“Come Sunday”
Sunday, November 13, 2022, at 2:00 p.m., Woolsey Hall, Yale University
WOLFGANG A. MOZART
Serenade No. 10 (Gran Partita) K. 361
I. Introduction and Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Finale: Rondo
CHARLES IVES
trans. Richard Thurston
HOLLY HARRISON
The Alcotts (1915)
Splinter (2020)
Rick Fleming, guest conductor
~ intermission ~
Trains!
Featuring New Haven Railroad Engine 1920s brass bell
ERIC WHITACRE
HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS
HARRY J. LINCOLN
arr. John Krance OMAR THOMAS
Ghost Train I (1994)
The Little Train of the Brazilian Countryman (1930)
The Midnight Fire Alarm (1900)
Come Sunday (2018)
Yale University acknowledges that indigenous peoples and nations, including Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, and the Quinnipiac and other Algonquian speaking peoples, have stewarded through generations the lands and waterways of what is now the state of Connec ticut. We honor and respect the enduring relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land.
About Tonight’s Music
Suite: Serenade No. 10 (Gran Partita) K. 361 (1781)
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)
Gran Partita, K. 361, was written around 1781 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The serenade as a genre was a quite frivolous and light-hearted affair in Mozart’s time. Serenades were “dinner music,” to be performed at parties and other social events. Also known as divertimenti, nocturnes, or cassations, these works had their origin in the aristocratic practice of hiring a band to “woo” potential lovers and damsels. Mostly, serenades were written for immediate con sumption. By 1780 these types of works were beginning to appear in serious concerts, but because of their very nature many serenades from the Classical period have been lost forever, swallowed by the filter of time. Mozart’s serenades, however, have survived ... a testament to their construction and quality.
The three movements in this afternoon’s performance incorporate a kind of mini-symphony (without scherzo) – Allegro, Adagio, and the finale, Rondo. The Adagio was highlighted in the movie Amadeus, when Salieri recounts his first viewing of the score, “On the page, it looked . . . nothing! The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse. Bassoons and basset horns, like a rusty squeezebox. And then suddenly, high above it, an oboe. A single note, hanging there, unwavering. Until a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! ... This was a music I’d never heard… filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing. It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God.”
The Alcotts (1915)
CHARLES IVES (1874-1954)
[trans. Richard Thurston (1972)]
Richard Thurston (1933-2018) was the third director of Yale Bands, serving from 1980 to 1982. He served as the Director of the United States Air Force Band, and is known for his fine transcriptions for the contemporary concert band. He left Yale in 1982 to become the Dean of the School of the Performing Arts at Oklahoma City University. He writes about The Alcotts: “The Piano Sonata No. 2: the Concord Sonata, was com posed by Charles Ives (1874-1954 and Yale class of 1898) in about 1915. It consists of four movements, each bearing the name of a famous mid-19th-century resident of Concord, Massachusetts: Emerson, Hawthorne, The Alcotts, Thoreau. Each movement is a musical im pression of the personality and philosophical attitudes of its subject. While movements I, II, and IV are lengthy, musically complex, and pianistically difficult, The Alcotts is a section of simple and serene beauty – a touching and lovingly etched remembrance of the Alcott’s Or chard House ‘under the elms.’”
Splinter (2020)
HOLLY HARRISON
The composer says of her piece: “In this context, the word ‘Splinter’ means to break into small, sharp fragments, and refers to the way in which the piece is structured as a type of mosaic or stylistic patchwork. Many sections of the piece feature instrument sounds breaking or distorting in some way – whether this be in the extremes of register, wild glissandos, or crunchy chords. The other meaning of ‘splinter’ is as a foreign object within the body. This acts as a metaphor for my experimentation with some lighter, delicate moments, which are not always part of my musical soundworld.”
This afternoon’s concert features a brass bell from a 1920s New Haven Railroad Engine. The bell is in its original cast iron frame and has been mounted on a special stand, custom-crafted by artisan and musician Tom Hintz of Wallingford, CT. Hintz created the stand using a synthetic “wood” that is made with coal dust, in a symbolic nod to the early railroads that were powered by coal. Before finding its present home with the Yale Bands, the bell belonged to Amos Hewitt of Hamden, CT, who worked for the New Haven Railroad for many years. Its beautiful peal still commands respect and attention as it has for the past century.
