UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE PROGRAM

Summon the Heroes (1996/2009)
John Williams (b. 1932)
tr. Lavender

Chant Funeraire (1921/2003)
Gabriel Faure (1845-1924)
arr. Moss

Matthew Waymon, graduate assistant conductor

Theme and Variations, Op. 43a (1943)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)

Wedding Dance (1955/67)
Jacques Press (1903-1985)
tr. Johnston

Alex Jett, graduate assistant conductor

TENNESSEE WIND SYMPHONY

Olympic Fanfare and Theme (1984/96)
John Williams (b. 1932)
tr. Curnow

Paris Sketches (1974)
Martin Ellerby (b. 1957)

Wayne Dorothy, conductor

An American in Paris (1929/59)
George Gershwin (1898-1937)

Autumn Leaves (1945/2017)
Joseph Kosma (1905-1969)
arr. Reed / ed. Rogers

West Side Story: Selection
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
arr. Duthoit

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE PROGRAM NOTES

Summon the Heroes

Summon the Heroes is a one-movement composition (originally for orchestra) written for the 1996 Summer Olympics by American composer John Williams for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). It premiered on July 19, 1996, in abridged form, at the opening ceremony in Atlanta, Georgia, played by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Williams. The piece is the third of four compositions he has written for the Olympics, following 1984's Olympic Fanfare and Theme and 1988's Olympic Spirit, and preceding 2002's Call of the Champions.

Chant Funeraire

Fauré wrote Chant Funéraire ("Funeral Song") in 1921 on a commission from the French government to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Napoleon‘s death. He wrote the piece when he was 75 years old, after having retired from the Paris Conservatory. During this time, Fauré was very ill, and as a result he did not orchestrate the Chant Funeraire. Guillaume Balay originally orchestrated Chant Funéraire for band. and it was he who conducted the premiere performance with the Gardé Republicaine Band (arguably the best wind band of its time). Then, in 2003, Myron “Mike” Moss created a new orchestration, in which he writes: 

Balay’s orchestration offers the power and grandeur called for by the Gardé Republicaine, but it is weighed down by the band music conventions of its time. The scoring is thick throughout (a phenomenon found nowhere in Fauré’s own orchestrations), the score’s quiet moments are especially over-instrumented, and Fauré’s clean and sonorous voice leading is often obscured through inconsistent octave doublings. The present orchestration emulates the transparent and clear scoring of Fauré’s own style.

Theme and Variations, Op. 43a

In 1943, Arnold Schoenberg composed Theme and Variations, op. 43a after numerous requests for a wind band composition by his dear friend and president of G. Schirmer Music, Carl Engel. While not written in the composer’s famed twelve-­tone style, Schoenberg still believed Opus 43a to be of practical and artistic significance. In a 1944 letter to Fritz Reiner, the composer stated: "...this is not one of my main works, as everybody can see, because it is not a composition with twelve tones. It is one of those compositions which one writes in order to enjoy one’s own virtuosity and, on the other hand, to give a certain group of music lovers – here it is the bands – something better to play. I can assure you – and I think I can prove it – technically this piece is a masterwork." 

Although Opus 43a establishes itself clearly as a tonal work in g-­minor, Schoenberg gives himself free reign to assert his mastery of the contrapuntal techniques developed in his prior twelve­‐tone compositions by utilizing variation form. In order to achieve maximum diversity of character, Schoenberg clearly delineates each of the sections of the piece, giving these sections a specific melodic, orchestrational and formal framework. Not only is the melody of the theme, heard in the first twenty-­one measures, developed over the course of the work’s seven variations, but background elements shift from structural scenery to predominance in the ensuing contrapuntal elaboration before the original theme reasserts itself in the climactic finale of the piece. By fracturing and passing around melody and other primary material, Schoenberg plays upon the coloristic strengths inherent in wind band instrumentation. Finally, over the course of Opus 43a the formal structure of contrapuntal development receives elaboration, so the listener hears in various sections an adagio, a waltz, a strict canon and a fugato before the final variation [a “choral fantasy”] and finale.

