cummings and clarinetist McGee, this piece is also a reunion. They have known each other since graduate school at the University of Oregon. “I conducted one of the works he played for his doctorate,” Cummings said. “It was also by Scott McAllister.’” 

The Led Zeppelin song “Black Dog” is on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest songs. It opens Led Zeppelin’s fourth album (released in 1971) and is likely to be recognized even by those who don’t know it by its title. The McAllister Black Dog, said Cummings, is "a fascinating amalgam of classical and hard rock music.”  

 The Symphonic Band plays another work by a young composer-- John Mackey’s Hymn to a Blue Hour—as well as a piece by Virgil Thomson and Luigi Zaninelli’s Three Dances of Enchantment.

 “John Mackey is certainly among the most prominent young American composers,” Cummings said. “He has a real gift for melody, and even though this is a slow piece it has a lot of melody for listeners to hang their ears on.” Hymn for a Blue Hour refers to the unique qualities of light between twilight and complete darkness, which filmmakers call the Magic Hour.  According to Mackey, he wrote it when challenged to compose a slow piece, in contrast to his usual loud and fast works.

 A Solemn Music is by 20th century American composer Virgil Thomson. Thomson spent formative years in Paris and collaborated with Gertrude Stein on two operas, the second of which (The Mother of Us All) was produced in 1947, after her death. In 1949 Thomson wrote A Solemn Music in memory of Stein and of French artist and fashion designer Christian Bérard, who had died earlier that year. “It’s a great piece of music--one of the standard works for the wind band, by a very important American composer,” Cummings said. 

"Three Dances of Enchantment is not yet a standard work, since it’s only been around since 2006,” Cumming said, “but it gets a lot of performances across the country.” This piece by Italian-American composer Luigi Zaninelli evokes memories of Rome, Ireland and an Italian-American festival from his childhood where he first heard a live band. “All three are audience-friendly with very tuneful passages,” Cummings said, “ but they also have a definite 21st century harmonic vocabulary.”

 HSU Symphonic Band performs on Friday May 3 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. Conducted by Paul Cummings, produced by the HSU Music Department.

Media: Humboldt State Now, Arcata Eye

Symphonic Band Concert Notes by Paul Cummings

This is an edited version of an interview.

Black Dog by Scott McAllister

This piece is based on the Led Zeppelin song. Scott McAllister is known for using rock music as the basis for his work, whether directly borrowing as in this case, or loosely paraphrasing a rock piece, or the style of the piece, as he’s done in other works. He’s definitely a composer who is taking in all of modern culture, and trying to reflect that in his work.

 So that’s an interesting subtext in itself, because composers tend to work in a more isolated artistic environment where they may be influenced by other classical music or earlier art forms, earlier musical styles, but Scott McAllister is clearly immersed in modern American culture, and it comes through in this piece. So the piece gives us all--players and audience—a chance to reflect on the question, what should band music be like? Should it be a more esoteric art form, to be played only by the most sophisticated musicians in conservatories, or should it be more a music for the people? That’s one of many subtexts to the music.

 According to the composer: ‘This work is inspired by classic hard rock music, particularly Led Zeppelin’s rhapsodic style song, “Black Dog.” The clarinet solo takes the role of the lead singer in a hard rock band, with its extreme range and emotions juxtaposed with pyrotechnic solos in true Jimi Hendrix fashion.” So you don’t have to be a trained musician to notice—even in the first few measures—that the clarinet is imitating a rock and roll guitar. That’s exactly what it sounds like, and I know that Dr. McGee will put that across.

 The soloist interacts with the band in a way that soloists often do with large ensembles, almost like a concerto. There are passages of solo material for the clarinet, passages where the clarinet is playing with the full ensemble, and passages where it’s only the band playing. So it has musical variety. There are slower sections that are a little more meditative, but mostly it’s a fascinating amalgam of classical and hard rock music.

 A Solemn Music by Virgil Thomson

A Solemn Music is a very slow, rather dark piece. It is atonal, meaning it is not in a key. It is not a 12 tone work per se, where you would find a row of 12 tones being used as the structural basis for the piece, but nevertheless it is in the atonal category, where all 12 notes of the scale are considered to be equal.

 This is really an ensemble piece with a few solo passages. It is varied in use of instruments but they are frequently combined into fairly large groups, so the texture does not ever thin out too much. There’s a big emphasis on dynamics, as you might expect with atonal music, since composers often use other musical elements to create variety and interest. So dynamics and tone color are important elements in this work. It’s as if Virgil Thomson is making a concession to listeners who may be searching for a melody or a key center-something familiar—and so he uses these other devices to create interest.

It’s a great piece of music—one of the standard works for the wind band, by a very important American composer. He may not have the same stature as Charles Ives, George Gershwin or Aaron Copland, but Virgil Thomson was a big part of the American music scene in the 1940s and 50s especially.

Three Dances of Enchantment by Luigi Zaninelli

 This is not a standard work for wind band—it’s only been around 2006—not long enough to become a standard-- but it’s gotten a lot of performances across the country. According to the composer, “It’s a suite of three dances inspired by personal experiences in my life, which through the years continue to resonate in my memory.”

 The first movement is “Via Veneto”, which is a musical reminiscence of what he calls “those La Dolce Vita days I spent while in Rome on one of the fashionable streets, as a young film composer. There I watched and learned with great fascination about the world of Italian filmmaking.”

 The second movement, “She Walks Through the Fair," is based on “a haunting, bittersweet melody which I discovered on my visit to Ireland.” So there’s a little Irish flavor in this work, including the opening piccolo solo, piccolo being closely related to traditional Irish instruments such as the penny whistle and the fife.