Ghost Train I (1994)
ERIC WHITACRE (b. 1970)
American Western folklore includes the legend of the ghost train, a supernatural machine that roars out of the night through forgotten towns and empty canyons. All aboard!
The Little Train of the Brazilian Countryman (1930)
HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS (1887-1959)
The musical output of the prolific Heitor Villa-Lobos includes the Bachianas Brasileiras suites, a group of pieces based on origi nal melodies patterned after folk songs and tribal chants of Bra zil’s native people. These melodies are set “in a Bach-like way” and are performed on Latin American instruments. In Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2 – Toccata (The Little Train of the Brazilian Countryman), Villa-Lobos has cre ated the actual sounds of a steam engine chugging its way through the countryside, uphill and down, with a stop here and there.
The Midnight Fire Alarm (1900) HARRY LINCOLN (1878-1937)
[arr. John Krance (1960)] Bucket brigades, hand pumps, steam and gasoline pumpers, aerial and water-tower trucks, high-pres sure trucks, and several other types of equipment have been used in fighting fires during the last few centuries. During the 20th century, many of the large city fire departments had their own bands, sometimes conducted by directors who were also composers. George Briegel of New York, Fortuna to Sordillo of Boston, and Carl Dillon of St. Paul all wrote marches for their fire department bands. Krance’s arrangement of The Midnight Fire Alarm by Harry Lincoln is a good-natured thrust at the novelties of the early concert bands. Using all the resources of the band, especially the percussion section, the piece moves at a furious pace, much in the manner of the silent-movie fight scene music.
Come Sunday (2018)
OMAR THOMAS (b. 1984)
The composer writes of his piece: “Come Sunday is a two-movement tribute to the Hammond organ’s central role in black worship services. The first movement, ‘Testimony,’ follows the Hammond organ as it readies the congregation’s hearts, minds, and spirits to receive The Word via a magical union of Bach, blues, jazz, and R&B. The second movement, ‘Shout!’, is a virtuosic celebration – the frenzied and joyous climactic moments when The Spirit has taken over the service.
“The title is a direct nod to Duke Ellington, who held an inspired love for classical music and allowed it to influence his own work in a multitude of ways. To all the black musicians in wind ensemble who were given opportunity after oppor tunity to celebrate everyone else’s music but our own – I see you and I am you. This one’s for the culture!” – Omar Thomas
YALE CONCERT BAND
Blueprint - New Haven Railroad Engine 1920s brass bell
Upcoming Yale Bands Performances
• Friday, February 10 – 7:30 p.m. Yale Concert Band, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Feat. Amen by Carlos Si mon. Other repertoire TBA. Woolsey Hall. Free/no tickets required.
• Tuesday, February 14 – 5:00-6:00 p.m. Yale Concert Band, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. “Pre-Commute Concert.” Attend a short concert to end your workday on the right “note” before heading home. Woolsey Hall. Free/no tickets required.
• Wednesday, March 1 – 7:30 p.m. Yale Jazz Ensemble Big Band, Wayne Escoffery, Music Director. Program TBA. Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall. Free/no tickets required.
• Tuesday, April 3, 2023. Yale Jazz Ensemble Big Band in New York. Wayne Escoffery, Music Director. Dizzy’s Club, 10 Columbus Circle, New York, NY. $ Admission/Info TBA.
• Friday, April 14 – 7:30 p.m. Yale Concert Band, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. The Seer by Erik Santos, feat. guest artist Albert Lee, tenor. Other repertoire TBA. Woolsey Hall. Free/no tickets required.
• Tuesday, April 18 – 5:00-6:00 p.m. Yale Concert Band, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. “Pre-Commute Con cert.” Attend a short concert to end your workday on the right “note” before heading home. Woolsey Hall. Free/no tickets required
Fall 2022 Audience Policy: Open to asymptomatic patrons with an up-to-date vaccination status. Patron should carry vaccination documentation and be prepared to show it if asked. Yale-approved masks (N95 or other ASTM rated) are required for all audience members.
