NEC Wind Ensemble + Symphonic Winds: Finale

Jimmy Van Heusen (arr. Dave Rivello) | But Beautiful from "Road to Rio" (1947)

John Williams (arr. Don Hunsberger) | Imperial March from "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980)

Leonard Rosenman (arr. Minoo Dixon '23 and Jaden Fogel '23) | "Battle for the Planet of the Apes" (1973)

Main Title
Teacher, teacher
Caesar Departs
Discovery
Ricky’s Theme
The Battle
Fight Like Apes
Only the Dead

NEC Symphonic Winds personnel

INTERMISSION

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Concerto for Clarinet in A Major, K. 622.

arr. by Robert Rumbelow

Allegro
Adagio
Rondo: Allegro
 

Program note

Mozart ‘s Clarinet Concerto in A major, K.622 is one of the most beloved works in the clarinet repertoire. It was composed in 1791, during the final year of Mozart’s life, and is considered one of his last great compositions. The concerto was originally written in G Major for Austrian clarinetist Anton Stadler (1753-1812) who was known for creating and performing with what we call today the basset clarinet in G.  This instrument has an extended range of two whole steps below the traditional clarinet (E-C). The basset clarinet in G did not gain popularity, and so the work is now (usually) performed in A major using the clarinet in A. Unfortunately, after Mozart’s death the original score was lost, and all that remains is a published version from 10 years later (1801). Without the original manuscript, clarinetists today explore possibilities and thus interpret aspects of the piece which utilize this lower range of the clarinet.
        The work is organized in three movements: Allegro, Adagio, and Rondo: Allegro. The first movement is in sonata form and begins with a serene and lyrical theme played by the orchestra. This theme is then developed and expanded upon by the clarinet. The clarinet and orchestra engage in a playful dialogue throughout the movement, with each taking turns leading the way. Throughout this movement Mozart writes for the clarinet to fulfill the roles of more than one character within itself, often by creating call and response dialogue with the upper clarion register of the instrument and the lower chalumeau.
        The second movement is an expressive adagio in rounded binary form. The clarinet introduces the gentle lyrical theme, which is then repeated by the orchestra. The movement is marked by extended melodies and simple harmonies spiced with subtle chromaticism. As in the first movement, Mozart creates both drama and virtuosity by employing  timbres the clarinet offers in the wide range from the chalumeau to the upper clarion.
        The final movement is a lively rondo in which the clarinet and orchestra engage in a joyful and exuberant dance. The movement features coquettish melodies and a gigue-like rhythm. The clarinet is given ample opportunity to display both its technical virtuosity and the rapidly changing emotional swings conveyed through brief modality, sonority, and color changes. The forward motion of this music conveys an idea Mozart would have felt - even in the toughest times one keeps pushing forwards as joy is in the doing.                                                        
– Dillon Acey

Dillon Acey is an accomplished clarinetist with a passion for music. While classically trained, he is skilled in playing multiple genres and settings. His performance experience includes various ensembles such as New England Conservatory’s Wind Ensemble and Philharmonia Orchestra, the Sun Coast Symphony Orchestra, and the Let’s Ride Brass Band. Dillon has also taken on the soloist role in pieces by Artie Shaw, Weber, Debussy, and Mozart. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Jacksonville University in 2019, magna cum laude, and is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree in Clarinet Performance at New England Conservatory.
        Dillon has had the privilege of studying with renowned musicians such as Richard Stoltzman, Artie Clifton, Sunshine Simmons, and William Goldstein. His exceptional musical abilities have earned him several awards, including the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble Concerto Competition Winner in 2020, McClure Music Performance Award Winner in 2019, and the Jacksonville University Division of Music’s Featured Soloist Award in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Upon graduation, Dillon is seeking to freelance, teach, and research the music of Jimmy Giuffre among a wide range of other individual projects.

Mykhailo Verbytsky | Ukrainian National Anthem

“The glory and freedom of Ukraine has not yet perished”

Ingolf Dahl | Sinfonietta for Concert Band

Introduction and Rondo
Notturno Pastorale
Dance Variations

Program note

It is ironic that while the wind ensemble has led the art music world in embracing living composers and new works, the most iconic works by major composers in the wind canon are from a 17 year period from 1944–1961. Those works are the Hindemith Symphony in B-flat (1951),the Schoenberg Theme and Variations (1944)and the Ingolf Dahl Sinfonietta (1961). One notes that while composers of our time lean heavily on the stories and contrivances of extra musical inspiration, these masters created the most enduring of works relying only on their inner muse and extraordinary sonic imaginations.  No stories here, nonetheless still deeply engaging narratives.

