Atlanta Youth wind symphony
Thursday, October 5, 2023 7:00 pm
Ferst Center for the Arts | Georgia Tech
EPIC TALES
EPIC FANFARE
Julie Giroux
Giroux’s work, An Epic Fanfare, comes from a group of works called Three Fanfares. This specific piece is the first of the three, scored for full band. The second is also scored for full band, while the final fanfare is scored for brass and percussion. It is a brief, yet intense, and rousing piece, with big, open chords, powerful melody lines, and striking percussion, and the listener can expect to feel moved by its intensity.
ICARUS
Katahj Copley
The story of Icarus has always fascinated me - how the hubris of one man led to his demise; the underlying theme of humility. I decided to dive into the subject and make the story for a wind ensemble setting.
I. Rise- This movement is written for brass and percussion. The sun is rising Daedalus is looking out to the skies and his son Icarus rises. They are prisoners looking for a way to escape. They begin to make their way to the Sky with the use of wings.
II. Hubris- The mixed meter beginning symbolizes the flight of Icarus. He begins to embrace the air and all its wonders but in doing so he believes he is a god among men. After the flugelhorn solo, the piece gets darker, symbolizing Icarus’s fall to his death.
III. Elegy- Written entirely for woodwinds and percussion. This scene represent Daedalus, a man of much hubris, mourning the loss of his son to his own hubris. As he cries the sun sets and the night enters. The end of Icarus.
--notes by Katahj Copley
BEOWULF
W. Francis McBeth
Beowulf is an Old English epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines. It is possibly the oldest surviving long poem in Old English and is commonly cited as one of the most important works of Old English literature. It was written in England some time between the 8th and the early 11th century. The author was an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, referred to by scholars as the "Beowulf poet.”
The poem is set in Scandinavia. Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hroðgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall in Heorot has been under attack by a monster known as Grendel. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother attacks the hall and is then also defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland (Götaland in modern Sweden) and later becomes king of the Geats. After a period of fifty years has passed, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is fatally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants bury him in a tumulus, a burial mound, in Geatland.
I. Heorot—The Great Hall
“It came into the mind of Hrothgar the Dane to command the construction of a building that would be the greatest banqueting hall ever known.”
II. Grendel—The Son of Cain
“From Cain were hatched all evil progenies: ogres, monsters, and giants who fought so long against God.”
III. Beowulf—A Feast of Life
”For each living soul on earth must seek the appointed place where after the feast of life his body shall sleep fast in a narrow bed.”
Beowulf was commissioned by and dedicated to Harry Pfingsten and the Avon Lake High School Shoremen Band, Avon Lake, Ohio.
--notes by Francis McBeth
EL OLIMPO DE LOS DIOSES
Oscar Navarro
El Olimpo de los Dioses (“Olympus of the gods”) is a suite divided in ten movements, each one of them representing one of the twelve deities in Olympus.
I. "Hermes" - The messenger of the gods across all frontiers A very lively and fast music represents an agile and energetic god, very cunning. He is capable to travel around Earth from place to place without any trouble, disguising himself amongst other travelers, shepherds, traders, burglars and other mortals without raising any suspicion.
II. "Artemis" - The goddess of nature and wild animals This movement, composed as a dance form, describes the Goddess Artemis surrounded by live nature, birds and vegetation covering the surface of Earth beyond where the eye reaches. The animals pasture and run around freely amidst a clear and bright sky. Artemis dances and runs in this beautiful depicted scenery, carrying her bow and arrows and hunting down the wild animals.
VII. "Apollo" - God of beauty, music and perfection Apollo, who is in charge of playing music at Olympus, will present us with a simple theme, first played with the horn and later by a small group of players from each one of the orchestra's sections. This theme will be used as a welcome-back tune for all of the gods. It is very triumphant and solemn chamber music.
IX. "Ares and Athena" - Gods of war Ares and Athena travel together riding on their chariot pushed by four immortal bulls with golden flanges and breathing fire. They are equipped with helmets, shields and spears. These gods are coming from afar, marching towards war and destruction, a ferocious massacre of blood and fire.
--notes by Oscar Navarro
other movements not performed: Hades, Poseidon, Demeter, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Zeus and Hera.
