Epic Tales

EUGENE MIGLIARO CORPORON, conductor
MARY PRESTON, organ
BRUCE DUBOSE, actor
RYAN GEORGE, guest composer
SETH WOLLAM, guest conductor

Program

Movements from Symphony No. 1 “The Lord of the Rings,” Johan De Meij
Niagara Falls, Michael Daugherty
The Frozen Cathedral, John Mackey
Ecstatic Fanfare, Steven Bryant
The Raider’s March, John Williams/Lavender
Ah Gé Fhiáin (The Wild Goose), Ryan George (World Premiere)

Concert Description

On Sunday, January 26, 2014, the Lone Star Wind Orchestra will tell tall tales and take you on a journey of epic proportions. Led by Music Director Eugene Migliaro Corporon, the LSWO brings mighty waterfalls, the majesty of ascending a great mountain, and the one ring to the Meyerson Symphony Center stage at 7:30pm. Featuring Lay Family Organ ‘resident organist’ Mary Preston, the LSWO performs Michael Daugherty’s Niagara Falls and John Mackey’s The Frozen Cathedral.

The Lone Star Wind Orchestra is also honored to welcome actor and founder of Dallas’ own Undermain Theatre, Bruce DuBose. DuBose will don Middle Earth robes to play Gandalf and narrate script from Tolkien’s famous books during movements from Johan De Meij’s Symphony No. 1 “The Lord of the Rings.”

Other works on the program include Ecstatic Fanfare by Steven Bryant, John Williams’ The Raiders March, and a world premiere by Texas-based composer Ryan George.

Additional Concert Notes

John Mackey’s newest work The Frozen Cathedral was originally conceived with the grand sounds of an organ, but was removed by the world premiere this past March. John Mackey will add the organ back into the piece for this Lone Star Wind Orchestra performance and the LSWO will give the first performance of The Frozen Cathedral with the added organ part.

Guest Artist Bios

Some of Bruce DuBose’s many Undermain acting credits include Dunne in Penelope, The Poet in An Iliad, Goldberg in The Birthday Party, Ames in Ages Of The Moon, Lindquist in Easter, Uncle Malvolio in The Dog Problem, Hamm in Endgame, Pesotsky in The Black Monk, Earl in Neil Young’s Greendale, John in Shining City, Jimmie Rodgers in Waiting for a Train: The Life and Songs of Jimmie Rodgers, Salter in A Number, numerous roles in Margo Veil, the title role in The Late Henry Moss, Ethelred in Silence, Robert Graves in Glamour, Trigorin in The Seagull, the title role in Macbeth, Tomtom in Goose and Tomtom, and many others. He has appeared onstage in New York as Simon in The Inner Circle at the Luminous Group, in Undermain’s New York production of Glamour at the Ohio Theater, as Swami in Jeffrey M. Jones’ A Man’s Best Friend at Walkerspace, and most recently as Earl in Neil Young’s Greendale at The Ohio Theater.

Bruce has composed the music for numerous Undermain productions, most recently for August Strindberg’s The Ghost Sonata, Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s An Iliad, Len Jenkin’s Time In Kafka, Sam Shepard’s Ages Of The Moon, Young Jean Lee’s The Shipment, August Strindberg’s Easter, David Rabe’s The Dog Problem, Len Jenkin’s Port Twilight, David Rabe’s The Black Monk, Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice, and Lynne Alvarez’s The Snow Queen. Undermain directing credits include Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice, Howard Barker’s The Castle, Austin Pendleton’s Uncle Bob, Erik Ehn’s Gold in Mud (in Dallas and New York City at The American Living Room Festival), and Erik Ehn’s Swedish Tales of Woe (Dallas and The Ohio Theatre in New York City). He also toured Eastern Europe with Undermain in productions of Sarajevo and Judges 19 as well as the Canadian Fringe Festival in 70 Scenes of Halloween. He appeared at the A.S.K. Festival in Los Angeles in Erik Ehn’s Erotic Curtsies.

