Program Notes - April 26

Slavyanskaya is a fairly conventional Russian-sounding symphony in four movements. Throughout the symphony, Kozhevnikov uses folk tunes from his native city of Novgorod as the sources of his melodic material. Although Kozhevnikov wrote Slavyanskaya in 1950, it did not receive its first performance in the U.S. until the late 1990s.The contemporary performance edition of this remarkable symphony is the product of the acclaimed U.S. Marine Band conductor, Col. John Bourgeois, who writes:

“I first came to know of the symphony through my Norwegian friend and band buff, Jan Ericksen, of Norwegian Radio, Olso. At that time, our knowledge of wind music in the USSR was very scant and obtaining information of performance materials was practically nil. However, Jan was and continues to be the master of musical protocol and he circuitously obtained a score and set of parts for me. Later, Jan was the person who was singularly responsible for achieving a state of ‘musical détente' between the U.S. and the USSR through his Norwegian Radio broadcasts of the Marine Band.”

 

About The Gliding Girl Tango, a story circulated among former Sousa Band members, that Sousa's daughter Priscilla gave him the idea for this composition. She had just returned from Europe, reporting that the tango was the rage there. She gave him a demonstration by gliding around the room, and he captured her graceful motions in music.

 

Oblivion has many recorded versions, including for klezmer clarinet, saxophone quartet, oboe and orchestra. The featured instrument enters immediately over a subtle, arpeggiated accompaniment with a melody of extreme melancholy — long-held notes alternating with slowly falling and weaving figures. A middle section offers a minimally contrasting theme, lush but less intense.

Piazzolla revolutionized tango and created nuevo tango (new tango), which is a blend of tango, jazz and classical music. Oblivion is considered to be more traditional and less ‘jazzy’. The song was composed during the peak of his career, just a year after he performed in New York’s Madison Square Garden. 

 

Moncayo’s Huapango of 1941, his first important work for orchestra, is based on three authentic folk dances: Siqui Siri, Balajú and El Gavilán. The piece is arranged in three sections, with fiery music at beginning and end recalling the manner of huapango singing in coplas (i.e., the song is shouted alternately between two men singers, here transmuted by Moncayo into a trombone—trumpet dialogue) surrounding a slower central portion based on a lyrical melody. Huapango is a brilliant study in orchestral sonority and vibrant dance rhythms about which the French composer Darius Milhaud once said, “When in the grey light of a Parisian winter, I want there to be sun in my flat, I listen to a record of Huapango”. 

 

La Procession du Rocio was given its premiere in Madrid in 1913. Every year in Seville, during the month of June, there takes place in a section of the city known as Triana, a festival called the Procession of the Dew in which the best families participate. They make their entry in their coaches following an image of the Virgin Mary on a golden cart drawn by oxen and accompanying by music. The people dance the soleare and the seguidilla. A drunkard sets off firecrackers, adding to the confusion. At the sound of the flutes and drums, which announce the procession, all dancing ceases. A religious theme is heard and breaks forth mingling with the pealing of the church bells and the strains of the royal march. The procession passes and as it recedes, the festivities resume, but at length they fade away. 

 

Handel in the Strand is one of Grainger’s early light orchestral pieces, written in 1911, before he enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War I. Grainger had no trouble allowing other musicians to arrange his music to suit their needs, so Handel in the Strand has existed in several different versions. After its original massed piano and string orchestra setting came versions for full orchestra, piano (solo and 4 hands), organ, trombone choir, and two different settings for band, one for the Goldman Band and other for Sousa’s professional band. Grainger writes:

“My title was originally Clog Dance, but my dear friend William Gair Rathbone (to whom the piece is dedicated) suggested the title Handel in the Strand, because the music seemed to reflect both Handel and the English musical comedy (the Strand - a street in London - is the home of London musical comedy) - as if jovial old Handel were careering down the Strand to the strains of modern English popular music.”