 The third movement is called “The Feast of St. Rocco”: “a joyous Italian American celebration dedicated to St. Rocco held every summer in my hometown of Raritan, New Jersey. It was here in my fathers arms at the age of 5 that I first experienced the vibrant bold tartness of an Italian band. It was so loud and so wonderful.”

 These are very audience-friendly. All three of them have tuneful passages, but it’s interesting that the melodic material is couched in a very modern harmonic language—this is definitely a 21st century harmonic vocabulary. So it’s great for college students to experience music where you have these traditional elements and vibrant rhythm, but written in the context of modern compositional techniques.

Hymn to a Blue Hour by John Mackey

 John Mackey is certainly among the very prominent young American composers. He’s a Julliard graduate who studied with composer John Corigliano of The Red Violin fame. This piece is rather new—2010.

 Again it’s a slow, plaintive work, similar to Thomson’s A Solemn Music but with a very different harmonic language. This is very tonal music, unlike the Thomson, but Mackey has a real gift for melody, so even in this slow piece there is a lot of familiar melodic material for the listeners to hang their ears on.

 The demands on performers are extensive, not because of the technique, but for intonation, for blend, for balance, for knowing your musical role—when your part is primary, when it’s secondary, when it represents a top layer versus a bottom layer in the musical fabric—those elements are really challenging.

 I don’t know if  I’ve done a concert where I have two very slow works on the same program, as we have with the Mackey and the Thomson. So in a way we’re asking the audience to be very patient and take in this more pensive kind of music. But it’s very rewarding, and I think the students are enjoying it-–in seeing the richness that’s possible in slow works. When you’re not worried about technique and moving your fingers all over your instrument quickly, you can do more listening, and appreciate the harmony and the colors. So we’re enjoying that experience.

The Bling of Clarinet with Guest Artist Blake McGee

In the first of two concert appearances this week, clarinetist Blake McGee performs classics and cutting-edge works in his Guest Artist concert on Thursday May 2. 

Dr. McGee is a West Coast native who performed with the Portland Opera, Oregon Mozart Players chamber orchestra and the Vancouver Symphony. He is a member of Lights Along the Shore, a trio specializing in eclectic music from around the world. He currently teaches at the University of Wyoming.

 In this concert he will perform Introduction, Theme, and Variations by Gioachino Rossini, a clarinet work that adapts themes from his operas La Donna del lago and Mose in Egitto. By using elements of the Italian bel canto tradition, Rossini suggests the human voice in the clarinet.

 Dr. McGee also plays a modern classic, the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano by Leonard Bernstein. Written when he was in his early 20s, it was Bernstein’s first published work. The jazz-influenced elements of this popular piece are said to prefigure Bernstein's music for West Side Story. 

 Pleistocene Epoch: The Great Ice Age is a more contemporary and cutting-edge work, composed for unaccompanied bass clarinet by Jenni Brandon in 2008. It refers to the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, with suggestions of the gurgling and oozing of the Tar Pits, and the ancient animals buried beneath.

 Bling Bling is a 2006 work by Scott McAllister, a composer known for adapting popular music forms and tunes. In this case he explores hip hop in a piece for clarinet and piano.

 Accompanying Dr. McGee on three of these works is North Coast pianist Jennifer Heidmann. 

Dr. McGee’s second concert appearance is with the HSU Symphonic Band on Friday, where he’ll play another Scott McAllister composition. While on campus this week, he also will give a clarinet master class and a single reed workshop. He is an avid reed-maker and researcher, having presented his research methods to the International Clarinet Association conference in 2009. 

Blake McGee performs on the clarinet on Thursdays May 2 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. $8/$3 students and seniors, from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. A Guest Artist concert produced by the HSU Music Department.

Media: Humboldt State Now, Arcata Eye

Guest Artist Blake McGee: The Program

Sonata for Clarinet and Piano  by Leonard Bernstein
  1. Grazioso - Un poco piu mosso
2. Andantino - Vivace e leggiero

 Introduction, Theme, and Variations by Gioachino Rossini

 Pleistocene Epoch: The Great Ice Age by Jenni Brandon
 I. Asphalt
 II. Smilodon Fatalis: Sabertoothed Cat
III. Mammuthus Columbi: Columbian Mammoth
 IV. Canis Dirus: Dire Wolf

Bling Bling by Scott McAllister
 I.
 II.
 III.


Blake McGee: Bio

Dr. Blake McGee is assistant professor of clarinet at the University of Wyoming. A native of the West Coast, Dr. McGee performed as a member of the Portland Opera and Vancouver Symphony, as well as with several regional orchestras.

 He is a highly active chamber musician performing regularly with the Oregon Mozart Players’ Chamber Music and Chocolate series and as a member of Lights Along the Shore, a trio specializing in eclectic music from around the world.

 Dr. McGee maintains an active schedule of performance engagements, masterclasses, and clinics in the Rocky Mountain region and throughout the West Coast. He regularly collaborates with active living composers on new solo works for the clarinet and performs several premiers each year. His interest in a multitude of styles ranging from traditional classical, to folk, to free improvisation and avant-garde has made McGee an extremely versatile performer.

 As an avid reed-maker and researcher, Dr. McGee has begun developing new methods for evaluating clarinet reeds based on design parameters. In 2009, McGee was invited to present his research methods and findings at the International Clarinet Association's conference in Portugal. He is currently working on a book highlighting his methods for working on commercial and handmade reeds.