Other local appearances include roles in Alice: Tales of a Curious Girl, Porcelain, Arms and the Man, and A Family Affair (all at the Dallas Theater Center), Fool for Love (Stage West), and Marc Antony in Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare Festival of Dallas). Film work includes Late Bloomers, Thompson’s Last Run, Midsummer, I Become Gilgamesh, Dusk, and most recently Spring Eddy which he filmed in Austin. Television appearances include episodes of Dangerous Curves, Walker Texas Ranger, Prison Break, The Deep End and Friday Night Lights. He narrated the Emmy Award-Winning documentary, The U.S. Mexican War for PBS as well as The Marines (also for PBS).

Mary Preston is the Resident Organist and Principal/Lay Family Chair with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. She also serves as Organist and Choirmaster at St. John’s Episcopal Church and School in Dallas. Mary has been presented in recital throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia to audiences responding with enthusiasm and excitement. She has been a featured artist for numerous American Guild of Organists national and regional conventions. Along with performing concerti and other major works with the Dallas Symphony, she has performed with the L.A. Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, East Texas, and others. She performed the world premiere of Poul Ruders’ Organ Symphony No. 4 and the Guilmant and Saint-Saëns organ symphonies with the DSO, and continues to perform and record with the Dallas Wind Symphony as well. Her recordings are produced on the Reference, Gothic, and Naxos labels, and are met with rave reviews. She and husband, Joe, have been married for forty-four years.

Program Notes

Written and compiled by Seth Wollam

Ecstatic Fanfare (2012)
Steven Bryant

Ecstatic Fanfare is based on music from the first movement of Ecstatic Waters for wind band and electronics. Bryant offers the following on this epically exciting fanfare: “One day in May, 2012, I mentioned to my wife that it might be fun to take the soaring, heroic tutti music from the earlier work and turn it into a short fanfare ‘someday.’ She goaded me into doing it immediately, and so in a panicked three-day composing frenzy, I created this new work, which was premiered by Johann Mösenbichler with the Polizeiorchester Bayern just three short weeks later, followed immediately by my wife, Verena, conducting it with the World Youth Wind Orchestra Project in July, 2012. This has to be a record time for conception-to-premiere for a large ensemble work…” Unlike the larger work which the material was derived, this concert opener does not require electronics or other unique percussive sounds like the Mahler hammer.

Raider’s March from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981)
John Williams
Trans. by Paul Lavender

Raider’s March is the unmistakable theme to the first of the epic classic Indiana Jones films, “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Williams describes the march as a “…an ‘adventure’ theme to be associated with Indiana Jones, the colorful hero of the film, played so brilliantly by actor Harrison Ford.” Like Richard Wagner’s use of themes and leitmotivs in his nineteenth century operas, Williams is well-known for his cinematic use of the same technique. The primary motive, presented by the trumpet in the introduction, first appeared at the beginning of the movie when Jones escaped “pursuing villains.” The theme has developed as the primary accompaniment for many of Jones’s daring and exciting adventures. This transcription for wind band was premiered by “The President’s Own” Marine Band July 12, 2003 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

An Gé Fhiáin (2014)
Ryan George

The ancient Celtic people who occupied the British Isles around 1,600 years ago were a people who shared a deep connection with nature and the world in which they found themselves. Around this time Christianity found its way to this land and these ancients would often draw on their surroundings for symbolism. In the Celtic tradition, the Holy Spirit is represented as a bird, but not as the delicate and peaceful dove found in other cultures, but as An Gé Fhiáin (The Wild Goose).

Like a wild goose, they perceived the Sprit of God as wild and untamed. Geese are loud, raucous, and strong. Their honk is challenging, piercing, unnerving. They are uncontrollable, difficult if not impossible to catch, and their actions cannot be anticipated (thus the phrase “wild goose chase”). These ancient people absorbed spirituality then not as something that you captured, or something that you bent to your will. It was a pursuit, an adventure after which you chased. Their faith was one that was free and unpredictable.

Juxtaposed against the chaos of the goose chase, these people also had a phrase for those places where the distance between earth and the spiritual realm collapses – locales where we are able to catch hints and glimpses of the transcendent and where the divine seems to speak the clearest. They called these destinations “thin places.”

