Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony
Sunday, March 12, 2023 4:00 pm
Lassiter Concert Hall

THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS 

“A city isn’t so unlike a person. They both have the marks to show they have many stories to tell. They see many faces. They tear things down and make new again.” 
― Rasmenia Massoud, Broken Abroad

PROGRAM NOTES

Clutch

I have visceral childhood memories of going to the Belle Isle Indycar races in Detroit with my Dad. The smell of high-octane racing fuel, burning rubber, domestic beer, feeling the scorching-hot summer sun bouncing off the asphalt. The pitch-bending sounds of the Formula One cars screaming past us at insane speeds, the roar of the crowd at the checkered flag. Wildly dangerous, every boundary being tested, all for a chance at the winner’s circle. This competitive spirit inspired me to write a fanfare that pushes the boundaries of tempo, range, & technical demand, and gives the conductor, performers, and listener a nice adrenaline rush too. I also wanted to push myself to write the most exciting, wildly chaotic music that I could imagine. ​Fast, loud, and a little bit reckless. Buckle up.

--notes by Andrew David Perkins (andrewdavidperkins.com)

City Trees

I had just moved from Arizona to New York City when I began sketching the first fragments of City Trees. After being born, growing up, and living in the desert for 25 years of my life, moving to New York so suddenly was and continues to be one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done. I think it has also been one of the bravest. I left my friends, my family, and my ridiculously cheap rent all without much planning.

Every time I walk down a street in New York, I notice the trees shackled by the sidewalk. Some have little fences around them, many have trash nestled up next to their exposed roots, and others have grown so big and become so strong that they have broken right through the concrete pavement. As I pass beneath them, they all seem to wave their leafy pom-poms in the wind, a thousand leaves applauding, cheering me on as if I had just returned from the moon.

These trees have learned how to brave the concrete jungle, and it gave me solace knowing that they had flourished in such a challenging environment. Over time, the impossibilities of the city have become familiar, and although I continue to learn new lessons everyday, I’ve slowly begun to assimilate, finding my way around, discovering new places, and making friends while still keeping close with those who aren’t close by. The music in City Trees began to take on a growing sense of perseverance, embodied by the expansive melodies that sweep over the pensive, rhythmic undercurrent. 

For me, City Trees is a reflection of the bravery that it often takes to venture into new worlds, embrace other cultures, and lovingly encourage new ideas. I am deeply honored to dedicate this piece to the Lesbian and Gay Band Association. Although I may never completely understand the unique challenges my friends have faced and had to overcome, I am inspired by the overwhelming courage that has been so firmly planted for 30 years and that continues to grow, perhaps slowly, but always stronger.

--notes by Michael Markowski (michaelmarkowski.com)

Manhattan Pictures: Four Mosaics for Band

In Manhattan Pictures, Jan van der Roost re-creates the energetic and diverse city life in New York Cit in four contrasting movements. The first movement depicts the skyline of Manhattan with whimsical intervals and energetic rhythms symbolizing the shapes of skyscrapers. In Picture, a variety of musical entities accumulate into a “sound curtain”, on top of which the brass section presents a flowing theme. The third movement features flute, clarinet and oboe in broad melodies. Following a majestic and cinematic “tutti” the serenity of the beginning reappears. Finally, the nervousness and dynamic style of the two first movements return in an exciting apotheosis with rich and sometimes surprising instrumentation in an exciting finale.

Liberty Fanfare

For the festivities accompanying the centennial of the Statute of Liberty, the Statute of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation commissioned John Williams to write a fanfare to be performed at the televised ceremonies on July 4, 1986. 

Prior to the work’s premiere, Williams told Richard Dyer that it is “about five minutes long, and it has a one-minute detachable frontpiece that will be the signature music for all of the ABC presentations connected with the Fourth of July. I’ve tried to create a group of American airs and tunes of my own invention that I hope will give some sense of the event and the occasion.” 

