The Pipes Are Callin'

Dr. Bradley Kent, Conductor

Program

Fanfare from Festmusik der Stadt Wien, Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Scenes from “The Lourve”, Norman Dello Joio (1913-2008)
Irish Tune from County Derry, Percy Grainger (1882-1961)
Cathedrals, Kathryn Salfelder (b. 1987)
Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral, Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

Program Notes

Fanfare from Festmusik der Stadt Wien (1943/2005)
Richard Strauss
Trans. by Brian Beck

Festmusik Der Stadt Wein, or Festival Music for the City of Vienna, was originally written for the Vienna Trumpet Corps. It was scored for ten trumpets, seven trombones (two alto, three tenor, and two bass), two tubas, and timpani. Strauss himself conducted the work’s premiere in the Festival Hall of the Vienna Rathaus in 1943. The version we present today was transcribed for band by Brian Beck.

Scenes from “The Lourve” (1966)
Norman Dello Joio

Scenes from “The Louvre” is a work for band which Norman Dello Joio extracted from his musical score to the 1964 made-for-television documentary of the Louvre museum in Paris, France. Each of its first four movements portrays a different section of the museum. The film covers the Louvre’s development during the Renaissance time period, and, in keeping with that, Dello Joio based each movement on themes from Renaissance composers.

Irish Tune from County Derry (1918/1993)
Percy Grainger
Ed. by Mark Rogers

Irish Tune from County Derry is a composition for military band based on the Irish folk song “Londonderry Air”. Well-known as the song “Oh Danny Boy”, Grainger dedicated his setting to the memory of Edvard Grieg. One should note that the title of our program today, “The Pipes are Callin’”, comes from a line of text from the lyrics of “Oh Danny Boy”.

Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are callin’
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side.
The summer’s gone, and all the flowers are dying.
‘Tis you, ‘tis you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow,
Or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow.
‘Tis I’ll be here in sunshine or in shadow.
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so.

Cathedrals (2007)
Kathyrn Salfelder

Cathedrals is a fantasy on Gabrieli’s Canzon Primi Toni from the Sacrae Symphoniae, which dates from 1597. Written for St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, the canzon is scored for two brass choirs, each comprised of two trumpets and two trombones. The choirs were stationed in opposite balconies of the church according to the antiphonal principal of cori spezzati (It. ‘broken choirs’), which forms the basis of much of Gabrieli’s writing.

Cathedrals is an adventure in ‘neo-renaissance’ music, in its seating arrangement, antiphonal qualities, 16th century counterpoint, and canonic textures. Its form is structured on the golden ratio (1: .618), which is commonly found not only in nature and art, but also in the motets and masses of Renaissance composers such as Palestrina and Lassus. The areas surrounding the golden section and its series of extrapolated subdivisions have audible characteristics, often evidenced by cadences, changes in texture, or juxtaposition of ideas. The work is a synthesis of the old and the new, evoking the mystery and allure of Gabrieli’s spatial music, intertwined with the rich color palette, modal harmonies, and textures of woodwinds and percussion.

Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral (1850)
Richard Wagner
Trans. by Lucien Caillet

Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral comes from Wagner’s 1850 opera Lohengrin. One of the most well-known musical themes in the world is the wedding march, also known as “Here comes the Bride.” This wedding march was written by Richard Wagner for this very opera. One of the characters in the opera, Elsa, is getting married. Strangely enough, she’s marrying a knight who rides a swan, and she doesn’t even know his name. Wagner wrote this tune to depict the regal procession leading up to her marriage. The tune begins with a lovely pastoral theme and develops through the entire procession and comes to climax with Elsa’s dynamic arrival at the cathedral.