Beatrice and Benedict

Hector Berlioz/arr. Franz Henning (1803-1869)

Beatrice and Benedict was composed by Berlioz as a two-act opera comique in 1858. The libretto is by Berlioz and he based it on a subplot from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

The general plot is Beatrice and Benedict can’t stand one another so, of course, their families and friends employ various deceptions to get the two together. In the end, they do get married with lyrics “Love is a torch…Love is a flame…today the truce is signed; we will become enemies again tomorrow!” A match made in heaven!

The overture opens with the two main characters throwing insults at each other represented by ferocious triplets in the winds. This Introduction is only the introduction to the introduction which is a slow and romantic duet before the action gets down to business by returning to the triplet/insults from the beginning.

The comical nature of the opera comes out through its energy, lightness, and spark. Even in the slow romantic aria in the middle there is a forward motion that keeps the tension effervescent rather than maudlin. The overture definitely sounds like Berlioz as he includes his signature brass exclamatory statements throughout the piece.

This was Berlioz’s last composition as he would die just a few years later. One would never guess that Berlioz was in considerable pain when he wrote Beatrice and Benedict because of its joy and fun. He himself enjoyed writing the opera and was thrilled at the success of its premiere which he conducted.

American Patrol

F.W. Meachum (1856-1909)

At the end of the 19th century, before radio broadcasting, music publishers employed pianists and composers/arrangers to perform new compositions. This primarily happened in store-front windows of their publishing firms and was focused along West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in New York City. It was popularly known as Tin Pan Alley. The most famous of these composer-pianists along Tin Pan Alley were Irving Berlin and George Gershwin. Also among these musician-promoters included Frank White Meachum.

Meachum originally composed American Patrol as a piano piece in 1885. He later arranged it for wind band and published that version in 1891. Besides his own original music, Meachum included famous patriotic tunes from the 19th century such as “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean”, “Dixie” and “Yankee Doodle”.

It has quasi-military music elements and includes drum cadences and bugle calls. It also uses a traditional technique of starting very soft and ending very soft. This gives the impression of a military band approaching from the distance and becoming louder as it crosses in front of the bleachers and then becoming softer as it recedes into the distance.

Perhaps American Patrol is most well-known for a swing version by Jerry Gray, Glenn Miller’s arranger. It was recorded by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra in 1942.

American Patrol entered into pop culture when it was performed on the flute by Russell Johnson, the actor playing “The Professor”, on an episode of Gilligan’s Island.

Lux Aurumque (Light and Gold)

Eric Whitacre, b. 1970

Poem by Edward Esch, b. 1970

light,

warm and heavy as pure gold

and angels sing softly

to the new-born babe.

“After deciding upon the poem by Edward Esch (I was immediately struck by its genuine, elegant simplicity), I had it translated into the Latin by the celebrated American poet Charles Anthony Silvestri. A simple approach is essential to the success of the work, and if the tight harmonies are carefully tuned and balanced they will shimmer and glow.” Eric Whitacre

Whitacre composed Lux Aurumque in 2000 as a choral piece on commission by the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay. The version for wind band we hear today is also by Whitacre and was premiered here in San Antonio at the Texas Music Educators Association Convention in 2005.

As one can tell by the text it is a Christmas piece with references to the angels and the “new-born babe”. Its two initial chords Whitacre borrowed from Passio (also know as the St. John Passion) by Estonian composer Arvo Part and thus makes the Christian mystical connection between birth and death; incarnation and resurrection.

While Lux is rather short at 55 measures its compactness holds an immensity of space and color through shifting harmonies and lush orchestral sound. If color can be translated into sound Whitacre has been sublimely successful.

Toccata Marziale

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Vaughan Williams was a prominent British composer and collector of British folk song. His wind band works, along with Gustav Holst and Percy Grainger, form the bedrock of British band repertoire.

The Toccata Marziale was composed in 1924 as part of the Commemoration of the British Empire Exhibition. While it is only Vaughan Williams’s second for piece for wind band one can tell that he is a master of orchestration and composition.