Williams conducted the Boston Pops in the first public performance of the fanfare on June 4, 1986. A month later, he led the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra in the work as part of a live national telecast.  Reviewing the Boston performance, Anthony Tommasini wrote that “as fanfares go, [it] is a humdinger. It’s got two great tunes: a brassy and boisterous fanfare riff, all roulades and flourishes and forward motion; and a long-lined tune for hushed-up strings that sounds like lots of others Williams has composed for Hollywood, but still gets you right in the back of the throat.”

—johnwilliams.org

George Washington Bridge

There are few days in the year when I do not see George Washington Bridge. I pass it on my way to work as I drive along the Henry Hudson Parkway on the New York shore. Ever since my student days when I watched the progress of its construction, this bridge has had for me an almost human personality, and this personality is astonishingly varied, assuming different moods depending on the time of day or night, the weather, the traffic and, of course, my own mood as I pass by.

I have walked across it late at night when it was shrouded in fog, and during the brilliant sunshine hours of midday. I have driven over it countless times and passed under it on boats. Coming to New York City by air, sometimes I have been lucky enough to fly right over it. It is difficult to imagine a more gracious welcome or dramatic entry to the great metropolis.

--notes by William Schuman

William Schuman (1910–1992) dropped out of business school to pursue composition after hearing the New York Philharmonic for the first time. He won the inaugural Pulitzer prize for music in 1943. He was president of the Juilliard School and first director of Lincoln Center, all the while active as a composer.

George Washington Bridge itself is in ABCBA form—a little like the rising and falling arch of a suspension bridge, in fact, and, since its 1950 premiere at Interlochen, Schuman's "George Washington Bridge" has won a secure place as a classic of the wind band repertoire.

Three Dance Episodes from On the Town

In the early months of 1944, Leonard Bernstein (recently engaged by the New York Philharmonic) and choreographer Jerome Robbins collaborated on a ballet about three sailors on a brief shore leave in New York. It was called Fancy Free and had 161 performances in its first year. Later that year, with the collaboration of Betty Comden and Adloph Green, the basic three-sailors-in-New York idea was expanded into a full-length musical, On the Town, that opened in December and ran for 463 performances.

The first of the three dance episodes is entitled “The Great Lover” and accompanies a scene in which one of the sailors, having fallen asleep on a subway car, dreams of Ivy Smith, winner of a subway "Miss Turnstiles" beauty contest. This movement is dedicated to Sono Osata, the great ballerina who played the role of "Miss Turnstiles."

The second episode, “Lonely Town” (Pas de deux), is a danced duet in which a young girl is first attracted by a sailor and then cast off by him. It is dedicated to Betty Comden.

The third is dedicated to Nancy Walker of the original cast. It is extracted from the finale of Act I and is set in Times Square, 1944. The music is based principally on the best remembered song from the show, New York, New York.

The music of the Dance Episodes from On the Town clearly reflects the interests of a 26-year-old composer in 1944: Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, jazz and blues, none of which was usually heard in the Broadway theater in those days. Every measure and every phrase of music is written with a sure hand, and the whole is brilliantly orchestrated. The composer conducted the first orchestra concert performance on February 15, 1946, with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. 

Manhattan Beach

Following in the footsteps of Patrick Gilmore, Sousa became a popular figure at Manhattan Beach, the famous New York summer resort. One of his most lavish medals was presented to him in 1894 by the proprietor, Austin Corbin, and other shareholders. The previous season, Sousa had dedicated this march to Corbin, and one of his manuscripts is inscribed to him.

Sousa once told a reporter that the march had been derived from an earlier composition, probably “The Phoenix March” (1875): “I wrote ‘Manhattan Beach’ while playing a summer engagement at that once-popular resort, using as the basis an old march I had composed when I was with Milton Nobles.”

Manhattan Beach became a staple of bands all over the world, but the Sousa Band performed it differently by playing the trio and last section as a short descriptive piece. In this interpretation, soft clarinet arpeggios suggest the rolling ocean waves as one strolls along the beach. A band is heard in the distance. It grows louder and then fades away as the stroller continues along the beach.

—Paul E. Bierley, The Works of John Philip Sousa (Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1984), 43.