NEC Wind Ensemble + Nicolás Ayala-Cerón '22 DMA

Frank Ticheli | from Songs of Love and Life

I. Swinging into the Night
II. First Lesson

Program note and Text

Written in 2012, Songs of Love and Life is a four-movement work for solo soprano and chamber winds. Ticheli based this composition on four poems written by contemporary American poets. For tonight’s concert, we will feature the first and second movements only. The first movement is a setting of Leland Kinsey’s poem Swinging into the Night; the poem is a tender portrayal of a tired but loving and grateful parent pushing their boy on a swing. In this movement, Ticheli incorporates the pushing and swinging motion into the music, sporadically punctuated by what can be described as the child’s innocent laughter as he climbs high into the sky. The second movement is based on Philip Booth’s poem First Lesson, which again depicts a parent speaking to a daughter as they are teaching her how to float. Ticheli creates a delicate, buoyant atmosphere that at times obfuscates a clear sense of pulse; the music reflects the uncertainty the daughter feels as she learns to trust. The soprano soloist for this piece is Sara Buggy, a Graduate Diploma student studying with Jane Eaglen. 

Born in 1958 in Louisiana, Frank Ticheli is a prolific American composer for orchestra, wind ensemble, chamber ensemble, and choir works. Ticheli holds a doctoral degree from the University of Michigan, where he studied under William Albright, Leslie Basset, William Bolcom, and George Wilson. Ticheli is a frequently commissioned composer and held the post of composer-in-residence at Pacific Symphony from 1991 to 1998. Ticheli is currently a Professor of Composition at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, a position he has held since 1991.

Swinging into the Night

My boy is swinging
and I push him.
“Higher,” he cries and I push him
till with his feet he pulls leaves and twigs
from the weeping willow,
tree carved on slate markers
on the hill behind us.
He holds on tightly, as I taught him
the first times he wanted to go
so high, and only once has his grip
faltered as he let go to point
at the rising full moon
and he flew towards it
and knocked his breath completely out
for what seemed like minutes
until he could breathe then cry
then wanted to climb aboard for more,
and I pushed him.
Now he swings the other way,
“This way then that way,” he says,
and that way his feet go up
into the grape arbor
where they crush green grapes
and later ripe ones will splatter.
“I love swinging up into the night,” he says.
He is big enough to pump.
He laughs when I push him.
My arms ache, I have pushed him
so long, so hard.
My wish is obvious,
that this swinging freeze at this moment,
go on forever.
More strangely, he curves into time more huge
than both of us together can imagine,
and I push him.

Leland Kinsey
from “Not One Man’s Work: Poems”

First Lesson

Lie back daughter, let your head
be tipped back in the cup of my hand.
Gently, and I will hold you. Spread
your arms wide, lie out on the stream
and look high at the gulls. A dead-
man’s float is face down. You will dive
and swim soon enough where this tidewater
ebbs to the sea. Daughter, believe
me, when you tire on the long thrash
to your island, lie up, and survive.
As you float now, where I held you
and let go, remember when fear
cramps your heart what I told you:
lie gently and wide to the light-year
stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you.

Philip Booth
from “Lifelines: Selected Poems 1950-1999

Bruce Broughton (orch. Randol Alan Bass) | Concerto for Piccolo and Wind Ensemble (2002)

Fast
Slow, expressive
Fast and light

Program note

A ten-time Emmy award-winning composer, Bruce Broughton has written countless highly acclaimed soundtracks for TV series, including Hawaii Five-O and The Orville, and multiple movie scores, including Silverado, Miracle on 34th Street, and Homeward Bound. A California native, Broughton was born in 1945 and is currently a lecturer in composition at UCLA. Broughton’s compositional career also includes many concert works, including a Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra and the Concerto for Piccolo and Chamber Orchestra, which was later transcribed for wind ensemble by Randol Bass. Broughton highlights the piccolo in this three-movement work, exploring the entire range of the instrument and showcasing the complete gamut of expression on an instrument not often thought of as a solo instrument. The first movement is a stately and technical tour de force in which the soloist demonstrates the piccolo’s ability to be extremely agile and dexterous. In the slow second movement, the piccolo muses on a delicate, melancholy theme over a contemplative yet persistent accompaniment. In the energetic final movement, the piccolo once again delights us with more musical acrobatics. The piccolo soloist for this piece is Megan Trach, a graduate student who was the winner of the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble Concerto Competition. Megan currently studies with Cynthia Meyers at NEC.

David Maslanka | A Child's Garden of Dreams (1981)

I. There is a desert on the moon where the dreamer sinks so deeply into the ground that she reaches hell
II. A drunken woman falls into the water and comes out renewed and sober
III. A horde of small animals frightens the dreamer.  The animals increase to a tremendous size, and one of them devours the little girl.
IV. A drop of water is seen as it appears when looked at through a microscope.  The girl sees that the drop is full of tree branches.  This portrays the origin of the world.
V.  An ascent into heaven where pagan dances are being celebrated, and a descent into hell where angels are doing good deeds

Program note

A Child’s Garden of Dreams was commissioned for the Northwestern University Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and was premiered by the same in 1982. The inspiration for the piece comes from a description of a series of dreams which were compiled by a ten-year-old girl, as found in Carl Jung’s book Man and His Symbols. In his book, Jung states that “when I first read her dreams, I had the uncanny feeling that they suggested impending disaster.” He proceeds to describe the bizarre dreams this little girl had as premonitions; the girl passed away shortly after compiling the descrip-tions of the dreams. Jung suggests they are an interpretation of a transformation from death into eternal life. Of the twelve dreams listed in Jung’s book, Maslanka chose five as inspiration for this composition. Each movement is titled after the description of a dream: 

There is a desert on the moon where the dreamer sinks so deeply into the ground that she reaches hell.