 Dr. McGee is featured on two albums. Plastic Critters (Edgetone Records, 2013) is an eclectic compilation of works for electronically manipulated clarinet and unusual instruments built and performed by San Francisco instrument maker, Tom Nunn. A new recording project with Lights Along The Shore (lightstrio.com), titled Excursion, showcases original arrangements and compositions based on world folk music. McGee is working on an album of original compositions for clarinet and Atari due to be complete in the fall of 2014.

 For more information, visit www.mcgeeclarinet.com.

                       UBC Wind Ensemble

Two Band for the Price of None 

 The visiting University of British Columbia Wind Ensemble and the HSU Symphonic Band share a concert on Monday April 29, and the admission is free.

 “It’s exciting for us to have the UBC Wind Ensemble play here on their West Coast tour for many reasons,” said HSU Symphonic Band director Paul Cummings, “but especially because the director, Rob Taylor, is an HSU Music Department alum. Much of our faculty knew him as a student.” 

 The concert begins with the HSU Symphonic Band, playing “The Creation of the World” by Darius Milhaud, a jazz-influenced work of the 1920s. The Humboldt Symphony played a portion of it in March but this time the full work will be performed. “It’s a fascinating piece and an important work that doesn’t get performed very often,” Cummings said, “first of all because it calls for an odd combination of instruments for either a symphonic band or orchestra. We’ve grabbed personnel from both for this concert.”

 The University of British Columbia Wind Ensemble and the Humboldt Symphonic Band perform on Monday April 29 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. There is no admission charge. Tickets: 826-3928 or at the door.  UBC Wind Ensemble is directed by Rob Taylor, HSU Symphonic Band by Paul Cummings. Concert produced by HSU Music Department.

All the Things You Are with the AM Jazz Band 

 The AM Jazz Band plays jazz, rock and bossa nova ensemble standards in concert at the Fulkerson Recital Hall on Friday April 26. 

 “All the Things You Are” by Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern was heard in a couple of musicals in the 1930s and 40s but became a popular tune when recorded by the big bands of Tommy Dorsey and Artie Shaw.

 “My Foolish Heart,” with music by Victor Young and lyrics by Ned Washington, was popular in the 1950s. It became a standard recorded by artists as various as Tony Bennett, jazz pianist Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, and rock and rollers Dion and the Belmonts, and Jan and Dean.

 “Pick Up the Pieces” was a 1974 hit for the Average White Band. “Aqua De Beber” (“Water to Drink”) is a bossa nova tune recorded by Astrud Gilberto, but also by Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, among many others.

 The AM Jazz Band from HSU performs on Friday April 26 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 Paul Cummings, produced by the HSU Music Department.

Comic Voyage to Heaven and Hell With the HSU Opera Workshop

 The road to heaven goes through hell—at least if you’re a soprano. Your first name doesn’t even have to be Tony. 

 That’s the premise of Too Many Sopranos, a popular comic opera performed by the HSU Opera Workshop Thursday through Sunday, April 18-21. 

 The trials of four sopranos trying to get into heaven (they’re the singing and not the criminal kind) lead to musical spoofs on famous singers and other historical figures, as well as a trip to hell to recruit a few tenors and basses (otherwise known as men) for the soprano-heavy heavenly choir.

 Too Many Sopranos by American composer and teacher Edwin Penhorwood, has been widely performed at universities as well as by professional companies such as the Baltimore Opera, Portland Opera and Virginia Concert and Opera Theatre. 

“Though the opera doesn’t take itself seriously,” said Opera Workshop director and HSU Music professor Elisabeth Harrington, “it does include some glorious music, both for soloists and in several impressive ensembles.” 

The satirical characters are based on singers and other notables from different historical eras, including Madame de Pompadour (“Madame Pompous,”) Enrico Caruso (“Enrico Carouser,”) Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy.

 St. Peter is played by HSU alum Steve Nobles, who has appeared in several recent North Coast musicals, and the angel Gabriel is sung by HSU alum Dylan Karl. Local singer Luke Sikora is Enrico Carouser, Rigel Schmitt is the Unnamed Bass and Elisabeth Harrington appears as Dame Doleful, singing with her students.

 The HSU student singers creating the merriment are Ana Cruz, Steve Eitzen, Jacqui Hernandez, Jo Kuzelka, Sandy Lindop and Miah Lodes. Carol Escobar directs the action and Paul Cummings conducts a chamber orchestra. Sets are by Siena Nelson, costumes by Catherine Brown. 

 The Opera Workshop performs Too Many Sopranos Thursday through Saturday April 18-20 at 8 p.m. and Sunday April 21 at 2 p.m. in the Studio Theatre, Theatre Arts Building at HSU. Tickets $10/$5 students and seniors from HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door. First 30 HSU students admitted free for each performance. Opera Workshop is directed by Elisabeth Harrington, produced by HSU Music Department. 

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

Guitars For Gamers with HSU Guitar Ensemble

 How do you survey 20th century music and leave out spaghetti westerns, African rhythms and video games? If you’re the HSU Guitar Ensemble in their April 19 concert, you don’t. 

 Video games have reached well over a billion people, HSU Music professor and Guitar Ensemble director Nicholas Lambson points out, and many use original music as part of the experience. “People who have grown up with these games remember the music and sound effects well, and arrangements are frequently performed by professionals and amateurs today,” he said. “We decided to dedicate part of our own concert on April 19 to video game music.”

 “Our students have done much of the arranging themselves,” he added. In addition to selections from the classics (Super Mario Brothers and The Legend of Zelda) the Ensemble explores music from the cult game Chrono Trigger. 

