Wind Symphony: Airs & Dances

“AIRS AND DANCES” – CONCERT PROGRAM

Terpsichorean Dances
Jodie Blackshaw (b. 1971)

From Chaos to the Birth of a Dancing Star
Allan Gordon Bell (b. 1953)

Three Folk Song Settings for Band
Andrew Boysen, Jr. (b. 1968)
I.    Poor Wayfaring Stranger
II.    All the Pretty Little Horses
III.    Scarborough Fair

Intermission

Keepers of the House
Conni Ellisor (b. 1953)
I.    Atmospheric – Majestic – Quicker
II.    Andante, but with liberty – Jig tempo

Round Dance
John Weinzweig (1913–2006)
arr. Howard Cable

Courtly Airs and Dances
Ron Nelson (1929–2023)
I.    Intrada
II.    Basse danse (France)
III.    Pavane (England)
IV.    Saltarello (Italy)
V.    Sarabande (Spain)
VI.    Allemande (Germany)

PROGRAM NOTES

Terpsichorean Dances
Australian composer Jodie Blackshaw is an important voice in the global wind band community. Besides having written many wonderful pieces for band, she maintains a list of band works by female composers from around the world, and she also started ColourFULL Music, an initiative which curates full programs, at various grade levels, of music by composers from under-represented groups. Blackshaw’s Terpsichorean Dances is an imaginative arrangement of three tunes from Michael Praetorius’ 17th-century collection of French courtly dances: after an original fanfare, you will hear “Springtanz” (Leaping Dance), “Der Lautenspieler” (The Lute Player), and “Der Schutzenkönig” (The Archer King). The composer uses a kaleidoscope of colour combinations from across the band and challenges the musicians with meticulous indications of style.

From Chaos to the Birth of a Dancing Star
This composition was the result of a collaboration between composer Allan Gordon Bell and the students of Salisbury Composite High School, just outside Edmonton. Together with Bell, the SCHS Wind Ensemble came up with the concept and main melodic ideas, exploring different ways of making sounds to depict the chaos that begins the piece—these include key clicks and repeating different figures or sets of notes as fast as possible, or at the player’s discretion. The title comes partly from the students and partly from a quote by Nietzche about the nature of creativity: “You must still have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.”

Three Folk Song Settings for Band
The three songs that composer Andrew Boysen, Jr. selected for this triptych share a common melodic shape, including an identical intervallic relationship in their first three pitches. Boysen expands on these to create a row of eight notes which he uses in various guises throughout the three movements. The figure is first heard in its entirety as an accompaniment in “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” which then recurs in “All the Pretty Horses” and in a modified form in “Scarborough Fair”. But fragments of it, particularly those first three pitches, are littered throughout the work, and Boysen even stacks the pitches together to form cluster chords in the finale. Though the three folk songs are not otherwise related, this motivic integration across the movements provides the piece with a tight sense of cohesion and unity.

Keepers of the House
Dr. Suzanne Simard is a professor at the University of British Columbia and a leading scholar in the field of forest ecology. Her research with the Mother Tree Project highlights the interconnectedness of forest life through a shared network between plants and fungi, colloquially known as the “wood wide web”. The comparison to our own internet is not hollow, either, as the network facilitates sharing of information via chemical or electrical signals, in addition to essential nutrients. More importantly, Simard’s research brings into scholarship and builds upon knowledge that Indigenous peoples have carried for generations, and the Mother Tree Project works in collaboration with several First Nations in the forests of Western Canada. Simard’s book Finding the Mother Tree inspired composer Conni Ellisor to write this work, Keepers of the House, in 2021. Ellisor calls the ancient Douglas fir trees, some of them many centuries old, “the silent watchers, the guardians of our lives”, and expresses her hope that the piece can help to broaden our awareness of our connection to all life on earth.

Round Dance
John Weinzweig was both an alumnus of and a long-time professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. Fondly remembered as the “Dean of Canadian Composers”, he was also a highly respected educator, whose students include Murray Adaskin, Harry Freedman, and Marjan Mozetich. Round Dance was written in 1950 for the studio orchestra of a radio show hosted by Murray Adaskin’s younger brother John, and was later adapted for band by another of Weinzweig’s students, Howard Cable. The work’s title is perhaps misleading, considering how “square” most of the music sounds; the “round” here refers instead to the many canonic entries of the theme, especially towards the end.

