Wind Symphony: Shine

PROGRAM NOTES 

FESTIVE OVERTURE

The death of Joseph Stalin on March 5, 1953 was followed by a pronounced relaxation of political restraints on creativity that had affected the work of Russian artists for many years. Dmitri Shostakovich and Serge Prokofiev were the most prominent Russian composers affected by the interference and control of the government during these difficult times. Prokofiev, who died on the same day as Stalin, was never able to enjoy the new artistic freedom as did Shostakovich, who was able to take many scores “out of the drawer” (among them his withdrawn Symphony No. 4) as a result of Stalin’s death.

Festive Overture was composed in early 1954, in the period between the composer’s Symphony No. 10 and his Violin Concerto No. 2, to commemorate the thirty-seventh anniversary of the 1917 Revolution. The Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow gave the first performance on November 6, 1954. Although a Russian military band version of the score was prepared in 1958, the edition by Donald Hunsberger is transcribed from the orchestral score. No matter the version, Shostakovich’s ability to write a sustained melodic line over a pulsating rhythmic framework is authentically captured.  

SHINE

Shine is a programmatic work that centers around the Prohibition era. Backwood stills and liquor-running jalopies are a part of our American heritage. Many a legitimate distillery has a history in bootlegging, and NASCAR of course was born out of moonshine running souped-up cars. America is a country of immigrants, and every immigrant who comes here brings their music and instruments with them. What we call bluegrass music today represents that Irish and Scottish folk music “sound.” The folk music of the American hill people, the Appalachians, Smoky Mountains stretching from the south to the north, gave birth to not only our bluegrass but to several instruments as well. Banjos, fiddles, dulcimers, autoharps, jaw or jews harp, the jug, mandolins, guitars, and several other instruments became our folk instruments; some instruments that existed before, some we invented. There is only one problem ... none of those instruments are normal instrumentation for symphonic bands.

I wanted to capture the imagination of an audience with as much bluegrass flavor as I could without having to score for the actual instruments. Double reeds, muted brass, combinations of low winds with other instruments all captured a lot of that visceral essence. Using washboards and special mallets in the percussion helped too. The sixteenth notes followed by dotted-eighth rhythms and vice versa so prevalent in Scottish and Irish music is also the backbone of bluegrass music.

Moonshine is a big part of our country’s past and many today still earn a living making and selling legal and illegal white lightning. I will admit I sampled many different types and flavors of moonshine while I was composing this work. Some I bought in a store, some, well, not exactly. 

My opinion of moonshine has not changed. I still don’t care for it. When I close my eyes and listen to Shine I can see those stills far back in the woods, hear those tires spinning out in gravel as they tear down country roads, and I can feel the burn of moonshine not just down my throat but in my soul. I hope as you listen to this back road American heartbeat, you can see it, live it too.

Program Note by composer

CANDIDE SUITE

Leonard Bernstein was one of the foremost American composers and conductors of the twentieth century. Renowned on the podium as director of the New York Philharmonic, he came into living rooms across the nation through his televised series of Young People’s Concerts on CBS. Some of his most familiar compositions include the film scores to On the Waterfront, West Side Story, and Candide.

Composed in the 1950s, Candide is an operetta modeled on Voltaire’s famous French satire. The cast of characters features hero Candide, whose idealistic nature matches his name’s meaning “naïve,” along with his true love Cunegonde and their tutor Doctor Pangloss. This Candide Suite, adapted for band by American composer and arranger Clare Grundman, follows the plotline of the operetta, beginning with youthful optimism in “The Best of All Possible Worlds.” The following movements portray the characters facing gruesome life challenges, including an invading army, persecution during the Inquisition, and life as a Parisian courtesan. By the fifth and final movement, the heroes’ idealism has faded, yet they sing of hope and the spiritual rewards of simple tasks: “we’re neither pure, nor wise, nor good; we’ll do the best we know; we’ll build our house and chop our wood and make our garden grow.”

Program Note by Courtney Snyder

DOUBLE PLAY

Hailed by critics as a composer whose music reflects a “charging, churning celebration of the musical and cultural energy of modern-day America,” Cindy McTee “brings to the world of concert music a fresh and imaginative voice.” McTee has received numerous awards for her music, most significantly the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s third annual Elaine Lebenbom Memorial Award; a Music Alive Award from Meet The Composer and the League of American Orchestras; two awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; a Guggenheim Fellowship; a Fulbright Fellowship; a Composer’s Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts; and a BMI Student Composers Award. She was also winner of the 2001 Louisville Orchestra Composition Competition.

