Our Fall, 2015 concerts will feature two works by Austin-based composers. Aurora Borealis is a colorful work by Joel Love, who recently completed his doctoral work at UT. Anthems by ACWE's own Michael Bell commemorates the fall of the Berlin Wall. The program will also feature the spooky Dance Macabre by Saint-Saens and excerpts from the powerful Requiem by Verdi.
We will be playing two concerts.
- Friday, October 30th, 7:30PM at Covenent United Methodist Church
- November 8th, 5PM at Episcopal Church of the Resurrection.
Mike Bell - Anthems
Anthems derives its title from the use of the national anthems of Slovakia, The Czech Republic and Hungary as source material. The original version of the piece for 10 winds and 2 percussionists was written in 1990. News broadcasts at the time were occupied with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Anthems is a reflection of those events. One news story in particular focused on how the countries such as Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia and others would be affected by the fall of the Berlin Wall. The anthems of those countries were played and I was struck by their beauty.
The first movement, Oppression, begins with a heaviness representing the Soviet authority and rapid chromatic figures representing the unrest and frustration of the people. The Slovak anthem makes its first appearance in a hodge-podge orchestration as if the people are trying to make due with what they have. A section influenced by Shostakovich follows. The Slovak anthem becomes more fragmented and then at the end of the movement is stomped out by the oppressive forces.
The second movement is a reverie based on the Czech national anthem. It is sparsely scored and dream like in quality. it is meant to be a stark contrast from the first movement, a diversion, a sense of hope, but still colored by reality.
The third movement begins with tension, then the percussion symbolically tear down the wall. The section that follows is a jubilant celebration. Next the woodwinds intone the Hungarian national anthem, which is followed by a fast rhythmic dance in 6/8. The brass then get their turn with the Hungarian anthem which gives way to a finale featuring a return of the celebratory material.
Joel Love - Aurora Borealis
Aurora Borealis was inspired by the natural phenomenon that occurs in the northern latitudes. In short, auroral events are caused by the collision of energetic, charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere. The composer spent most of a summer playing piano in a rock band aboard a cruise ship that traveled from Seattle, WA to Anchorage, AK and back several times. During a geomagnetic event late one night, he was fortunate enough to see the Aurora in the distance while sailing from Juneau to Hoonah, AK. The piece has three main figures: an ascending/descending tetrachord, a repeated eighth-note motive, and a melody (first heard in the clarinet).
In May of 2013, Aurora Borealis was selected as a finalist in the 3rd International Franck Ticheli Composition Contest.
Verdi - Manzoni Requiem
The Messa da Requiem is a musical setting of the Roman Catholic funeral mass (Requiem) for four soloists, double choir and orchestra by Giuseppe Verdi. It was composed in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian poet and novelist whom Verdi admired. The first performance, at the San Marco church in Milan on 22 May 1874, marked the first anniversary of Manzoni's death. The work was at one time called the Manzoni Requiem. Although originally composed for liturgical purposes, in modern days it is rarely performed in liturgy, but rather in concert form of around 85–90 minutes in length. Musicologist David Rosen calls it 'probably the most frequently performed major choral work composed since the compilation of Mozart's Requiem.'
Yarborough – Parody
Kind of marchy, kind of not. Only about 2 minutes.
Starts like a march. of clowns. Mimes. Who have been drinking too much. They stumble into a dark alley. But quickly turn around. into the street. with cars whizzing by. Cars fly by, faster and faster. Until... they stop traffic with a crash! They proceed across the street into a somber park. They listen to the birds. Where they all fall down and look at the sky, laughing a sigh of relief.
Stephen Yarbrough began his musical career as a flutist with the Air Force Academy Band outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado. After four years of service he returned to his Alma Mater, The University of Oklahoma, and took up the study of composition with Michael Hennagin, a student of Aaron Copland. Yarbrough has been awarded numerous grants, including an Emerging Artist Fellowship, and Artists Career Development Grant, and Artists Project Grant (three times), and an Artists Fellowship Grant (2010), all from the South Dakota Arts Council.
Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre
Danse macabre, Op. 40, is a tone poem for orchestra, written in 1874 by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. It started out in 1872 as an art song for voice and piano with a French text by the poet Henri Cazalis, which is based on an old French superstition. In 1874, the composer expanded and reworked the piece into a tone poem, replacing the vocal line with a solo violin.
According to legend, "Death" appears at midnight every year on Halloween. Death calls forth the dead from their graves to dance for him while he plays his fiddle (here represented by a solo violin). His skeletons dance for him until the rooster crows at dawn, when they must return to their graves until the next year.