This movement opens with a single, distant note in the French horn. The percussion enters with a burst of energy as we are drawn near this distant sound, leading us to a resounding brass fanfare followed by an expansive chord in the low winds. As the movement continues, the stability of these chordal structures is undermined by what Charles Ives would call “enemy notes,” progressing further and further into chaos. The movement ends with a single note that has been transformed by this experience.

A drunken woman falls into the water and comes out renewed and sober.

This movement is a gentle meditation structured in binary form. The theme is carried by a trio consisting of a flute, a bass clarinet, and a muted trumpet; they meander slowly through veiled textures created by the clarinets, horns, harp, and organ. The oboe concludes by leading us into a renewed tonal center at the end of this journey.

A horde of small animals frightens the dreamer. The animals increase to a tremendous size, and one of them devours the little girl.

The percussion begins with a continuous string of energetic pulses which are maintained throughout. The woodwinds gradually join in on the frenzy. In the distance, a menacing sound in the brass is perceived, which grows louder and bigger until all are consumed by its gargantuan presence.

A drop of water is seen as it appears when looked at through a microscope. The girl sees that the drop is full of tree branches. This portrays the origin of the world.

The fourth movement returns to a reflective slower tempo, reminiscent of the second movement. A ghostly melody is carried by the flutes and the piccolos. Towards the middle of the movement, snippets of the energetic third movement are heard as we meander through a landscape of unusual sounds. The momentum increases as the brass join the melody in a resonant crescendo. We descend to the same ghostly and uncertain texture and melody as in the beginning.

An ascent into heaven where pagan dances are being celebrated; and a descent into hell where angels are doing good deeds.

The final movement opens with a glorious clarion call in the oboe as the sun slowly rises over the horizon. The fanfare from the first movement is reprised and expanded as we continuously rise to the heavens. The jubilant ascent suddenly subsides, and we build again with determination and enthusiasm. As in the first movement, “enemy notes” begin to disrupt the joyous cacophony, and we are momentarily plunged into a disorienting mass of sound capped by the piccolos. We retreat suddenly once more; propelled by an immense acceleration and with great exuberance, we summit with an expansive, majestic fanfare. The movement ends as it began, the clarinets leading us away with a gentle motion into the sunset.

New Bedford, Massachusetts native, David Maslanka was born in 1943 and attended Oberlin College Conservatory as well as Michigan State University, where he earned his doctoral degree in composition studying with H. Owen Reed. Maslanka is well known for his compositions for wind ensemble, which include eight symphonies, seventeen concertos, and multiple concert pieces. Maslanka worked as a freelance composer based in Montana from 1990 until his passing in 2017.

Personnel

Flute
Javier Castro
Jeong Won Choe
Anna Kevelson
Clara Lee
Yang Liu
Hui Lam Mak
Yeyoung Moon
Nnamdi Odita-Honnah
Mara Riley
Erika Rohrberg
Aimee Toner

Oboe
Izumi Amemiya
So Jeong Kim
Samuel Rockwood
Nathalie Vela
Kip Zimmerman

Clarinet
Tyler J. Bourque
Tristan Broadfoot
Ching-Wen Chen
Hyunwoo Chun
Benjamin Cruz
Soyeon Park
Erica Smith

Bassoon
Delano Bell
Andrew Brooks
Andrew Flurer
John Fulton
Chaoyang Jing
Miranda Macias
Daniel McCarty
Andrew Salaru

Saxophone
Alexis Aguilar
Chen Guancong
Rayna DeYoung
Jinghao Li

French horn
Alex Daiker
Andrew Hayes
Karlee Kamminga
Xiang Li
Hannah Messenger
Yeonjo Oh
Paolo Rosselli
Tasha Schapiro
Sophie Steger
Helen Wargelin

Trumpet
Jake Baldwin
David O’Neill
Alexander Prokop
Dimitri Raimonde
Kimberly Sabio
Wentao Xiao

Trombone
Puyuan Chen
Katie Franke
Zach Johnson
Jianlin Sha
Matt Vezey

Bass Trombone
Changwon Park

Euphonium
Jack Earnhart

Tuba
Colin Benton
Jim Gifford
David Stein

Percussion
Ross Hussong
Stephanie Nozomi Krichena
Taylor Lents
Pei Hsien Lu
Parker Olson
Hayoung Song
David Uhlmann
Tennison Watts
Yiming Yao

Harp
Yvonne Cox
Zi Li

Double Bass
Misha Bjerken

Piano
Yujin Han
Yeeun Hyun
Jie Zhou

Organ
Minchao Cai


Wind Ensemble Graduate
   Assistants

Nicolás Ayala-Ceron
Minchao Cai
Iverson Eliopoulos