Courtly Airs and Dances
Like Blackshaw, Ron Nelson drew upon three Renaissance dances for his Courtly Airs and Dances, in this case from the 16th-century French composer Claude Gervaise. The dances “La volonté” (basse danse), “Pavane d’Angleterre”, and “Fanfare Allemande” provide the musical material for four of the movements, including the opening “Intrada”, and Nelson created original melodies in the styles of Italian and Spanish dances to round out the suite. Also like Blackshaw, Nelson deftly balances an expression of the characteristic qualities of each dance with an innovative approach to orchestration and colour.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Pratik Gandhi (he/him) is an award-winning freelance conductor and researcher based in Toronto. He is a sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music, where he directs the Wind Symphony. He is also music director of the Rouge River Winds and the Milton Philharmonic Orchestra, and was the founding music director of Soup Can Theatre. In addition to regularly guest conducting and adjudicating bands and orchestras, Pratik is active in several organizations that support music educators, most notably the Ontario Band Association. Since 2017, he has also served as Vice-Chair of the Concert Band Division of MusicFest Canada. Pratik is currently a doctoral student at York University, where his research, supported in part by an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, investigates issues of equity and representation among wind band composers in Canada. Pratik received a B.Mus. in music education and an M.Mus. in conducting from the University of Western Ontario, where he studied conducting with Colleen Richardson, Jerome Summers, and James McKay, and percussion with Jill Ball.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CONCERT OFFICE: Eric Chow, supervisor

PERFORMANCE COLLECTION :Karen Wiseman, librarian; Nicole Magirias, student library assistant

PERFORMANCE OFFICE: Eddy Aitken, administrator; Amanda Eyer Haberman, performance assistant; Ilinca Stafie, performance staff

TEACHING ASSISTANTS: Randall Chaves Camacho, percussion; Michael Fedyshyn, trumpet; Sophie Lanthier, flute; Emerald Sun, clarinet

YORK UNIVERSITY PERFORMANCE FACILITIES: Ian Albright, manager; Kimberly Guidolin, events administrator; Victor Wolters, coordinator, technical services 

Piccolo
Ethan Allaire
sabella Ignacio

Oboe
Iulia Jauca
Jasmine Noone †

Bassoon
Rachel Chen
Kira Greenlees
Kendal Morrison †

Clarinet
Crystal Chong
Felicity Quadrini
Sophia Stellato *
Tom Tsang
Emmanuel Wong
Christine Suh †
Jessica Tse †
Olivia Van Alebeek †

Alto Clarinet
Crystal Chong

Bass Clarinet
Angela Lin

Alto Saxophone
Emmalin Pan
Lovepreet Swaich
Chun Wang
Aidan Wong

Tenor Saxophone
Nicole Carson
Dylan Windsor

Baritone Saxophone
Hei Nam Yeung

Trumpet
Rachel Aziz
Divya Dhoum
Youngdo Kim
Teresa Osko
Sunny Park
Tony Ruan
Charlie Steggles
Robyn Tamburro

Horn
Leander Delos Santos
Grace Song
Wendy Tang
Jessica Lin †
Ilinca Stafie †

Trombone
Aryn Davies
Shaela Lundy
Nathan Smitiuch
Zaynab Tahir *

Bass Trombone
Rebecca Plante

Euphonium
Cassandra Sydoruk
Jonathan Wang

Tuba
Harrison Greenaway
Timmy Wang
Brooklynn Williams

Piano
Elaine Wang

Percussion
Alex Bhadra
Jon Bilek
Luca Jovanov
Matthew Medina
Randall Chaves Camacho †
Yi-Hsuan Lo †

* ensemble managers
† guest musicians

Ticket Prices: $30 Adult, $20 Senior, $10 Student. 
University of Toronto students with a valid T-Card are admitted free at the door (space permitting, some exceptions apply). No ticket reservation necessary.