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UI Symphony Band Plays Carnegie Hall—Program Notes

Festmusik der Stadt Wien
Born in Munich to a very musical family, Richard Strauss was exposed to virtuosic performers from a young age. His father was an accomplished horn player, and many of the son's later works reflect a pronounced affection for this instrument. Thrust into the conducting profession by directing one of his own early works (the Serenade op. 7) without rehearsal, Strauss's fame on the podium became as widespread as his compositional skill. Strauss exhibited his nineteenth century roots well into the twentieth century and is recognized as one of the last great romantics. Widely known for his orchestral tone poems and dramatic operatic output, Strauss also contributed several works for winds such as the above-mentioned Serenade op. 7, the Suite op. 4, The Invalids Workshop, and The Happy Workshop.

Due to its tremendous difficulty, the Festmusik der Stadt Wien performed tonight receives relatively few live performances. Both in instrumentation (10 trumpets, 7 trombones, 2 tubas and timpani) and duration (11 minutes), the work poses a daunting task for the performers. More often heard in its abbreviated form (Fanfare der Stadt Wien), Festmusik was written in 1943 for Trompetenchor der Stadt Wien, a brass ensemble consisting of members of the Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, and the Vienna Volksoper. The piece is conceptually modeled after the antiphonal practice of Giovanni Gabrieli and showcases two choirs which pass material back and forth. The result is an impressive mixture of technical brilliance and timbral beauty.

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Concerto for Trumpet
Alexander Arutiunian, a widely known Armenian composer, was born in Yerevan, Armenia, on September 23, 1920. He studied composition with Barkhudaryan and Talyan and the piano with O. Babasyan at the Komitas Conservatory in Yerevan, graduating in 1941. His studies continued with Litinsky, Peyko, and Zuckermann at the Moscow Conservatory from 1946-1948, where his graduation composition, Kautat hayreinki masin (Cantata on the Homeland), was soon awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1949. Alexander Arutiunian then returned to Armenia as the music director of the Royal Philharmonic Society. He was named artistic director of the Armenian Philharmonic Society in 1954, retaining that position until 1990. In 1965, he also began teaching composition at the Yerevan Conservatory, where he was appointed to a professorship in 1977. Arutiunian received the title of the "'People's Artist of Armenia'' in 1960. He has received numerous awards in Armenia, the United States, and elsewhere. Many of Arutiunian's works for brass, notably the concertos for trumpet (1950) and tuba and the brass quintet Armenian Scenes (1984), are included in the international repertoire.

Arutiunian's sixth major composition, the Concerto for Trumpet, was written in 1950 for the renowned Russian trumpet virtuoso, Timofei Dokschitzer. In the Concerto, Arutiunian projects his own nationality by incorporating melodic and rhythmic characteristics of Armenian folk music traditions, including a type of Armenian folk minstrel known as ashughner. He enriched the composition by creating dynamic contrasts of mood ranging from rough yet festive passages to delicate lyrical sections with jazz. The Concerto's three movements are performed without pause, but distinctive sections are readily apparent. A slow and melodious beginning is followed by contrasting rhythmic and energetic passages, whose vivacity is contrasted by moments of reflection and dialogues between the soloist and the ensemble. The next movement, Meno mosso, is lyrical with soaring phrases and elaborate orchestration. At the end, a cadenza, originally written by Dokschitzer based on excerpts from the piece, leads to a strong conclusion.

Dokschitzer's emigration to the United States led to the introduction of the Concerto to both the United States and Europe. The Concerto has since become known as a staple in trumpet literature.

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Korean Dances
The first of three movements, Preludio, is a brief movement in 4/4 time with hints of cross-rhythmic figures that also encompass most of the third movement. The second movement, Passacaglia, employs a simple yet stirring theme in 5/4 that is initially stated by a solo flute. The theme expands throughout the woodwinds into the full ensemble with percussive accents, ending with a solo trumpet. The Rondo-Finale opens with a statement of the Passacaglia followed by an English horn cadenza on either side of a dramatic 12/8 passage. A rhythmic figure based upon Korean traditional music called Chirche Chadan is stated in the timpani and throughout the remainder of the work where it is juxtaposed with numerous instruments and ultimately stated in a tutti form. The Passacaglia theme rises again as the work comes to a brilliant close.

Chang Su Koh was born in Osaka in 1970. After graduating from Osaka College of Music with a degree in composition, he entered the Musik Akademie der Stadt Basel. He has received numerous awards for his compositions. Presently, he teaches at Osaka College of Music and at the ESA Conservatory of Music and Wind Instrument Repair Academy; he is also a member of the Kansai Modern Music Association. He composes and arranges orchestral, wind, and chamber music with commissions from various bands. He also directs amateur orchestras and city bands.

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Symphony No. 4
David Maslanka was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and studied at the New England Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, Salzburg Hochschule Mozarteum, and Michigan State University. He was a member of the music faculty at the Kingsborough College of the City University of New York from 1970-1992. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Music Center, MacDowell Colony, Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation, and the New York State Arts Council.

Symphony No. 4 was jointly commissioned by the University of Texas Wind Ensemble, Stephen F. Austin State University Band, and Michigan State University Band. The manuscript was completed at Missoula, Montana, on November 5, 1993. Regarding Symphony No. 4, the composer writes:

"The roots of Symphony No. 4 are many. The central driving force is the spontaneous rise of the impulse to shout for the joy of life. I feel it is the powerful voice of the Earth that comes to me from my adopted western Montana, and the high plains and mountains of central Idaho. My personal experience of this voice is one of being helpless and torn open by the power of the thing that wants to be expressed—the welling-up shout that cannot be denied. I am set aquiver and am forced to shout and sing. The response in the voice of the Earth is the answering shout of thanksgiving, and the shout of praise.

"Out of this, the hymn tune Old Hundred, several other hymn tunes, and the original melodies which are hymn-like in nature form the backbone of Symphony No. 4. To explain the presence of these hymns, at least in part, and to hint at the life of the Symphony, I must say something about my longtime fascination with Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln maintained in person the tremendous struggle of opposites raging in the country in his time. He was inwardly open to boiling chaos, out of which he forged the framework of a new unifying idea. It wore him down and killed him, as it wore down and killed the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the Civil War, as it has continued to wear and kill by the millions up to the present day. Confirmed in the world by Lincoln was the unshakable idea of the unity of the human race, and by extension the unity of all life, and by further extension, the unity of all life with all matters, with all energy, and with the silent and seemingly empty and unfathomable mystery of our origins.

"I have used Christian symbols because they are my cultural heritage, but I have tried to move through them to a depth of universal humanness, to an awareness that is not defined by religious label. My impulse through this music is to speak to the fundamental human issues of transformation and rebirth in this chaotic time."

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UI At Carnegie Hall
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