NEC Wind Ensemble + Robert Spittal: Gabrieli, Spittal, Harbison

Giovanni Gabrieli

Canzon septimi toni No. 2


Sonata pian' e forte

Robert Spittal | Concerto for Wind Ensemble (2023)

World Premiere

Overture and Pas de Bleu
Pan Alley Harmonie
Scherzo Americana
 

Program note

The Concerto for Wind Ensemble was composed in the summer of 2023 for William Drury and the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble.

The composer writes:
A conventional concerto is composed for solo instrument with ensemble accompaniment. I decided on the seemingly contradictory title of Concerto for Wind Ensemble because my goal is to feature each section of wind and percussion instruments prominently at various times throughout the piece, and to treat these instrumental “consorts” in a soloistic way. The Concerto is celebratory and full of good humor throughout. My main intent was to create a piece that could be enjoyed and appreciated by both the audience and the performers. The first movement opens with a brilliant, effervescent fanfare-overture, followed by an elegant dance for two that evolves into a sultry blues before the movement closes with a return to the fanfare music. The title of the second movement “Pan Alley Harmonie” refers to idea of applying the chamber wind music tradition of harmonie to the music of the Tin Pan Alley composers of the early 20th century. In Mozart’s time, harmonie ensembles performed pastiche arrangements of his opera music on the streets of Vienna. Here, I imagine a “grand harmonie” setting of an imaginary tin pan alley composer’s popular waltzing tune, performed on a park gazebo circa 1900. The third movement begins with an expressive choir of woodwinds leading into a vibrant and challenging romp of a theme and variations. I refer to these as “Americana” variations, as they contain references, sometimes irreverent, to older American sounds such as blues, pianola music, ragtime, and Sousa marches.

Robert Spittal is an award-winning composer, conductor, flutist and saxophonist whose music has been described as "inventive", "clever" and "full of musicality" by critics and musicians alike. He is Professor of Music at Gonzaga University (USA) where he teaches conducting, music theory and composition. Dr. Spittal led the Gonzaga Wind Ensemble for 27 years, and received a doctorate in wind conducting from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His compositions have been commissioned and performed by some of the finest professional and academic musicians in North America, Europe, South America and Asia, including The Bay Brass, Borealis Wind Quintet, Atlanta Chamber Winds, Monmouth Winds, New England Conservatory, National Chamber Winds and North Texas Wind Symphony. His works have been performed in concert halls in New York, Bangkok, Vienna, Cologne, Milan, as well as Interlochen, the "Music for All" Honor Band of America, the WASBE international conference, the American Bandmasters Association conference, the National Flute Association conference, the Midwest Clinic, ASBDA, numerous All-State bands, and the CBDNA Western/Northwestern Conference. Three of his works are included in GIA's "Teaching Music" series, two of which were recorded by the North Texas Wind Symphony for the series. In 2020, Robert’s Diversions for Clarinet and Wind Ensemble received first Prize at the World Associations of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles Competition.
            Robert's work combines sophisticated art music forms and techniques with an appealing musical vernacular that reaches across boundaries of genre and style. This concern for aesthetic sophistication and artistic integrity, in combination with a satisfying and often intentionally enjoyable appeal to the listener's ear, has been developing since his adolescent years, when he was both a serious flute student in the Cleveland Institute of Music's Prep program and a free-lance saxophonist in horn sections of jazz, r&b and other dance bands.
 

INTERMISSION

John Harbison | Three City Blocks

Fervent, Resolute
Tough, Driving
With relentless energy

Program note

Over the radio, in the early fifties, came sounds played by bands in hotels and ballrooms, now distant memories that seemed to a seventh-grade, small-town, late-night listener like the true pulse of giant imagined cities.
     Years later, these sounds -- layered with real experience of some of their places of origin: magnified, distorted, idealized and destabilized -- came into contact with other sounds, some of recent origin, and resulted in these celebratory, menacing, Three City Blocks, completed in the fall of 1991 at Nervi, near Genoa, on the Mediterranean coast of Italy.
     Three City Blocks was commissioned by the wind ensembles of the New England Conservatory, the University of Cincinnati, Florida State University, Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Southern California, and The United States Air Force Band.

- John Harbison

NEC Wind Ensemble

Flute
Chia-Fen Chang
Jeong Won Choe
Shengyu Cui
Amelia Libbey
Elizabeth McCormack
Subin Oh

Oboe
Dane Bennett
Donovan Bown
Gwendolyn Goble
Kelley Osterberg

Clarinet
Phoebe Kuan
Hugo Hyeokwoo Kweon
Chasity Thompson
Cole Turkel

Bassoon
Zoe Beck
Matthew Heldt
Evan Judson
Julien Rollins
Andrew Salaru

Saxophone
Daniel Chen Wang
Vladyslav Dovhan
Guanlong Shen
Zeyi Tian
Juchen Wang

French horn
Grace Clarke
Jihao Li
Graham Lovely
Willow Otten
Noah Silverman
Qianbin Zhu

Trumpet
Daniel Barak
Ko Te Chen
Matthew Dao
Reynolds Martin
Nelson Martinez
Justin Park
Alex Prokop

Trombone
Elias Canales
Noah Korenfeld
Ethan Lehman
Quinn McGillis
Noah Nichilo
Kevin Smith

Bass Trombone
Roger Dahlin
Ki Yoon Park

Euphonium
Scott Odou
David Paligora

Tuba
James Curto
Masaru Lin

Percussion
Gustavo Barreda
Jordan Fajardo-Bird
Eli Geruschat
Ross Jarrell
Felix Ko
Danial Kukuk
Liam McManus
Michael Rogers
Jakob Schoenfeld
Halle Hayoung Song
Lucas Vogelman
Zesen Wei
Connor Willits

Harp
Shaylen Joos

Piano
Hyunjin Roh

Bass
Isabel Atkinson


Wind Ensemble Graduate Assistants

Weizhe Bai
Rachel Brake