Theme and Variations is comprised of a 21-measure theme followed by seven variations. At the onset, the composition appears to be firmly rooted in the key of G minor. For there, however, the composer exercises his compositional mastery to create seven variations of increasing complexity which often mask the melody with various contrapunctal techniques. The original theme returns toward the end of the work, culminating in a subtle tip of the hat to George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

Wedding Dance

Jacques Press was an American composer of Georgian origin. Press studied piano and composition in Paris. In his younger years he played piano for silent films in cinemas. He lived a short time in Istanbul and later in Paris. He made a concert tour through Europe in the years 1924 and 1925. In 1926 he emigrated to the United States. He was arranger for major film companies in New York City for 12 years before moving to Hollywood, where he worked mostly as a film composer. His most popular work was the symphonic suite Hasseneh (The Wedding) where the “Wedding Dance” originates

TENNESSEE WIND SYMPHONY PROGRAM NOTES

Olympic Fanfare

John Williams composed the Olympic Fanfare and Theme for the 1984 Olympic Games, which were held in Los Angeles. In 1996, an alternate version of Olympic Fanfare and Theme was released on the album Summon the Heroes for the Atlanta Olympic Games. In this arrangement, the first part of the piece was replaced with Arnaud's Bugler's Dream. Olympic Fanfare and Theme was awarded a Grammy in 1985.

The Olympic Games continue to fascinate and inspire each one of us -- with every presentation of the Games, we experience that complete dedication and unshakable will to persevere that typifies the goal of each competitor. The human spirit soars, and we strive for the vest within us.

These are the qualities that we seek to capture, describe and preserve through music, and it has been my great honor to contribute Olympic Fanfare and Theme to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. I dedicate it lovingly to all participating athletes, from whom we derive so much strength and inspiration.

Paris Sketches

This is my personal tribute to a city I love, and each movement pays homage to some part of the French capital and to other composers who lived, worked or passed through it -- rather as did Maurice Ravel in his own tribute to the work of an earlier master in Le Tombeau de Couperin. Running like a unifying thread through the whole score is the idea of bells -- a prominent feature of Paris life.

Saint-Germain-des-Prés: The Latin Quarter famous for artistic associations and bohemian lifestyle. This is a dawn tableau haunted by the shade of Ravel: the city awakens with the ever-present sense of morning bells.

Pigalle: The Soho of Paris, this is a burlesque with scenes cast in the mold of a balletic scherzo -- humorous in a kind of “Stravinsky-meets-Prokofiev” way. It’s episodic, but everything is based on the harmonic figuration of the opening. The bells here are car horns and police sirens!

Père Lachaise: This is the city’s largest cemetery, the final resting place of many a celebrity who had once walked its streets. The spirit of Satie’s Gymnopédies -- themselves a tribute to a still more distant past -- is affectionately evoked before what is in effect the work’s slow movement concludes with a quotation of the Dies Irae. The mood is one of softness and delicacy, which I have attempted to match with more transparent orchestrations. The bells are gentle, nostalgic, wistful.

Les Halles: A fast, bustling finale; the bells triumphant and celebratory. Les Halles is the old market area, a Parisian Covent Garden, and like Pigalle, this is a series of related but contrasting episodes. Its climax quotes from Hector Berlioz’s Te Deum, which was first performed in 1855 at the church of St. Eustache -- actually in the district of Les Halles. A gradual crescendo, initiated by the percussion, prefaces the opening material proper, and the work ends with a backward glance at the first movement before closing with the final bars of the Berlioz Te Deum.

An American in Paris

Gershwin was best known as a writer of music for the entertainment market, but he did make several excursions into the realm of art music. One of these was the result of a brief visit to Paris in 1926 (from which he returned with a French taxicab horn and the sketch of a melody) and a longer stay in 1928. He made use of both the horn and the melody while writing this piece during his second visit. He called the work a "rhapsodic ballet." His description follows:

"I have not endeavored to present any definite scenes in this music. The rhapsody is programmatic in a general impressionistic sort of way, so that the individual listener can read into the music such episodes as his imagination pictures for him. The opening section is followed by a rich 'blues' with a strong rhythmic undercurrent. Our American friend, perhaps after strolling into a cafe, has suddenly succumbed to a spasm of homesickness. The blues rises to a climax followed by a coda in which the spirit of the music returns to the vivacity and bubbling exuberance of the opening part with its impressions of Paris."