 The first half of the concert features Toru Takemitsu’s “Bad Boy,” inspired by music for spaghetti westerns, and William Kanengiser’s “Mbira,” which alters the guitar to sound like this African instrument.

 The Ensemble plays famed 20th century composer Paul Hindemith’s only composition for guitar, a style-spanning dance suite by John Duarte, and a crowd-pleaser by Czech guitarist and composer Štěpán Rak, who Classical Guitar Magazine called “one of the great geniuses of our time.”

 Members of the Guitar Ensemble are Jason Hall, Jerry Olofsson, Kris Lang, Dan Fair, Charlie Sleep, Justin Santos, Greg Willis, Tyler Vaughan, Rory Urquhart, Jake Masterson and Nigel Gunn. 

 The HSU Guitar Ensemble performs on Friday April 19 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $7/$3/ students and seniors from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. HSU students admitted free.  Directed by Nicholas Lambson, produced by the HSU Music Department. 

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

HSU Guitar Ensemble: Concert Program 

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

 Bad Boy by Toru Takemitsu
 Jason Hall, Charlie Sleep, Justin Santos

 Rondo by Paul Hindemith
 Justin Santos, Jason Hall, Dan Fair

 Little Suite by John Duarte
 Anglaise
Sarabande
 Bourree
 Gigue
 Jerry Olofsson, Greg Willis, Tyler Vaughan, Rory Urquhart

 Rumba by Štěpán Rak
 Jerry Olofsson, Dan Fair, Kris Lang, Charlie Sleep

 Zelda Lullaby (1986) by Koji Kondo
 Arranged by Kris Lang
 Kris Lang, Rory Urquhart, Jake Masterson, Nigel Gunn

 Zelda Theme
 Arranged by Justin Santos
 Justin Santos, Rory Urquhart, Greg Willis, Jake Masterson

 Guitarno – Based on Music from Chrono Trigger by Yasunori Mitsuda
Arranged by Joe Kitzerow
 Dan Fair, Kris Lang, Charlie Sleep

 Mario (1985) by Koji Kondo
Arranged by Charlie Sleep
 Jason Hall, Jerry Olofsson, Charlie Sleep, Kris Lang

Director's Notes by Nicholas Lambson

 This year, the HSU Guitar Ensemble has been focusing on 20th century music. I have always been fascinated with the 20th century for its incredible diversity; works can range from experimental and atonal to folk music, and in many cases be eclectic mixes of many genres within a single work.

 Advances in technology play a particularly big role is shaping music of the 20th, with film music and electronic music being clear examples. Video game music also stems from a new medium made possible by technology, with a need to accompany and enhance the action of the game (similar to film scoring) utilizing electronic sounds. That music has reached well over a billion people since then. A look at the sheer volume of sales of these games reveals the magnitude of its impact: Super Mario Brothers sold over 40 million copies; The Legend of Zelda sold even more at 52 million; and the Halo series has sold over 50 million as well.

 The increasing use of smartphones and tablets has opened up a new avenue for video games as well, with Tetris being downloaded 100 million times, and the Angry Birds franchise surpassing one billion on its own. Admittedly, not every video game score is going to be great, but can that be said of any medium? Arguably, the bulk of games may be made quickly and cheaply, and the music may well reflect that fact. However, the best of them add depth, immersion, humor, and emotion to the action, and as these experiences reach billions of people, it becomes hard to ignore video game music as the major facet of our global culture that it is.

Though the demographic is expanding, the fact that the majority of the players (and listeners) are young is substantial on its own, as countless hours of video game music shape their young musical minds. People who have grown up with these games remember the music and sound effects well, and arrangements are frequently performed by professionals and amateurs today. For example, the Final Fantasy score by Nobuo Uematsu is regarded as some of the very finest video game music, and has been performed many times. Its next major performance will be in May by the London Symphony Orchestra.

The HSU Guitar Ensemble decided to dedicate part of our own concert to video game music, and the students have done much of the arranging themselves. The staples, Mario and Zelda, will be in attendance. Music from Chrono Trigger will be featured as well, which is a somewhat lesser-known title many gamers revere. The genre has certainly evolved a great deal since the first games of 50 years ago, and if art is a reflection of culture, then the music that has reached over a billion people is art - even if it is fun.

 The first half features pieces written specifically for guitar ensemble, with the composers coming from various parts of the 20th century and two of them are still living, composing, performing, and teaching.

 Toru Takemitsu was highly individual composer, philosopher, and author, and his music ranges from atonal to folk music of both the East and West. His works employ a vast array of timbres including all Western instruments, Japanese instruments like the shakuhachi and biwa, and electronic music. He frequently combines elements from the West and the East, and composed in a variety of styles from serious art music to arrangements of popular music songs, of which his Beatles arrangements are notable. In addition to his extensive catalog of varied compositions, he was fanatical about film and composed music for over 100 of them.

 In his last days, while bed-ridden and fighting cancer, his regret was that he had not seen a single film that whole time. Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu originally composed Bad Boy for a film of the same name. The music draws on old “Spaghetti Westerns” and the compositional style of Ennio Morricone, who is the composer famous for such films as The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. This piece is essentially a tonal composition that contrasts sharply with so many works in the rest of his catalog. However, Takemitsu blends that style with a few dissonances, cross rhythms, and meter changes to make things a bit more interesting.

 Paul Hindemith is one of the very finest composers of the 20th century, and arguably of all time. Unfortunately, many famous composers do not write for the guitar, so its repertoire generally comes from guitarists who are writing for the instrument who are not necessarily well known outside of the guitar world. The guitar ends up with a very insular community so it is a rare treat to have someone of Hindemith’s stature compose for the guitar.

