Maurice Ravel/arr. WindSync: Bolero
In 1928, actress and dancer Ida Rubenstein commissioned Maurice Ravel to create a ballet score from music by the Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz. Ravel opted to write original material instead, but he did have a taste for Spanish dance forms, and he experimented with the idea of a fandango before settling on the bolero. The Spanish version of bolero features a driving triplet rhythm on the second beat of each measure and may be danced solo or as a couple. Ravel intentionally wrote his bolero without any development, challenging himself to repeat the same material throughout the piece and build excitement using musical colors and dynamics alone. The academic nature of this compositional process left Ravel quite critical of his own work and bewildered by its success.
In WindSync’s version of Bolero, each instrument passes the solo, then plays in combination with the instruments around it, allowing the audience to observe the timbres of the ensemble. While the accompaniment of a Spanish bolero is traditionally covered by castanets, WindSync uses Ravel’s choice of a snare drum.
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Pastoral Suite
Himself an arranger and theorist, Jean-Philippe Rameau would have happily joined in the practice of creating wind quintet adaptations of his works, as WindSync has done with these movements here. Each short piece is taken from one of two sources: the Pièces de clavecin, or pieces for keyboard, and the score to the opera Les Boréades. The title “Pastoral Suite” is not Rameau’s but rather refers to his depiction of natural elements like bird calls, pastures, and weather patterns in the music.
The Pièces de clavecin were composed during Rameau’s early career as a teacher of the keyboard, and besides being useful pedagogical pieces, they formed the basis for his harmonic style. The most successful pieces from these books were later rewritten into Rameau’s works for opera, his most lasting legacy.
Rameau composed his final opera Les Boréades in 1763 at the age of 80. The story, based on Greek mythology and Masonic symbols, is a marriage plot involving a conflict between the gods of the winds. Practically begging to be adapted for wind instruments, the dances from Les Boréades are performed by characters including the Seasons, Zephyrs, and Subterranean Winds.
George Gershwin: Summertime
George Gershwin is one of America’s best-loved composers, and “Summertime” is one of Gershwin’s best-loved tunes. The piece was originally composed as an aria for the opera Porgy and Bess, based on a novel by Dubose Heyward. Heyward adapted the libretto for the opera himself, and Gershwin traveled to South Carolina to meet the author and to soak up the summer setting before composing this famously languid music. Deeply influenced by Black music, Gershwin insisted on an all-Black cast for the original 1935 production of Porgy and Bess, a controversial choice at the time but one that led to career breakthroughs for cast members and the introduction of integrated audiences to venues across the United States.
Miguel del Aguila: Sambeada
The musical style of Uruguayan-American composer Miguel del Aguila combines drama, driving rhythms, and nostalgic nods to his South American roots. Miguel del Aguila composed Sambeada for WindSync in June 2022 to commemorate the ensemble’s recent recording project of Del Aguila’s music at Abbey Road Studios in London. This short work is a humorous samba dance that starts cool and relaxed and ends in a rhythmic frenzy. The oboe and French horn players are called to be multi-instrumentalists, performing percussion on the samba rhythm that underlies the piece.
Marc Mellits: Apollo
Marc Mellits is one of the most performed living American composers, enjoying hundreds of performances throughout the world every year. His music is eclectic, all-encompassing, and colorful. Mellits often constructs his pieces as sets of short, contrasting movements that explore a single subject. His unique musical forms alternate driving rhythms with soaring lyricism.
WindSync commissioned Mellits in 2019 to write Apollo, a piece commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. Apollo comprises seven short movements that present a kaleidoscopic view, from the famous phrase “One small step…” to the geography of the moon, the mythology behind cosmic bodies, and scenes from the composer’s own childhood.