YALE CONCERT BAND
About the Guest Conductor
Rick Fleming is professor of music and director of bands at SUNY Buffalo State, where he conducts the Buffalo State College Wind and Jazz Ensembles. He also teaches undergraduate conducting and instrumental methods. He is the founding conductor of the Erie County Chamber Winds (a professional chamber wind ensemble).
From 1992-98 he served as director of bands at William R. Boone High School in Orlando, where the band program received superior ratings at both district and state levels. Prior to his appointment at William R. Boone High School, Dr. Fleming served for six years as the director of bands at Memorial Middle School, where he was named Teacher of the Year in 1992.
Fleming received his Ph.D. in Music Education with emphasis in wind band conducting from The Florida State University where he studied with Clifford K. Madsen and James E. Croft. He earned his M.M. degree in trombone performance from The University of Mississippi and Bachelor of Music Education from Mississippi Val ley State University where he studied with Professors Russell Boone and Leonard E. Tramiel.
Fleming has presented many clinics for the Florida Bandmaster As sociation on the topics “Teaching Band in Multicultural Environ ments” and “Young Band Directors’ Success.”
He has served as guest conductor for the Jackson, Mississippi All City Band, The Mississippi All State Band, the Ark-LA Tech Band Festival at Louisiana Tech University, and a myr iad of honor bands throughout the United States. He has also presented the Erie County Chamber Winds at the New York State Band Association Symposium in 2003. Dr. Fleming is an active adjudicator and clinician through out the United States.
Fleming’s international conducting experience includes conducting the University of Szeged Wind Ensemble in Szeged, Hungary. He also conducted the Youth Band of the Private Music and Art School for the East European Symposium for Wind Conductors November 24-28, 2004 in Szeged, Hungary. In 2006, Dr Fleming served as an adjudicator for the Tygerburg Fanfare International Band Festival in Cape Town, South Africa. He has published chapters in the GIA Publication’s Teaching Music Through Performance Beginning Band Volume 2 and Teaching Music Through Performance in Jazz.
He is a member of the College Band Directors National Association, Music Educators National Conference, Interna tional Trombone Association, Phi Beta Mu National Band Fraternity, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated, Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, and an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi Band Fraternity. He also serves on the Buffalo Phil harmonic Diversity Committee.
As a trombonist, Dr. Fleming has performed for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Temptations, Aretha Franklin, Four Tops, Connie Francis, Frankie Valli, Marie Osmond and 10 Thousand Maniacs. He has also toured with the Irish Tenors and performs regularly for various organizations throughout the Western New York area.
About the Music Director
Thomas C. Duffy is Professor (Adjunct) of Music, Director of University Bands, and Clinical Professor of Nursing at Yale University, where he has worked since 1982. He is known as a composer, a conductor, a teacher, an administrator, and a leader. His interests and research range from non-tonal analysis to jazz, from wind band histo ry to creativity and the brain. Under his direction, the Yale Bands have performed at conferences of the College Band Directors National Association and New England College Band Association; for club audiences at New York City’s Village Vanguard, Birdland, Dizzy’s Club, and Iridium; Ronnie Scott’s (London); the Belmont (Ber muda); as part of the inaugural ceremonies for President George H.W. Bush; and concertized in twenty-one countries in the course of eighteen international tours. Duffy produced a two-year lecture/performance series, Music and the Brain, with the Yale School of Medicine; and, with the Yale School of Nursing, developed a musical intervention to train nursing students to better hear and identify body sounds with the stethoscope. He combined his interests in music and science to create a genre of music for the bilateral con ductor – in which a “split-brained conductor” must conduct a different meter in each hand, sharing downbeats. His compositions have introduced a generation of school musicians to aleatory, the integration of spoken/sung words and “body rhythms” with instrumental performance, and the pairing of music with political, social, historical and scientific themes. He has been awarded the Yale Tercentennial Medal for Composition, the Elm/Ivy Award, the Yale School of Music Cultural Leadership Citation and certificates of appreciation by the United States Attor ney’s Office for his Yale 4/Peace: Rap for Justice concerts – music programs designed for social impact by using the power of music to deliver a message of peace and justice to impressionable middle and high school students. Duffy has served as associate, deputy and acting dean of the Yale School of Music. He has served as a member of the Fulbright National Selection Committee, the Tanglewood II Symposium planning commit tee, the Grammy Foundation Music Educators Award Screening Committee, and completed the MLE program at the Harvard University Institute for Management and Leadership in Education. He has served as: president of the Connecticut Composers Inc., the New England College Band Directors Association and the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA); editor of the CBDNA Journal, publicity chair for the World Asso ciation of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles; and chair of the Connecticut Music Educators Association’s Pro fessional Affairs and Government Relations committees. He is a member of American Bandmasters Associa tion, American Composers Alliance, the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Connecticut Composers Incorporated, the Social Science Club, and BMI. Duffy has conducted ensembles all over the world, including the National Association for Music Education’s National Honor Band in the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. (More extensive data is available at www.duffymusic.com, including a high resolution downloadable photo.)