Her work Double Play was commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in honor of late Detroit-born composer Elaine Lebenbom, and had its premiere by the DSO under Leonard Slatkin. In 2010, the Lone Star Wind Orchestra, under the direction of Eugene Corporon, premiered the version for wind symphony. The work consists of two continuous movements, each of which can be performed separately. McTee wrote the following regarding Double Play:

I have always been particularly attracted to the idea that disparate musical elements—tonal and atonal, placid and frenetic—cannot only coexist but also illuminate and complement one another. I can think of no composer more capable of achieving these kinds of meaningful juxtapositions than Charles Ives. As in Ives’ Unanswered Question, my Unquestioned Answer presents planes of highly contrasting materials: sustained, consonant sonorities in the strings intersect to create dissonances; melodies for the principal players soar atop; and discordant passages in the brass and winds become ever more disruptive. The five-note theme from Ives’s piece is heard in both its backward and forward versions throughout the work. Tempus Fugit, Latin for “time flees” but more commonly translated as “time flies,” is frequently used as an inscription on clocks. My Tempus Fugit begins with the sounds of several pendulum clocks ticking at different speeds and takes flight about two minutes later using a rhythm borrowed from Leonard Slatkin’s Fin for orchestra. Jazz rhythms and harmonies, quickly moving repetitive melodic ideas, and fragmented form echo the multifaceted and hurried aspects of 21st century American society.

Program Note by Courtney Snyder

DANCING FIRE

An American whose music has been characterized by “propulsive, syncopated rhythms, colorful orchestration, and instrumental virtuosity,” (Robert Kirzinger, BSO) Kevin Day has quickly emerged as one of the leading young voices in the world of music composition today, whose music ranges from powerfully introspective to joyous exuberance.

A winner of the BMI Student Composer Award and many other honors, Day has composed over 200 works, and has had numerous performances throughout the United States, Russia, Austria, Australia, Taiwan, South Africa, and Japan. His works have been programmed by major orchestras and wind bands, including the Boston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Tulsa Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, the University of Texas Wind Ensemble, several top military bands, and more. His works have also been performed at Carnegie Hall, Rachmaninov Hall (Russia), The Midwest Clinic, and other major venues.

The composer writes the following about the work:

When I was writing Dancing Fire, I wanted to write a piece for my high school band program and its directors for the great pieces we played, the fun times we had, and the excitement our bands created at our concerts. The picture I had in my head before I began writing was a group of people surrounding a large bonfire during the night. These people began dancing around the fire, having fun, singing songs, and ultimately, celebrating life.

Once I had that picture in my head, along with the constant repeating motif that eventually became the melody for the entire piece, the rest of the work fit together nicely, and in two weeks it was done. The composition brings this mental picture I had to life in a fun and energetic way with dance-like percussion and a constant groove, as well as its contagious melody, a mysterious soprano sax solo, and a climactic ending.

This was written in dedication to the Arlington High School Band Program in Arlington, Texas, and to my former band directors, Michael Hejny, Nathan Burum, and Nathan Hervey.

Program note by Alexander Scott

BIOGRAPHY  

Sommer Helweh Forrester is an Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Toronto. She teaches courses in music education, conducts the Wind Symphony, and serves as the Coordinator of Music Education.   

Forrester is a sought-after music educator and conductor who works with scholars, K-12 educators, and performing artists in various contexts. Through her scholarship, Dr. Forrester investigates how reflective practice and critical inquiry can inform inclusive and socially responsive approaches to teaching and learning music. Forrester is published in prominent peer-reviewed research and practitioner journals. Forrester serves on the executive board for the Society for Music Teacher Education and the editorial board for the Journal of Music Teacher Education. She is an active guest conductor and clinician in North America and the Middle East.    

Forrester holds Doctoral (Ph.D.) and Masters degrees in in Music Education with a cognate in Wind Conducting from the University of Michigan; Bachelor of Education from the University of Toronto; and Honors Bachelor of Music Education from Western University. A former K –12 classroom teacher, Forrester proudly taught K-12 music in Canada, Palestine, Israel, and Kuwait. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

Eric Chow, Concert Office - Supervisor 

Karen Wiseman, Performance Collection – Librarian 

Sara Ainsley Ko, Performance Collection – Student Librarian 

Amanda Eyer Haberman, Performance Office – Assistant 

Ilinca Stafie – Performance Office - Staff

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