A personal note:  I have been blessed throughout my career to continually make music in all genres. Yet it was wind music that started it all as an undergraduate percussionist/music education major.  While my freshman year was a whirlwind of sound—most of which blew right by my undeveloped ear and mind—it was this Sinfonietta that was the first music that truly engaged me; it was the moment that I began to “get it”.  A treasured moment.  Thus, as I conclude that which may very well be my last concert conducting a wind ensemble, I thought it right to close the circle by returning—paying homage?—to that which was such a gift to me those many years ago.
- Charles Peltz

Composers speak best about their works, and these notes are from Dahl himself:

“The form of the Sinfonietta is akin to an arc or the span of a large bridge: the sections of the first movement correspond, in reverse order and even some details, to the sections of the last. For example, the fanfares by the back-stage trumpets at the opening of the work balance the closing fanfares; the thematic material that ends the first movement opens the last, although in altered form. The middle movement itself is shaped like an arch; it begins with an unaccompanied line in the clarinets and ends with a corresponding solo in the alto clarinet. The center of the middle movement – which is the center of the whole work (a gavotte-like section, and the lightest music of the whole Sinfonietta) – is the “keystone” of the arch.
     The tonal idiom of the work grows out of the acoustical properties of the symphonic band: a wealth of overtones. Thus I feel that bands call for music with more open and consonant intervals than would a string ensemble or piano. The Sinfonietta is tonal, and centered around A-flat major. At the same time, however, its corner movements are based upon a series of six tones (A-flat, E-flat, C, G, D, A) that, through various manipulations, provide most of this work’s harmonic and melodic ingredients and patterns. The six tones were chosen to permit all kinds of triadic formations. Furthermore, their inversion at the interval of the major sixth yields a second six-tone set comprising the remaining six tones of a complete twelve-tone row. The six-tone set is introduced tone by tone in the opening back-stage trumpets, and as it reappears in its original form and in transpositions, it constitutes the entire tonal content of this fanfare. Throughout the two corner movements, the set appears in various guises, from the blunt unison statement opening the last movement to the almost unrecognizable metamorphoses elsewhere. It also provides melodic as well as harmonic frameworks.
     Thus, in the first movement, it serves as a focal point in the march tune opening the principal rondo section; it also motivates the succession of tonalities in the cadenza-like modulatory episode for the clarinet section, which goes from A-flat via E-flat and C major, and so forth, to A major, i.e., to the farthest key removed from the initial A-flat. When the cadenza reaches the A, the rondo section returns.
     [Noted especially is the] second movement – “Notturno Pastorale” – proceeds by simple alternations and superimpositions of several musical forms in a single movement. These forms are: a fugue, a waltz and a gavotte. The fugue subject first hides in a lyrical saxophone solo. It is derived from the tetrachord E-flat, F, G-flat & A-flat, but through octave displacements and rhythmic shifts, etc., each of its appearances is slightly different from all others, as if refracted by different lenses at each entry. Superimposed upon the fugue is the waltz which alternately recedes into the distance and returns to the foreground. By contrast, the middle section – Gavotte – is of a much simpler fabric: a lightly accompanied oboe tune.
     The third movement – “Dance Variations” – begins with the most straightforward presentation of the six-tone set. Thereupon the set, serving as the basso ostinato of this passacaglia-like movement undergoes countless set-derived transformations. The term “variations” here refers to the ostinato. Appearing above these bass variations we hear a multitude of different little tunes in shifting colors. And this all proceeds along a key-scheme that goes through most of the circle of fifths, beginning over several times on the key level of A-flat. The lyrical middle section provides contrast. Toward the end, after a rhythmic tutti, the instruments – in commedia dell’arte fashion, bow out one by one.
     When I received a commission to write a work for band, there were many things to be considered. First of all, I wanted it to be a piece full of size, a long piece, a substantial piece -- a piece that, without apologies for its medium, would take its place alongside symphonic works of any other kind. But, in addition, I hoped to make it a ‘light’ piece, something in a serenade style, serenade tone, and perhaps even form. This was the starting point.
     You will remember that in many classical serenades the music begins and ends with movements which are idealized marches, as if the musicians were to come to the performance and then, at the end, walk off again. From Haydn's and Mozart's march-enclosed divertimenti to Beethoven's Serenade for Flute, Violin and Viola (and beyond), this was a strong tradition, and it was this tradition which motivated at least the details of the beginning and ending of the Sinfonietta (a work in serenade tone but with symphonic proportions, hence the title). The quiet beginning, the backstage trumpets, and at the very end an extremely quiet ending with backstage trumpets -- this is the form of the work.
     Arthur Honegger once was commissioned to write an oratorio (King David) for chorus and an ill-assorted group of wind instruments. He asked Stravinsky, ‘What should I do? I have never before heard of this odd combination of winds.’ Stravinsky replied, ‘That is very simple. You must approach this task as if it had always been your greatest wish to write for these instruments, and as if a work for just such a group were the one that you had wanted to write all your life.’ This is good advice and I tried to follow it. Only in my case it was not only before but after the work was done and the Sinfonietta was finished that it turned out to be indeed the piece I had wanted to write all my life.                                                                         
– Ingolf Dahl

NEC Wind Ensemble personnel