Four years after the success of his Rhapsody in Blue in 1924, George Gershwin began work on his tone poem An American in Paris while touring that city and meeting musical luminaries such as Milhaud, Ravel and Poulenc. Upon his return to New York, he made his conducting debut before an audience of 15,000 at Lewisohn Stadium on a program that included both of these works.

An American in Paris inspired the 1951 film that featured extended, elaborate dance sequences set to the music of George and Ira Gershwin. The film starred Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, and won the 1952 Academy Award for Best Picture.

Autumn Leaves

This iconic jazz ballad hardly requires an introduction to jazz aficionados. This classic band arrangement by Alfred Reed showcases the rich harmonic language that underlines the melody with the masterful thick and sonorous orchestration. 

Southern Music Company’s edition of Alfred Reed’s arrangement of Autumn Leaves, one of the most enduring of all tunes in the great body of popular music, is a welcome return to the repertory of the wind band. Few would guess that this well-known melody is the creation of Joseph Kosma, a relatively obscure Hungarian composer, but such is the case. Appearing in 1945 under the title Hulló levelek (Falling Leaves), the tune encapsulates the feelings of despair in war-ravaged Europe, as people struggled to make sense of the destruction of civilization that had been left to them. With a French lyric by Jacques Prévert, Les Feuilles Mortes (The Dead Leaves), the song appeared in the 1946 film Les Portes de la nuit. In 1947 when Johnny Mercer wrote the English lyric Autumn Leaves, the path to immortality was secure and innumerable recordings were made. In 1955, pianist Roger Williams recorded a rendition for solo piano which remains the only piano instrumental to ever reach No.1 on Billboard’s popular music chart; it sold over two million copies and was awarded a gold disc. Williams’ solo piano recording is famous for Williams’ descending scales and arpeggios, depicting the leaves falling from the trees to the ground below. Autumn Leaves is in AABC form. The melody remains popular with jazz musicians as the chord progressions consist almost entirely of ii-V-i sequences typical in jazz.

West Side Story

West Side Story was Bernstein's greatest popular success. Characterized as an American Romeo and Juliet, the work is noted for its "extraordinary dance sequences, melodic characterization, musical continuity, cohesive plot construction, and excellent orchestration." With a romantic setting against a background of social and racial and ethnic strife, Bernstein's music reflects the countless emotions which permeate Stephen Sondheim's lyrics. From a basic mood of studied nonchalance and defiance by the juvenile set, the music at times becomes devout and tender or, in contrasting sections, dynamic in intensity. Songs included are I Feel Pretty, Maria, Something's Coming, Tonight, One Hand, One Heart, Cool, and America.

Dr. Maria Fernanda Castillo, flute
Dr. Victor Chávez, Jr., clarinet
Prof. Jaren Atherholt, oboe
Prof. Ben Atherholt, bassoon
Dr. Allison Adams, saxophone
Dr. Arthur Zanin, trumpet
Dr. Katie Johnson-Webb, horn
Dr. Alex van Duuren, trombone
Dr. Alex Lapins, euphonium/tuba
Dr. Andrew Bliss, percussion
Kevin Zetina, percussion
Dr. Michael Stewart, Associate Director of Bands, Director of Athletic Bands
Dr. Fuller Lyon, Assistant Director of Bands, Assoc. Director of Athletic Bands

* = principal

Flute
Lynne-Grace Wooden
Rebecca Deal*
Sophia Dobbie
Ella Pinchok

Oboe
Matthew Barrett
Grace Davis*
Jessie Wilson

Bassoon
Ava Kroeppler*
James Carnal

Clarinet
Landon Blankenship
Grace Dobrescu
Ryder Fitzgerald
Anna Hutchinson
Nathaniel Palcone
Rafael Puga*
Bryce Neely
Troy Weatherford
Meredith Williams
Joshua Zhou