A toccata is a type of early Baroque keyboard composition typically for harpsichord or organ. It is adopted from an Italian word “toccare” which means literally “to touch”, a reference to virtuosic finger technique required to play these early pieces. One famous toccata often played during the Halloween season is J.S. Bach’s frightening Toccata and Fugue in d minor!

The opening statement in the brass uses a four-note motive that goes on almost constantly throughout the entire piece. But it is contrasted with a beautiful lyrical melody introduced by the euphonium and cornet soloists. These two melodic ideas are juxtaposed against each other in the middle section of the piece. The lyrical melody is passed back and forth between instrumental groups just like the initial four-note motive, low brasses to high brasses to high woodwinds to low woodwinds. Hence there is built a texture of independent lines woven together through color and density into a complex tonal fabric.

The breathless nature of the Toccata Marziale leaves one with a good sense of those early keyboard compositions. Vaughan Williams though paces out the final section with a long buildup through volume and density of instrumentation. It climaxes at the very end with a restatement of the initial four-note statement.

Victory at Sea – Symphonic Scenarios for Concert Band

Richard Rodgers and Robert Russell Bennett

Victory at Sea is a television documentary first aired on October 26, 1952 by NBC. There were 26 half-hour long episodes. It was so successful that it was then released as a feature film in 1954. Its subject about warfare during World War but focused primarily on naval warfare and industry in warfare. It won an Emmy.

Richard Rodgers is most noted for his collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein which produced some of America’s most famous and most beloved musicals such as Oklahoma!, Carousel, The King and I, Sound of Music and South Pacific.

Rodgers was hired to compose the film score. He composed 12 short piano themes so Robert Russell Bennett was brought on board to flesh out and orchestrate Rodgers’ material. Bennett consequently composed that bulk of the film score.

As one expects from film music it evokes the many natures of the sea and the human experience of life at war on the sea. There are moments of ease and leisure so the music is almost deceptively languorous. The piece opens with an almost heroic fanfare with waves crashing over the bow of a ship. There are battle scenes where the music is violent and brutal. And there are brooding moments of those periods of waiting for battle to engage.

Again, Victory at Sea enters the popular culture through one of Rodgers’ melodies, “Beneath the Southern Cross”. He had his musical collaborator, Oscar Hammerstein, write words to the melody. It became titled “No Other Love” for their 1953 musical Me and Juliet. Perry Como recorded it in 1953 and it made it to “Number One” on the pop charts that year.

Blue Lake Overture for Concert Band

John Barnes Chance (1932-1972)

John Barnes Chance was a native-born Texan who graduated from the University of Texas with degrees in composition. For a while, he played timpani in the Austin Symphony Orchestra and then joined the Army where he was an arranger for the Fourth and Eighth U.S. Army Bands. He was stationed in Korea and while there composed his most famous work, Variations on a Korean Folk Song. He was a popular educator and eventually came to see himself more as a teacher than simply a composer.

The Blue Lake Overture was commissioned by the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan and premiered in 1971. It is a rhythmically complex piece all of which is derived from the opening motive stated in the horns.

There are several contrasting sections all of which are developed from that opening horn statement. There is a fugue section and a waltz section that is reminiscent of Ravel’s La Valse.

This sounds simple but Chance uses the word, slancio, meaning “with impetuosity” to let the musicians know how to approach this energetic piece. And it is impetuous! In the opening and closing large sections Chance uses what are called asymmetrical meters. So instead of using a traditional 4/4 meter (4 pulses in groups of 2) he uses alternating meters with groups of 3’s and 2’s. So some of the groupings will be 3+2+ 3; others are groupings of 3+3+2; 2+2+2+2; 3+3+3; even 3+2+3+2. These pulse groupings happen at a breakneck speed and woe to the musician whose attention wanders for even a split second!

Concert Notes by Mark Twehues

Thank you for joining us this afternoon!

Please join us for our next concert on Sunday November 12 at Southwest Legacy High School at 4 pm.