ATLANTA YOUTH WIND SYMPHONY
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2024 4:00 PM
lassiter concert Hall

It’s about time

OFF THE CLOCK
Christopher Theofanidis

From the original program notes by the composer:

It is a pleasure to combine an artistic project with a personal friendship. Such is the origin of this work, celebrating the 30th anniversary of AYWS. Scott Stewart and I go back quite a long time to his Emory days, and we have had many professional collaborations over the years and have developed a close friendship. It was a particular pleasure then for me to write this work.

Off the Clock is a set of five miniatures lasting about twelve minutes, for concert band:

I. Allegro
II. Grazioso
III. Allegro
IV. Cantabile
V. Presto

Several of the movements elide into each other without distinct breaks. The first, third, and fifth movements are all very upbeat with strong rhythmic components. The second and third are more lyrical and coloristic.  The first movement is based around a two-note motive and has a strong and driving percussion component. The second movement has slow, falling intervals in the muted brass and winds, with melodies emerging from the oboes and saxophones. The third movement is a fantasy on a Spanish medieval hymn. It exists in a kind of Renaissance sound world. The fourth movement is wistful with a long melodic line that leaves harmonic trails in its wake. The last movement is a peppy number with bright scoring. All the movements have some aspect of celebration at their core, and it has been a real pleasure to celebrate with AYWS in these weeks. I wish you all many more decades of such great music making!

– Christopher Theofanidis

Christopher Theofanidis is an award-winning composer and professor of composition at  the Yale University School of Music.  He holds degrees from Yale, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Houston.  You may visit his website at theofanidismusic.com.

EVERYTHINGS LASTS FOREVER
Michael Kurth

The title “Everything Lasts Forever” comes from street art — graffiti — on the Krog Street Bridge, a painted frieze above the underpass that connects Inman Park to Cabbagetown near downtown Atlanta. Some of the expressive, if often illegal, street art he saw while driving past the bridge became inspirations for the music.

The opening movement, “Toes,” is named after one street artist’s signature. It begins with low punctuated notes that could be called “stomping” sounds, then slowly develops rhythmic drive, moves to a climax, then drops down to a sneaky level with a simple melody played in unison with oboe and trumpet. It then rises back to an ending that depicts, in the words of the composer, “the dark and glorious victory of the cartoon feet” in the art of Mr. Toes.  The second movement, “Bird Sing Love,” starts off with celesta and adding symphonic colors in gentle rendering like a music box. The final movement, “We Have All the Time in the World,” stretches a simple melody over an awkward 7/8 meter, but it also reveals that Kurth knows what Mahler knew about orchestration: you don’t have to use all the orchestra all the time. You can also make chamber music within.

Michael  Kurth (b. 1971) has been a member of the ASO bass section since 1994. Also a composer, the ASO has performed his music since 2011, premiering many orchestral and choral works, including Everything Lasts Forever, May Cause Dizziness, A Thousand Words, and Miserere, which the orchestra recorded in 2019 on the ASO Media label, and can be heard on most digital platforms.

He serves on the faculty of Emory University as Artist Affiliate in Double Bass. He studied bass with Harold Robinson at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and received his Bachelor of Music degree with honors. He served as Co-Principal Bass of the New World Symphony in Miami during the 1993-94 season before joining the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.  His website is at kurthmusic.com.

TIMEPIECE
Cindy McTee

The original version of Timepiece was commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for its 100th Anniversary Season in 2000.  A year later, the wind version was created. I have dedicated this transcription to the memory of composer Martin Mailman, friend and colleague for many years at the University of North Texas.

I entitled the work Timepiece, not only for its connection to the celebration of special events marking the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's one hundredth anniversary and the beginning of a new millennium, but also for the manner in which musical time shapes the work. The piece begins slowly, "before" time, in a womb-like, subjective, holding place. And then a clock-like pulse emerges, takes control, and provides the driving force behind a sustained, highly energized second section of about six minutes.

Much of my recent thinking about music is informed by the writings of Carl G. Jung who, in the words of Anthony Storr, "felt that the whole energy of mental functioning" sprang from the tension between the oppositions of conscious and unconscious, of thought and feeling, of mind and body, of objectivity and subjectivity. So too have the integration and reconciliation of opposing elements become important aspects of my work: the frequent use of circular patterns, or ostinatos, offer both the movement; carefully controlled pitch systems and thematic manipulations provide a measure of objectivity and reason, while kinetic rhythmic structures inspire bodily motion; discipline yields to improvisation; and perhaps most importantly, humor takes its place comfortably along side the grave and earnest. I wish both to enlighten and to entertain, to communicate wholeness, and above all, to celebrate life!

--Cindy McTee

 Cindy McTee retired from the University of North Texas composition faculty after twenty-seven years in 2011.  She resides in St. Louis with her husband, conductor Leonard Slatkin.  Her website is at cindymctee.com.

SERENADE
Derek Bourgeois

Derek Bourgeois wrote this Serenade for his own wedding, to be played by the organist as the guests left the ceremony. Not wishing to allow them the luxury of proceeding in an orderly 2/4, the composer wrote the work in 11/8, and in case anyone felt too comfortable, he changed it to 13/8 in the middle! The work has now been released in a number of different orchestrations of the original version for organ.

FANTASTIC DREAMS

Fantastic Dreams was composed during a six-week residency in the late summer and early fall of 2023 at the McDowell Colony in Petersborough, New Hampshire. The work's four short movements – really dreamscapes – are wide ranging in mood and style, yet connected via shared musical motives, gestures and themes. 

Dancing with the Muses bursts for ecstatically, settling into a series of short, light-hearted variations, each showcasing a different instrument or group – bassoon, oboe, horns, alto saxophones, trumpets. Short episodes and ghostly gestures interrupt the variations, like unrelated thoughts interrupting a dream.

Elysian Fields is a meditation directly influenced by my quiet morning walks at the MacDowell Colony amid peaceful forests and meadows. Unhurried lyrical lines float over a gentle walking motif that lilts back and forth like a lullaby.

Magic Carpet is a brisk two-minute scherzo that whirls and whisks in daring flight. At the midpoint, a respite – featuring solo oboe and flute with celesta – is but a moment to catch one's breath before hurtling on again in magical flight.

The dream journey takes a dark turn:

L.A. Noir pays tribute to old Hollywood's film noir tradition – a frantic chase scene, a dark figure lurking in the shadows, a moment of quiet, anxious anticipation. Midway through, the calm oboe melody from the scherzo's middle section reappears, now in a more menacing atmosphere. The suspense builds relentlessly, the music culminating in a ferocious roar that suggests the melodramatic endings typical of many film noir pictures.