Bass Clarinet
Alex Jett

Contra Bass Clarinet
Ashley Melvin

Alto Saxophone
Sean Keenan
Alex Singleton*

Tenor Saxophone
Brooklynn Crabtree

Bari Saxophone
Benjamin Strobel

Horn
Cameron Allen
Rose Capooth
Margaret Kinzer
Ben Makins*
Aaron O’Donnell
Casey Treanor

Trumpet
Andrew Beiter*
Justin Bowers
Lauren Dodd
Matthew Dunevant
Issac Hair
Jayden Robins
Eric Xie

Tenor Trombone
Wyatt Detrick*
James Garrick
Elizabeth Greene
Thomas Long
Matthew Walker

Bass Trombone
Bryce McCracken

Euphonium
Amy Smith*
Sam Vance

Tuba
Harrison Jeffers
Cameron McKenzie*
Casey Mobley

Percussion
Anna Davis
Lydia Dodd
Chang Gao
Freddy Morales*
Burke Rivet
Trik Gass (extra)
Christopher Rosas (extra)

Piano
Stephanie Hensley

String Bass
Jack Willard

¹ = Rising Star High School Student
² = Concert Master
³ = Section Manager

Flute
Isabella Banks ¹
Annabella Brady ¹
Becky Chaffee
Emilie Cook
Addison Dean ¹
Megan Foster
Isabelle Haggard ¹
Tiffany Kimbro ³
Skyler McCammon
Piper Ogle ¹
Joanna O'Hagan
Natalia Ozbun ¹
Emily Piedot ¹
Tony Sax
Sarah Sheets
Barbara J. Smith
Kadijah Tinker
Pamela Wright

Oboe
Hunter Collins
Olivia Bullock
Hannah Haynes
Aaron Waldrupe

Bassoon
Trevor Bullock
Bryan Massengale ³
Keith McClelland

Bass Clarinet
Bryce Dillard ¹
John R. Snyder
River Sullivan ¹

Clarinet
Madison Aguilar-Martinez
Gracie Alward
Charles Blake
Wayne Dorothy ³
Heather Duncan
Tricia Gomulinski
Angie Hahn
Kelley Harrell
Chris Justice
Deanne Lucas
Teresa Macon
Matthew Mihalic
Tristi Murray
Cynthia Ozbun ¹
Lee Robertson
Jordan Potter
Brandon Sipe
Lisa Stalnaker
Kathleen Sullivan
Deidria Tankersley
Christine Traigis ²

Alto Saxophone
Jeff Lambdin
Gary Ricker
Richard Rogers
Michael Slattery
Steven Williams ³

Tenor Saxophone
Alex Mink
Jamison "Oz" Ozbun
Tyler Santel ¹

Baritone Saxophone
Mark Brumbelow
Stacia Howard

Trumpet
Thomas Bates ³
Jonathan Beckers
Keven Bowdle
Nathan Brom
Rockel Dodge
Gayle Friedle
Dante Gomez
Rich Merritt
Bryan Ralls
Jayden Robins
David Royse
Ashley Sadler
Chris Sawyer
Zandy Scarlett
Scott Shannon
Ewan Smither
Alan Wallace
Hope Williams
Avram Zigelnak ¹

French Horn
Phil Ashworth
Christopher Best
Alex Green
Laura Green ³
Vince Green
Annie Nassis
Beth Platfoot
Jack Renfroe
Natalie Renfroe
Moriah Waller
Matthew Wing

Bass Trombone
Kevin Frost
Tyler Wadsworth

Trombone
Rachel Foote
Chris Hahn
David Read ³
Harris Taylor
Nathan Whittington

Euphonium
Mustafa Arkawazi
Susan Lewis
Justin Martin
Eric Matthews
Kenneth Moffett
Tim Powers ³

Tuba
Elijah Ailey
Steve Dedman
Stephen Duden
Paul Foster
Dalton Kretschmar
Matthew Motley
Will Root

Percussion
Bill Burkhart
Ron Hicks
Aiden Holt
Luke Lawley
Walt Otey
Jim Wright ³

November 21, 2024
Symphonic and Concert Band Concert

November 24, 2024
Wind Ensemble Concert

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