 Hindemith was concerned with bridging the gap between 20th century intellectual art music, which had become atonal (or at least extremely dissonant) and had alienated many listeners, and a more accessible style based in tonality and other familiar musical elements. There are notable composers on both sides, and Hindemith falls somewhere in the middle. A key to understanding Hindemith’s approach is in his concept of gebrauchsmusik or "music for use."

 Rondo is the only piece Hindemith wrote for the guitar, and it is somewhat unusual to write for guitar trio-most works are guitar quartets or duets. The title refers to a Classical era form where the opening musical idea recurs throughout the piece, interspersed with new ideas. If the first section of music is labeled “A” and the other sections are labeled with their own letters, the typical form is labeled ABACA. This piece is a good example of the way Hindemith balances modern and familiar elements. The title certainly recalls familiar classical elements, and there are several very tonal sections. There are also very dissonant moments throughout the piece, it very quickly modulates through different tonal areas, there are some interesting syncopations that subvert the meter, and there are several places where he employs quartal harmonies. He treads a fine line in Rondo, using the two styles for tension and resolution. It is an extremely dense piece that goes by quickly, but it is a memorable and substantial contribution to our repertoire.

 Štěpán Rak is a unique guitarist and living composer. He was born in 1945 at the end of World War II. He was discovered as a baby by Russian soldiers in the Ukraine and taken to Prague where he was adopted and brought up as a member of the Rak family. He studied graphic art and painting at the Fine Arts School in Prague but music exerted a much greater pull on him. At the age of eighteen, he started playing guitar and double bass in various Jazz and Rock bands, and he soon developed an interest in Classical music, which led him to study guitar and composition at the Prague Conservatoire.

 In 1981, Štěpán Rak established formal Classical Guitar Studies at the Prague Academy of Musical Arts where he has been teaching ever since and in 2000, President Vaclav Havel appointed him the first university professor of guitar studies in the Czech Republic. Rak has toured and given master classes internationally, extensively published and recorded his works, and his works are regularly performed. Classical Guitar Magazine said that “there can be little doubt that future generations of guitarists will look upon Štěpán Rak as one of the great geniuses of our time." And English composer, John Duarte (who is also on this program) has said "Beethoven described the guitar as a 'miniature orchestra'; no one has done more than Stepán Rak to make this believable " and that "Rak is alone in entrusting to the guitar even the most violent and disturbing emotions and in the extraordinary array of sounds he extracts from the instrument."

 Štěpán Rak is well known for the use of extended techniques and special effects in his compositions and he frequently includes the use of his pinky on his right hand to pluck with all five fingers as opposed to the usual four. Neither of these elements are completely unique to him, but he tends to use these techniques more frequently than most.

  Rumba is a fun piece that uses its recurring rhythm (3+3+2), which is introduced by one guitarist playing percussion on their guitar before the whole group takes it on in this fast and energetic piece. Typical of Rak’s compositions, it is extremely accessible and is definitely a "crowd-pleaser," but there are also some very interesting chromatic passages scales used throughout the piece.

 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 two movements 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.

William Kanengiser's 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.

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 think this prepared guitar piece definitely achieves the desired effect of making the guitar sound like an mbira!

Ryan Woempner, Aaron Katz, Jake Skrbina and Nicholas Durant of “Twice Around the Thing.”

All That Jazz in Two Shows at HSU

 Offering everything from mainstream standards to funk and postmodern blends, five HSU Jazz Combos perform two shows of small group jazz at Fulkerson Recital Hall on Friday April 12. 

 The shows begin at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., with three bands in one show and two bands in the other.

 Twice Around The Thing plays mainstream standards (including “All of Me”) and an original tune, with Nick Durant on tenor sax, Jake Skrbina on guitar, Ryan Woempner on bass and Aaron Katz on drums.

 La Musique Diabolique performs Gypsy jazz in the Django Reinhardt tradition. This quintet is Drew McGowan (violin,) Dan Fair and Kris Lang (guitars) and Steve Workman on bass.

 Operation: Rhythmic Tornado is the largest group, blending jazz, rock and funk with Justin Bertolini (trumpet), Josh Foster (trombone), Aaron Laughlin (guitar), Alex Espe (piano), Ian Taylor (bass) and Thatcher Holvick-Norton (drums.) 

 Matt Engleman’s Musical Man Family Friendly Gang Band mixes jazz tradition with postmodern deconstruction. Matt Engleman (bass,) Nev Mattison (vibes and tenor pan,) Jason Hall (guitar) and Tyler Burkhart (drums) are the players. 

  The No-Chordtet of Lauren Strella (baritone sax,) Ari Davie (trumpet,) Craig Hall (trombone,) Steven Workman (bass) and Kevin Amos (drums) plays acoustic jazz. Their name comes from their uniquely open sound, since they do without a “chording” instrument such as guitar or piano.

 These HSU Jazz Combos perform on Friday April 12 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, North Coast Journal

Jazz Combos: Director's Notes by Dan Aldag

There will be two concerts on April 12: one at 7 p.m., the other at 9 p.m. Three bands will play in one concert, two in another, the order yet to be determined.  The bands and their music are:

Operation: Rhythmic Tornado

 Justin Bertolini, trumpet; Josh Foster, trombone; Aaron Laughlin, guitar; Alex Espe, piano; Ian Taylor, bass; Thatcher Holvick-Norton, drums.
 This groups blends jazz, rock and funk.

