Overture to Candide
Leonard Bernstein
(1955)
In writing the operetta Candide, based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire, Bernstein set out to write the great American opera and capture the hearts and minds of his fellow citizens. The Overture to Candide includes melodies from various numbers in the show including “Glitter and be Gay” and “The Best of all Possible Worlds”, as well as tunes featured only in the overture. Since its premiere, the overture has become one of the most frequently performed pieces by a 20th century composer as well as one of Bernstein’s greatest hits.
-Evan Hillis
Grainger Suite
Percy Grainger
(1918)
“Children’s March”
Subtitled “Over the Hills and Far Away,” this work is cast in a sunny, care-free mood; many of the tunes sound like folk songs, but they are original compositions. Grainger believed that the greatest expressivity was in the lower octaves of the band and from the larger members of the reed families. Consequently, we find in this Children’s March a more liberal and more highly specialized use of such instruments as the bassoon, English horn, bass clarinet, contra-bassoon, and the lower saxophones than is usual in writing for military band. Research by Frederick Fennell supports Grainger’s claim that this is the first composition for band utilizing the piano.
“Irish Tune from County Derry”
The Irish Tune is based on a tune collected by a Miss J. Ross of New Town, Limavaday, County Derry, Ireland, and published in The Petri Collection of Ancient Music of Ireland in 1885. The original setting was an a capella version for mixed voices, which was much admired by Edward Grieg, with whom Grainger developed a strong friendship. An orchestral version followed and the military band version was completed in 1918. Grainger’s knowledge of instrumental voicings lends a richness to the sound and a blending of the interwoven melodies. The score is unique in that the principal melody is found on the top staff even though written in bass clef. The treble and counter melodies are found in the two staffs below.
“Shepherd’s Hey”
“Shepherd’s Hey” was scored for wind band in 1918. The word “Hey” denotes a particular figure in Morris Dancing. Morris Dances are still danced by teams of “Morris Men” decked out with bells and quaint ornaments to the music of the fiddle or “the pipe and tabor” (a sort of drum and fife) in several agricultural districts in England. The tune of Shepherd’s Hey is similar to the North English air The Keel Row that is very widely found throughout England. The “hey” involves the interweaving of generally two lines of dancers, which may be symbolized by the use by Grainger of two parallel lines of music at the opening of the composition, rather than a simple statement of a theme that then moves into variants.
-Roy Stehle
Pavane, op. 50
Gabriel Fauré
(1887)
The Pavane in F-sharp Minor, op. 50, is a brief composition by French composer Gabriel Fauré from 1887. Originally written for piano, it is more widely recognized in Fauré’s orchestrated version, which also includes an optional choral part. The piece was first performed in Paris in 1888 and has since become one of the composer’s most celebrated works.
-Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music
L’Histoire du soldat Suite
Igor Stravinsky
(1918)
Igor Starvinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat, describes the story of a young Russian soldier in WWI, who gives his violin to the devil in exchange for a book that predicts the economy of the future. (I. “Marche du Soldat”)
The devil must teach the soldier how to interpret the book, so the soldier agrees to go home with the devil for three days. When the soldier returns to his hometown, everyone thinks he is a ghost: he has actually been gone for three years. He starts to despair, but encounters the devil, who encourages him to put the book’s power to good use. The soldier becomes extremely wealthy, but begins to pine for the happiness of his simpler old life. He meets the devil again, who sells him his old violin, but he can no longer play.
Then he sees an old war friend who tells him that a nearby princess is dying, and that the king has announced that whoever heals her will become her husband. The soldier journeys to the castle, but the devil is already there disguised as a virtuoso violinist. In order to win the princess’s hand, the soldier must regain his power. He does so by purposely losing all his money to the devil in a card game. With the return of his power, the devil now falters and the soldier seizes his violin and begins to play. (V. “Petit Concert”) When the princess hears the soldier’s violin playing, she miraculously heals and begins to dance. (VI. “Tango-Valse-Ragtime”) The devil tries to interfere with the couple, but the soldier has power over him as he plays his violin and forces the devil to dance to exhaustion. (VII. “Danse du Diable”) The devil succumbs, but warns that if the soldier ever leaves the castle, the devil will take possession of his soul.
Years later, the princess convinces the soldier to return to his home town to see his mother. As he approaches her door, the devil is there waiting to take him away.
-Brigitte Garney
Lost Vegas
Michael Daugherty
(2011)
Lost Vegas was commissioned by the University of Michigan Symphony Band, Michael Haithcock, conductor, and the University of Miami Wind Ensemble, Gary Green, conductor. Lost Vegas is my musical homage to bygone days in the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. I recall the enormous neon signs punctuating the “Strip,” promoting casinos and hotels ruled by the underworld, and the massive marquees trumpeting performances by pop music legends such as Frank Sinatra and Elvis. Performed without pause, Lost Vegas is divided into three movements.
The first movement, “Viva,” is inspired by the seminal book Learning from Las Vegas (1968–72), by modernist architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, who likened the symbolism of the Vegas “Strip” to the Piazza Navona in Rome. The music in “Viva” unfolds as catchy musical riffs are layered and phased in various polytonal guises and orchestrations.
“Mirage,” the second movement, was inspired by my recent drive through the forbidding desert of Death Valley. Located 88 miles west of Las Vegas, Death Valley is one the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America. A serpentine oboe solo, later doubled by trumpets with harmon mutes, is surrounded by steamy brass chords and twisting countermelodies played by winds and percussion keyboards. Accompanied by an ominous bass drum, the music in “Mirage” appears and disappears, like an optical illusion one might encounter in the scorching desert, or driving from the pitch-black darkness of Death Valley in the dead of night toward the bright lights of Las Vegas.
The final movement, “Fever,” is a swinging tribute to an earlier epoch, when legendary entertainers such as Elvis, Peggy Lee, Bobby Darin, Stan Kenton, and Frank Sinatra’s “Rat Pack” performed in intimate and swanky showrooms of the Sands, Tropicana, and Flamingo hotels.
Torn down long ago, the original neon signs, casinos and hotels of the Vegas “Strip” have been replaced by impersonal, corporate glass towers. The cozy nightclubs, where the “Rat Pack” once performed edgy material, have been replaced by large arenas, where commercialized family entertainment is now presented. My composition for symphony band is a trip down memory lane to an adventurous and vibrant Vegas that once was and returns, if only for a moment, in Lost Vegas.
–Michael Daugherty
