THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY College of Music
presents
University Wind Orchestra
Rodney Dorsey, Director
Michael Tignor, Graduate Conducting Associate
Friday, September 22, 2023
7:30 p.m. | Ruby Diamond Concert Hall
Rocky Point Holiday (1969)
Variations on “Mein Junges Leben Hat Ein End”
Michael Tignor, graduate conducting associate
Fantasy Variations on George Gershwin’s Prelude II for Piano (1927/1999)
Ron Nelson (b. 1929)
Jan P. Sweelinck (1562–1621)
tr. Ramon Ricker
Donald Grantham (b. 1947)
Point Blank (2012/2020)
INTERMISSION
Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber (1943/1972)
Paul Dooley (b. 1983)
Paul Hindemith
I. Allegro (1895–1963)
II. Turandot, Scherzo
III. Andantino
IV. March
tr. Keith Wilson
To Ensure An Enjoyable Concert Experience For All…
Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting during performances. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Recording or broadcasting of the concert by any means, including the use of digital cameras, cell phones, or other devices is expressly forbidden. Please deactivate all portable electronic devices including watches, cell phones, pagers, hand-held gaming devices or other electronic equipment that may distract the audience or performers.
Recording Notice: This performance may be recorded. Please note that members of the audience may at times be included in this process. By attending this performance you consent to have your image or likeness appear in any live or recorded video or other transmission or reproduction made in conjunction to the performance.
Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at (850) 644-3424 at least five working days prior to a musical event to request accommodation for disability or alternative program format.
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
Nelson: Rocky Point Holiday
Ron Nelson has been categorized as the quintessential American composer. His career intertwines with a period in history where there was a strong desire for quality compositions for wind band. Nelson is the first composer to win the National Band Association Prize, the American Bandmasters Association Ostwald Award, and the Sudler International Prize (the three major composition awards) in the same year for his piece, Passacaglia (Homage to B-AC-H). Conductor Leonard Slatkin said that Nelson “has the ability to move between conservative and new styles with ease. The fact that he’s hard to categorize is what makes him interesting.”
Nelson’s first great work for band, Rocky Point Holiday, drew inspiration from his summer vacation to Rocky Point, a popular tourist destination in Warwick, Rhode Island. The piece was commissioned by Frank Bencriscutto and the University of Minnesota band for their Russian tour. After hearing Nelson’s Savannah River Holiday, Bencriscutto wanted a similar virtuosic piece that would challenge every member of his ensemble. Nelson asked if the band had any limitations and received the reply, “there are none.” He warned Bencriscutto that he was going to write a “tremendously difficult piece,” to which the director replied, “that’s fine.” The result was a virtuosic work full of timbral color, inviting melodies, and musical adventure.
Sweelinck: Variations on “Mein junges Leben hat ein End”
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck was a prolific Dutch composer in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Following the death of his father, Sweelinck assumed the role of organist at the Church of Saint Niklaus in Amsterdam. Despite not traveling to other cities, he was able to learn the music of other European composers from the plentiful printed music available at the time. His works were later compiled by Breitkopf and Hartel and published in a series of 12 volumes. Sweelinck wrote 75 works for keyboard, including mostly fantasies, toccatas, and variations. He is remembered as the leading composer and teacher of early Baroque music in the Netherlands.
Variations on “Mein junges Leben hat ein End” (My young life has ended) was originally composed for organ. The specific date of composition is unknown, and the melody is likely of German origin, as it first appears in several printed collections by German composers in the early 1600s. It likely was brought to Sweelinck by one of his German students. This arrangement by Ramon Ricker adds an array of color made possible by modern instruments while remaining faithful to the original composition.
Grantham: Fantasy Variations
Donald Grantham is highly regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential composers for winds working today. Grantham is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes in composition, including the Prix Lili Boulanger, the Nissim/ASCAP Orchestral Composition Prize, First Prize in the Concordia Chamber Symphony’s Awards to American Composers, a Guggenheim Fellowship, three First Prizes in the NBA/William Revelli Competition, two First Prizes in the ABA/Ostwald Competition, and First Prize in the National Opera Association’s Biennial Composition Competition. In a citation awarded by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, his music has been praised for its “elegance, sensitivity, lucidity of thought, clarity of expression and fine lyricism.” He currently serves as the Professor of Composition at the University of Texas at Austin Butler School of Music.
George Gershwin’s Prelude II for Piano was intended to be a part of the “Melting Pot,” a group of 24 piano etudes inspired by Chopin’s preludes. However, only three preludes were ever published and were his only works for solo piano. Gershwin described his second prelude as a “sort of blues lullaby.” Grantham had a personal connection to the piece as it was the first piece he learned as a child on the piano by an American composer. About his piece, Grantham says, “The work begins with much more obscure fragments drawn from the introduction, accompanimental figures, transitions, cadences, and so forth. These eventually give way to more familiar motives derived from the themes themselves. All of these elements are gradually assembled over the last half of the piece until the themes finally appear in more or less their original form.”