The composer writes, “In writing this piece, I was intrigued by these two impressions: the wild and rambunctious Goose that calls us on an adventurous chase, and the tranquil, reverent thin places that the Goose leads us to. These two thoughts intertwine, sometimes gracefully and other times forcefully. The piece is written in the free-form of a fantasy overture and is built around a 5 note motif that variates throughout the allegro sections. A simple chordal hymn first stated by the horns provides the basis for the adagio segments. The Goose, represented by an antiphonally staged solo english horn, shows up at various points in the work as both the boisterous motivator and the soothing counselor. Music influences coming from the Celtic traditions are faint early on in the piece but transition to the forefront towards the end as the emulated sounds of bagpipes, penny whistles, and Irish drumming transform the 5-note figure into a reel and jig.”

The Frozen Cathedral (2013)
John Mackey

Jake Wallace writes, “The Frozen Cathedral is inspired by another epic natural phenomenon in the United States: Mt. McKinley in Alaska’s Denali National Park. Commissioned by the University of North Carolina Greensboro at the 2013 CBDNA National Conference, the piece was a collaboration between Mackey and Director of Bands John Locke. Locke asked Mackey if he would dedicate the piece to the memory of his late son, J.P., who had a particular fascination with Alaska and the scenery of Denali National Park. Mackey agreed—and immediately found himself grappling with two problems.” Mackey offers the following about his composition:

“How does one write a concert closer, making it joyous and exciting and celebratory, while also acknowledging, at least to myself, that this piece is rooted in unimaginable loss: The death of a child? The other challenge was connecting the piece to Alaska – a place I’d never seen in person. I kept thinking about all of this in literal terms, and I just wasn’t getting anywhere. My wife, who titles all of my pieces, said I should focus on what it is that draws people to these places. People go to the mountains—these monumental, remote, ethereal and awesome parts of the world—as a kind of pilgrimage. It’s a search for the sublime, for transcendence. A great mountain is like a church. ‘Call it The Frozen Cathedral,’ she said. I clearly married up.”

Symphony No. 1 “The Lord of the Rings” (1988)
Johan de Meij

Symphony No. 1, “The Lord of the Rings” is based on the epic trilogy of the same name by author J.R.R. Tolkien. This book has fascinated many millions of readers since its publication in 1955. An animated version of the book was released in 1978, and an updated live action version of the film, that has become one of the largest grossing movie projects in history, was released between 2001 and 2003. The music, composed by de Meij in his symphony, is completely independent of either cinematic project. The symphony consists of five separate movements, each illustrating a personage or an important episode from the book. The symphony was written in the period between March 1984 and December 1987, and had its première in Brussels on March 15, 1988 by the Groot Harmonieorkest van de Gidsen, Norbert Nozy, conductor. In 1989, this monumental composition was awarded a first prize in the Sudler International Wind Band Composition Competition in Chicago, and a year later was awarded by the Dutch Composers Fund. In 2001, the orchestral version was premiered by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra.

Niagara Falls (1997)
Michael Daugherty

Niagara Falls is one of many awe-inspiring natural phenomenon natural of truly epic proportion in the United States. Daugherty offers the following insights into his inspiration for this composition:

“Niagara Falls, a gateway between Canada and the United States, is a mecca for honeymooners and tourists who come to visit one of the most scenic waterfalls in the world. The Niagara River also generates electricity for towns on both sides of the border, where visitors are lured into haunted houses, motels, wax museums, candy stores, and tourist traps, as well as countless stores that sell ‘Niagara Falls’ postcards, T-shirts, and souvenirs. This composition is another souvenir, inspired by my many trips to Niagara Falls. It is a ten-minute musical ride over the Niagara River with an occasional stop at a haunted house or wax museum along the way. Its principal musical motive is a haunting chromatic phrase of four tones corresponding to the syllables of Niagara Falls, and repeated in increasingly gothic proportions. A pulsing rhythm in the timpani and lower brass creates an undercurrent of energy to give an electric charge to the second motive, introduced in musical canons by the upper brass. The saxophones and clarinets introduce another level of counterpoint, in a bluesy riff with a film noir edge. My composition is a meditation on the American Sublime.”

Niagara Falls was commissioned by the University of Michigan Symphonic Band in honor of its One Hundredth Anniversary and is dedicated to its conductor, H. Robert Reynolds. The work was premiered by that ensemble on October 4, 1997.