Strasbourg St. Denis—Roy Hargrove
JuJu—Wayne Shorter
Sprint and Strut—Justin Bertolini
 Black Narcissus— by Joe Henderson

 Matt Engleman's Musical Man Family Friendly Gang Band 
Nev Mattinson, vibes and tenor pan; Jason Hall, guitar; Matt Engleman, bass; Tyler Burkhart, drums.
 Equal parts post-modern deconstructionists and proponents of the jazz tradition.

 Good Morning Anya —Jaco Pastorius
 Watermelon Man—Herbie Hancock
 Maiysha—Miles Davis
 Song to the Chiricahua—Clifford Alexis

 The No-Chordtet

 Lauren Strella, bari sax; Ari Davie, trumpet; Craig Hull, trombone; Steven Workman, bass; Kevin Amos, drums.
Acoustic jazz without a chording instrument such as piano or guitar gives an open sound to this band with an eclectic repertoire.

Rejazz—Regina Spektor
 Beppos to Ballard—The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet
 Sabbath Prayer—Music by Jerry Bock from Fiddler On The Roof, but our version is based on Cannonball Adderley's arrangement.

 La Musique Diabolique

 Drew McGowan, violin; Dan Fair and Kris Lang, guitar; Steven Workman, bass.
  Gypsy jazz a la Django Reinhardt with tunes that span the gamut from the traditional to the contemporary.

 Musette—composer unknown
 Bazodee—Ray Holman
 Metal Hurlant—Olivier Kikteff

 Twice Around The Thing 

Nick Durant, tenor sax; Jake Skrbina, guitar; Ryan Woempner, bass; Aaron Katz, drums.
 Mainstream jazz, mostly standards with one original tune.

 Delilah—Victor Young
 Jibber Jabber—Ryan Woempner
 If I Were a Bell—Frank Loesser
 Blues by Five—Red Garland
All of Me— Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons

                  Ying Wang, cellist for the Beijing Chamber Ensemble

         
Beijing Chamber Ensemble Haunts HSU

 An All-Star lineup of musicians from China brings two haunting works to HSU when the Beijing Chamber Ensemble performs pieces by Beethoven and Brahms at Fulkerson Recital Hall on Tuesday April 9. 

 The Ensemble is led by the internationally renowned violinist Frank Ge-Fang Yang, former first violinist with San Francisco’s Alexander Quartet. 

 The Ensemble also includes Ying Wang, a prize-winning cellist who studied with many prominent cellists including Yo-Yo Ma.  A winner of the National Solo Viola Competition in China, Yue Qi was invited by the U.S Embassy in Beijing to perform for ambassadors from 30 countries. Pianist Fang Zhang, an award-winner in teaching as well as performing, appeared at HSU as a solo performer in 2011.

 All four performers are current faculty members with the prestigious School of the Arts at Remnin University in Beijing, China.

 At HSU they will play Beethoven’s Piano Trio in D, one of the best-known works of its kind. Called the “Ghost” trio, it may have been inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Scholar Lewis Lockwood wrote that this work "raises the genre to a level from which the later piano trio literature could move forward."

 The other work on the program is the Piano Quartet in C minor by Johannes Brahms, which incorporates music he composed at 23 years old with the final version he wrote 20 years later.  Sometimes called the "Werther Quartet" for Brahms' reference to Goethe's novel of unrequited love, The Sorrows of Young Werther, its effect according to one commentator is of a "dark, troubled urgency...that stays to haunt the memory."

 The Beijing Chamber Ensemble performs in a Guest Artists Concert on Tuesday April 9 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, Arcata Eye, Tri-City Weekly, North Coast Journal.

Beijing Chamber Ensemble: Program 


 Piano Trio in D major "Ghost" Op 70, No. 1 ---L.V Beethoven
 1.Allegro vivace e con brio
 2.Largo assai ed espressivo
3.Presto

Intermission

 Quartet for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello in c minor, Op.60 ---Johannes Brahms
1. Allegro non tropo
2. Scherzo: Allegro
3. Andante
4. Finale: Allegro Comodo

The Beijing Chamber Ensemble: Biographies

The Beijing Chamber Ensemble was formed in 2008. In the 2010-2011 concert seasons the Ensemble performed at some of the most prestigious venues in China before embarking on a national tour of music schools.

 Its current members are:

 Frank Ge-Fang Yang, Violinist

 Former first violinist for the Alexander String Quartet in San Francisco, he was a member of the San Francisco State University faculty and in 1992 became a director of the Morrison Chamber Music Center in San Francisco.

 He has performed in some of the worlds’ most prestigious concert halls in the UK, Europe and the U.S. He has performed complete cycles of quartets b Beethoven, Mozart, Bartok, Brahms and Schostokovich. He produced and recorded the complete Beethoven string quartets for the Arte Nova label in Germany, which received rave reviews worldwide. He has also recorded for the labels Foghorn, CRI and Inova USA.

 He was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree twice, once by Allegheny College of Pennsylvania in 1995, and once by St. Lawrence University of New York in 1998 for his outstanding achievements in music performance and education.

 Since 2002, Mr. Yang has been teaching master classes in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Wuhan in China as visiting scholar. In 2009, he joined the faculty of Renmin University, one of the most prestigious institutions in China, as professor in chamber music and violin, and Chair of Music Department since 2012. Mr. Yang obtained his BA degree from Wuhan Conservatory in China and his Artist Diploma from College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, USA.