Dooley: Point Blank
Paul Dooley began his musical life listening to Beethoven, Bruce Hornsby, Nirvana, and Rush. As a teenager, he began a long mentorship with singer, songwriter Gary “Doc” Collins. Throughout his education, Dooley studied composition with Charles Sepos, Frank Ticheli, Stephen Hartke, Michael Daugherty, Bright Sheng, and Evan Chambers. His works have received numerous awards, including the 2016 Sousa/ABA/Oswald Award, the 2015 William D. Revelli Prize, and the 2013 Jacob Druckman Award for orchestral composition. He is currently a member of the music faculty at the University of Michigan where he created and directs the Performing Arts Technology department’s annual Computer Music Showcase.
Initially commissioned by the Mizzou International Composers Festival, Point Blank was premiered by the new music ensemble, Alarm Will Sound. The piece was later arranged for full orchestra in 2011 and wind ensemble in 2012. The version you hear today was requested by Michael Haithcock, conductor of the University of Michigan Symphony Band. Dooley notes that he was inspired by electronic music, particularly a style called Drum & Bass. “I explore the interaction between computer-generated musical material and the human performer. For the ensemble’s percussion battery, I transcribe tightly interlocking electronic rhythmic material. The drum set, mallets, and timpani whirl the ensemble through an array of electronically inspired orchestrations, while the winds and brass shriek for dear life.”
Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis
Paul Hindemith is without question one of the most influential composers of the early 20th century. His composition style was rooted in deep reverence of discipline, musicality, craftsmanship, mastery, and respect for past musical traditions. His music was labeled as “degenerate” by the Nazis in the early 1930s due to its lack of traditional tonality. This, along with his wife’s Jewish heritage, led Hindemith to emigrate first to Switzerland in 1938 and then the United States in 1940. Ironically, around the same time he left Germany, he began writing music based in tonality and some Nazi officials wanted Hindemith to be shown as the example of a modern German composer. While in the United States, Hindemith wrote his two most noteworthy pieces: his Symphony in B-flat for wind band as well as Symphonic Metamorphosis.
The inspiration for Symphonic Metamorphosis came in part from choreographer and dancer Léonide Massine. He suggested to Hindemith that he write a ballet based on the music of Carl von Weber. However, Massine was not pleased with the outcome as he desired something more traditional than Hindemith’s modern style. Additionally, the sets and costumes were based upon the art of Salvador Dali, whom Hindemith disliked. Therefore, the project was abandoned but revived in 1943 when Hindemith decided to write a set of variations instead. Hindemith retained all but one of the themes almost exactly as Weber wrote them but also preserved much of the formal structure of the pieces. Writing in this way makes it possible to follow the general outline of Hindemith’s score while listening to Weber’s music. The piece was premiered by the New York Philharmonic on January 20, 1944, under the baton of Artur Rodzinski. The wind band transcription was completed at the request of Hindemith by his colleague, Keith Wilson.
Piccolo
Kaitlyn Calcagino
Flute
Pamela Bereuter
Adeline Belova
Paige Douglas
Sarah Kimbro
Oboe
Nic Kanipe
Abby Kothera
Andrew Swift
Bassoon
Robert Alexander
Cailin McGarry
Carson Long
E-flat Clarinet
Hannah Faircloth
Clarinet
Dave Scott
Anne Glerum
Travis Irizarry
Andrew Prawat
Audrey Rancourt
Sadie Murray
Reymon Contrera
Jesse Rigsby
University Wind Orchestra Personnel
Rodney Dorsey, Director
Michael Tignor, Graduate Conducting Associate
Bass Clarinet
Brad Pilcher
Saxophone
Jason Shimer, alto/soprano
Collin Bankovic, alto
Ethan Horn, tenor
Evan Blitzer, baritone
Horn
Tommy Langston
Adam Agonoy
Clare Ottesen
Luis Oquendo
AC Caruthers
Trumpet
Vito Bell
Benjamin Dubbert
Vance Garven
Thana Rangsiyawaranon
Thum Rangsiyawaranon
Schelvin Robinson
Trombone
Will Roberts
Christian Estades
Grant Keel, bass
Euphonium
Jonah Zimmerman
Luke Heinrich
Tuba
Mike Anderson
Sebastian Davey-Bravo
Levi Vickers
Percussion
Ryan Boehme
Jacob Dell
Miranda Hughes
Will Vasquez
Darci Wright
Piano
Fernando Garcia
Harp
Lauren Barfield
String Bass
Alex Lunday