 

Mr. Trombonology by African American composer, trombonist, bandleader and publisher Nathaniel Cleophas “Shorty” Davis was written in 1917 as a ragtime trombone solo featuring the trombone's patented glissando. These solos were also called smears or jazzes. The piece is one of five entertaining works from Davis’ “Trombone Family” written between 1915 and 1921 and comes with the subtitle – A Characteristic Trombone Smear. The Son of “Oh Slip It Man.”

 

Mannin Veen, published in 1937, draws on the composer’s experiences of Manx culture when his family lived on the Isle of Man, an autonomous island situated between Ireland and the English mainland in the Irish Sea. The composition exhibits both symphonic grandeur and Celtic tunefulness, often featuring the principal clarinet. 

This work, based on Manx folksongs including The Good Old Way, The Manx Fiddler, Sweet Water in the Common, and The Harvest of the Sea. On the occasion of the first BBC broadcast in February 1933 of Mannin Veen, Haydn Wood was quoted as saying to the Isle of Man Times: “The critics were struck by the beauty of the national airs. I feel very proud and gratified that our tunes are so appreciated … It was my original intention to call the work Mannin Veg Veen (Dear Little Isle of Man) but I found that people would insist on pronouncing ‘veg’ as a waiter does in a cheap restaurant when he bawls down the lift for ‘meat and a couple of veg.’ I decided to abandon the ‘potatoes and peas’ portion of the title.” 

 

Kelsey Farr (Joyce) has been a member of the University of Texas at Arlington Wind Symphony and Symphony Orchestra since the Fall of 2019, where she served as principal oboist for the past 2 and a half years. During her undergraduate career, Kelsey had the opportunity to work at Arlington Strings, a local orchestra repair shop, and with oboe technician Carlos Coelho, sparking her interest in the instrument repair industry. She is currently an oboe/English horn private lesson instructor in Arlington, Mansfield, Grand Prairie, and Fort Worth. Kelsey received her Bachelor of Music in Oboe Performance with a Certificate in Digital Media from UT Arlington in Spring of 2023.

In Fall 2024, Kelsey will begin her graduate studies at Kansas State University, where she will pursue a Master of Music Performance with an Oboe Graduate Assistantship under the instruction of Dr. Alyssa Morris. During her time at KSU, she will have the opportunity to work for MKL Reeds as a professional reed maker and as an apprentice at Manning Music, a local band and orchestra repair shop. Kelsey's oboe instructors include Prof. Melissa Bosma, Gina Ford, and River Sprinkle.

 

Cole Woods is the Graduate Teaching Assistant for the Winds & Percussion area of the UTA Music Department and is pursuing a Master of Music in Music Education. During his time at UTA, he studied closely with Dr. Douglas Stotter and Dr. Christopher Evans and has served as a guest conductor with each concert band ensemble. Additionally, he worked closely as a Graduate Assistant for all UTA Athletic Bands, including the Maverick Marching Band and MavBrass. He is a native of Oklahoma City, and holds a Bachelor of Music in Education, magna cum laude from Oklahoma State University.

Prior to arriving at UTA, Mr. Woods taught at the junior high and high school levels in the state of Texas at Childress ISD. As a young and vibrant educator, Mr. Woods has made waves since coming to the North Texas area. In his two years with the music department, Woods was the 2023 recipient of the Perry R. Bass fellowship through Bass Hall in Fort Worth, has served as a guest conductor for chamber and large ensembles, has recorded with the Grand Prairie Fine Arts Academy Choir on Horn, and has written multiple articles researching music education for beginning band students under the guidance of Dr. Diane Lange.

WIND SYMPHONY GRADUATES

Special thanks to all of these students who will be leaving us this semester for student teaching or graduation. They will be missed!

Graduates

Kelsey Farr, oboe

Hyo Bin Kim, oboe

Dillon Lewis, percussion

Tanner Riley, saxophone

Cole Woods, horn

Student Teachers

Luis Aden, trumpet

Elena Aleman, clarinet

Imran Habib, saxophone

Conner Stevenson, euphonium

Analina Uribe, bassoon