Yue Qi, Viola

 Mr. Qi has been on the Music Department faculty of Renmin University of China since 2006. He has served as a Director of the Chinese Viola Society, Executive Director of the Beijing Viola Ensemble, and Executive Director of the Eastern Strings Festival, one of the best summer programs in China. In the 2010-2011 academic year, Mr. Qi was a Visiting Fellow at the Yale School of Music.

 Mr. Qi won the China National Solo Viola Competition in 2001, and received a fellowship from the Aspen Music Festival in 2004. He lectured and performed at the National Center for the Performing Arts, Beijing Concert Hall, Forbidden City Concert Hall and other famous halls in China. He was invited as guest artist by the U.S. Ambassador for the New Year Concert at the United States Embassy in Beijing for more than 30 ambassadors from different countries in 2005.

He has performed widely in the United States, Canada, Austria, Germany, Spain and China. Qi Yue holds Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where he studied with Prof. Wing Ho. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Marketing Management of School of Business, RUC. Qi Yue also teaches Arts Management course at RUC.

 Ying Wang, Cellist

 Ying Wang started studying cello at age of six. She graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.  In 2005, she was granted a full scholarship by Royal Northern College of Music in the UK and graduated with a Masters degree.

 She has studied with well-known cellists, including GuangQuan Hu, MingQing Yu, Hannan Roberts and Ralph Kirshbaum. She also studied with Master Cellist Bernard Greenhouse, who described her as “a young artist born with the understanding of music and the power to control it. There is unlimited passion for music in her performance." From 2003-2005 she was tutored by world famous cellists including Yo-yo Ma, Li-wei Qin, Rodin and others.

  Ying Wang has won many prizes including the First String Quartet Competition of Central Conservatory of Music and the Fifth China National Cello Competition. She performed in Germany with the China Youth Symphony. She toured Switzerland and recorded a CD there. She returned to Remnin University in 2008 to teach cello, and was invited to join the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra in 2010.

Fang Zhang, Pianist

 Born in Shenyang, China, Mr. Zhang began piano lessons at the age of four, and won his first piano competition at age seven. Mr. Zhang received his BM degree in piano at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and was awarded a scholarship to enter MM degree program at the Eastman School of Music. He received the Eastman Performer’s Certificate, the school’s highest award for achievement in performance.

 Fang Zhang was a finalist and prize winner in the 2006 Vladimir Viardo International Piano Competition, where he was awarded the Rachmaninoff Society Special Prize. In 2007 he was awarded First Prize in collaborative pinao in the Jessie Kniesel Lieder Competition at Eastman. In the 2010 season, he appeared with the Xiamen and Shenzhen Symphony orchestras, and released a live concert CD.

 A frequent guest as soloist with orchestra, Mr. Zhang has performed at some of the most prestigious venues in China and the United States. , Mr. Zhang has been on the School of the Arts faculty at Renmin University since 2001, and Director of Piano Studies. He was awarded the 2010 Annual Excellence Teacher Award at Renmin University.

Venetians and Volcanoes with the Humboldt Bay Brass Band

 Humboldt Bay Brass Band presents Venetians and Volcanoes as its annual HSU concert on Friday April 5 in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

 Five brass quintets will honor the Venetians of the late Renaissance with the seldom heard multi-choral sounds of Giovanni Gabrieli, the foremost practitioner of the 16th century Venetian School. 

Volcano by contemporary composer Robert Simpson highlights the second half of the concert. Director Gil Cline describes it as “ very substantial and very difficult. At times it’s very transparent, with thin and clear ethereal chord voicings, and at other times very thick in terms of stacked chords and flurries of running 16th notes. Beautiful in sort of a scary way, and scary in a beautiful way!” 

 Among other selections are Cline's original composition, Tower Bells in the Firmament, and a return to Venice for music from Verdi’s opera, Rigoletto. 

 Humboldt Bay Brass Band performs its spring concert on Friday April 5 at 8 p.m. in the in Fulkerson Recital Hall. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. Directed by Gilbert Cline, produced by the HSU Music Department.

Media: Humboldt State Now, Arcata Eye, KHSU Artwaves.

Humboldt Symphony Performs Beethoven’s Greatest Concerto

 Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto, Handel’s familiar Water Music and a rarely heard piece that evokes the jazz age of the 1920s headline the Humboldt Symphony concerts at Fulkerson Hall on March 8 and 10.

 “Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ is his last and probably greatest concerto,” said Humboldt Symphony conductor Paul Cummings, “and one of the greatest ever written.” The Symphony performs the first movement, which at twenty minutes “is as long as some complete concertos,” Cummings added. “It uses a very full orchestra—strings and wind sections as well as horns and trumpets. Though the piano has virtuoso solo passages, it also engages in dialogue with the orchestra in a kind of call and response format.”

 As winner of the HSU student concerto competition, Levi Walls performs at the piano.

 “The Creation of the World” by Darius Milhaud reflects the artistic energy of 1920s Paris, as American jazz was becoming a European craze. “This piece is very challenging to play, very complex,” Cummings said. “Frankly it isn’t a piece we would normally play, and it may well be the first time it’s been played here. But it happens that this semester we have the perfect combination of advanced players on all the featured instruments.”

 Also on the program is Handel’s Water Music Suite, which contains many of his most recognizable melodies, Cummings said. “It’s a very popular piece with a nice musical flow.” 

 The Karelia Suite is a 19th century Romantic work by Jean Sebelius. “This is beautiful writing for the whole orchestra, characteristic of Sebelius,” Cummings said. “ It makes great use of French horns, with English horn, clarinet and oboe solos. The entire second movement is only strings and woodwinds, while the third movement is one of the more famous orchestra marches ever.”