YALE CONCERT BAND
YALE CONCERT BAND 2022-2023
THOMAS C. DUFFY, Music Director STEPHANIE HUBBARD, Operations and Production Manager
Piccolo
Salena Huang YSEAS ’26
Flutes
Rosa Kleinman BF ’23 principal
Emily He DC ’24
Allie Gruber PC ’26
Raaghav Malik BF ’26 Seb Seager SM ’23
Elijah Bakaleynik DC ’24 Peter Nelson JE ’26 Mei Hao YSEAS ’28
Oboes
Miranda Margulis-Ohnuma BR ’23* principal Ana Rodrigues BR ’25*
Zara Ashford SY ’25 Sophia Graham DC ’26
English Horn Ana Rodrigues BR ’25
Eb Clarinet
Margalit Patry-Martin GH ’24
Bb Clarinets
Jalen Li PC ’23, Keith L. Wilson
Principal Clarinet Chair *† Ben Swinchoski BF ’25
Margalit Patry-Martin GH ’24 Michael Cheng BK ’26*
Michael Ying BK ’24
Joshua Rothbaum TD ’23
Avery Maples PC ’26
Daniel Denney ES ’24
Jessica Liu GH ’25
Alexandra Schoettler SM ’26
Peilin Lu PC ’26
Meiling Laurence BF ’26
Kayleigh Hackett SY ’25
Basset Horns
Ben Swinchoski BF ’25* Margalit Patry-Martin GH ’24*
Bb Bass Clarinet
Lloyd Van’t Hoff YSM ’23
Bassoons
Sharif Hassen ES ’26* principal Winfred Felton YSM ’24* Keith Buckholz BF ’26
Contrabassoon Ryan Goodwin YSM ’23
Soprano Saxophone Tony Ruan BF ’25
Alto Saxophones Tony Ruan BF ’25 principal Alina Martel TC ’23 Dennis Lee DC ’24 Felix Gong SM ’26
Bb Tenor Saxophones Aaron Yu MC ’25 principal Esteban Figueroa MC ’25
Eb Baritone Saxophone Michael Chen GH 23
Cornets/Trumpets
Aidan Garcia MC ’26 Izzy Lopez MY ’23 Risha Chakraborty SY ’25 Josh Bialkin YSM ’23 Shania Cordoba YSM ’2
French Horns (rotating)
Rory Bricca ES ’26* Zane Glick ES ’26*
Miriam Huerta BF ’23 Kate Hall ES ’26* Michelle Ross GH ’26*
Trombones
Theo Haaks BR ’24
Declan Wilcox YSM ’23 Cody Uman MC ’25* Yuki Mori YSM ’24
Euphonium
Addison Maye-saxon YSM ’23
Tubas Bridget Conley YSM ’23 Julia Chen YSE ’24
Piano Serina Wang SY ’26
String Bass Chelsea Strayer YSM ’24*
Percussion Madeline Chun SM ’26 Kyle Thomas Ramos MY ’26 Mingyu Son YSM ’24 Max Su SY ’25
Nikolai Stephens-Zumbaum BF ’26 Aaron Yu MC ’25
Music Librarian
Michael Chen GH ’23
* playing on Mozart Gran Partita
† Friends of Keith L. Wilson (Director of Yale Bands from 1946-1973) honored him by endowing the principal clarinet chair in the Yale Concert Band in his name. If you would like information about naming a Yale Concert Band chair, please contact the Yale Bands Office.
YALE CONCERT BAND OFFICERS
President: Alina Martel General Managers: Theo Haaks, Tony Ruan Publicity Chair: Seb Seager