 The Humboldt Symphony performs on Friday March 8 and Sunday March 10 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. $7/$3, free to HSU students. Tickets: 826-3928 or at the door.   Conducted by Paul Cummings, produced by the HSU Music Department.

Humboldt Symphony Conductor's Notes

Edited from an interview with Paul Cummings.

Not necessarily in program order:

 Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto #5 (1811.) Called The Emperor, this is the last he wrote for piano and orchestra. It’s considered his greatest piano concerto, and one of the greatest ever written. Levi Walls, the winner of our concerto competition, will perform on piano.

 We’re playing the first movement, which is one of the longest first movements written for a concerto up to this time. It’s about 20 minutes long, and there are entire concertos from this period that are not 20 minutes long. That’s rather remarkable and placed demands on Beethoven’s audience. The critics panned the concerto, partly because of its length. It has symphonic proportions—the dimensions and structures of a symphony—but it is actually a concerto. It’s considered a trailblazing work.

 It uses a very full orchestra—full strings and wind sections as well as horns and trumpets. And as my colleague Daniela Mineva points out, it’s one of the first concertos to treat the orchestra as an equal partner with the soloist. The orchestra is not in the subordinate role of simply accompanying the piano soloist—rather you’ll hear the orchestra on an equal footing. Often the orchestra and piano even dialogue with one another, in a kind of call and response format. The piano nevertheless has several cadenzas in this movement. Even from the opening 10 measures it’s very clear that this is a work that features the piano soloist. But when the piano is not playing cadenzas, there are equal forces at work.

 Beethoven was completely deaf when he wrote this concerto. It’s said he absorbed the music through the vibrations of the piano strings he felt through the floor. So it’s all the more remarkable when you hear these opening measures where the piano is playing with such incredible technique, to realize this was a deaf composer who wrote this music. And if you’ve ever wondered what kind of pianist Beethoven was, this concerto really highlights the amazing piano technique.

 I’m in awe when I play this music. I can relate to composers like Sibelius and Milhaud, but when you stand in front of the orchestra for this piece, it’s just amazing music. The craftsmanship is impeccable, the music just seems to work for all the instruments he wrote for, and then there’s the synergy that is more than the sum of its parts. The cumulative effect is so much greater than the sum of its parts. Our student players love it as well.

Jean Sibelius: Karelia Suite (1893).  This is a three movement work for full orchestra: strings, woodwinds, horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba and percussion. It’s very beautiful orchestral writing, which Sibelius is known for. It’s in the style of European Romanticism of the 1880s. Sibelius was never accused of being ahead of his time. He was like J.S. Bach—someone who uses the traditional harmonic language and adapts that to his own writing.

 This piece makes great use of all four French horns. You’ll hear them prominently displayed in both the first and last movements. As a late Romantic work this is a great challenge for us because it benefits from a larger string section than we have. There’s also beautiful writing for woodwinds, with solos for English norn, oboe, clarinet. The second movement uses only strings and woodwinds. Listeners may recognize the last movement of this suite, the march, because it’s one of the more famous orchestral marches.

 George Frideric Handel: Water Music Suite (1717.)  This is one of his famous and often performed works. Even if the title isn’t familiar, audiences will probably recognize some of Handel’s most popular melodies.

 Originally this piece was much longer, written for the full Baroque orchestra, so there were no clarinets or trombones or tubas. In the 19th century an Irish conductor and composer, Hamilton Harty, selected six movements from probably 30 or more that Handel wrote, and created the Water Music Suite. This was an art in itself, to cull it down to only six and put them in an order with a nice musical flow to it. He also added some dynamic and articulation markings, and parts for clarinets and flutes. There was a whole school of conductors who did this kind of thing so they could play Baroque pieces with modern orchestras.

 Darius Milhaud: La Creation Du Monde (The Creation of the World.) (1922-23.)  We’re doing part of this fascinating work from the 1920s. Milhaud was in Paris, as were so many great artists, musicians, dancers and theatre artists. There were several famous collaborations centered on a theatrical or dance work, especially those created by Jean Cocteau. Among composers he brought in Stravinsky and Ravel, and ripples went out even farther to include Gershwin and Copland, who were influenced by these Parisian salons.

 This piece is a good example of this period in artistic history, especially because it incorporates jazz, that new American art form. American jazz artists were playing in Paris and elsewhere in Europe. Milhaud traveled to New York to hear more. He went to nightclubs in Harlem, and was fascinated by this new style—the improvisation, the prominent use of saxophone, the ways piano and percussion were used.

 Milhaud applied his classical and jazz crossover idioms with a story of the creation of the world based on African oral traditions. He wrote four movements but they’re meant to be played without stopping, so it flows together. He wrote for an interesting combination of instruments, basically a little chamber orchestra configuration of four strings, two flutes, an oboe, two clarinets, a bassoon, two trumpets, a trombone and a variety of percussion. True to what he learned from jazz, the saxophone is featured in many sections of this work, and the piano has an important part—it’s not just an ensemble part, but it’s intended to be heard rather than blend with the other instruments.

 This is not a piece we would typically play here. I have a strong feeling that this is the first time it will be played at HSU. The reason is that it’s difficult and challenging. The complexity comes mostly from the jazz element—the second movement is a jazz fugue. The instruments are all treated soloistically, and the players all have to be fiercely counting their rhythms. We can do it this year however because we have the perfect combination of players on all of the required instruments. We don’t necessarily have that in a typical year. But this semester there’s a perfect storm of all the advanced instrumentalists actually available. It’s a great piece of music we can’t do very often, but we can do it for these concerts.