Winds on Wednesdays: Mozart, Lully, Bozza, Brant, & Blake

W. A. Mozart | Excerpt from "Suite from The Magic Flute"

I. Overture

Eighteenth-century Europe saw the rise of a monied elite who, in an attempt to further their social standing, hired musicians to accompany their meals, soirées, and large social events. The wind octet proved to be a perfect ensemble for this purpose. Dubbed the Harmonie, these musicians (two oboes, clarinets, horns, and bassoons) played reductions of famous operas, symphonies, and folk tunes for their well-to-do patrons. Many of the best arrangements were created by the composer of the original work. In July of 1782, Mozart wrote this note to his father: “I am up to my eyes in work, but next Sunday I have to arrange my opera (Abduction from the Seraglio) for wind instruments. If I don't, someone will get to it before I do and reap the profits. You have no idea how difficult it is to arrange a work of this kind for wind instruments, so that it suits these instruments and yet loses none of its effect."
       In an effort to capture the spirit of the opera, Joseph Heidenreich wrote this harmonie version of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)with an ear to both the charm of the score and the sumptuous legato required of Mozart’s singers. In every number except the overture, the solo oboe and clarinet reflect the timbre and expressive quality of Mozart’s original vocal vision. In keeping with the technical limitations of the instruments of Heidenreich’s time, the development within the Overture is removed to avoid any key change that would not have been possible. In order to cover for essential string parts, the horns are often called to play dolcissimo in their most difficult, clarino register. The illusion of a complete orchestra is rounded out by the bassoons who drive the harmonic and rhythmic movement of the overture, group numbers, and arias.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Holy Roman Empire on January 27, 1756 and, after a prodigious performing and composing career, died on December 5, 1791 only two months before his 36th birthday. He began work on Die Zauberflöte in 1789 with the help of librettist and baritone Emanuel Schikaneder. Schikaneder would later sing the role of Papageno at the opera’s premiere at Vienna’s Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden on September 30, 1791. This arrangement for winds was written by composer and oboist Joseph Heidenreich (1753-1821).               

– Riley Vogel

Personnel

Oboe
Coleton Morgan
Corinne Foley

Clarinet
Fanghao Xiang
Luke Camarillo

Bassoon
Julien Rollins
Evan Judson

French horn
Jonathan McGarry
Xiang Li

Jean-Baptiste Lully (arr. Debra Nagy) | Marche des fussiliez

Personnel

Oboe
David Norville
Elias Medina

English horn (Taille)
Rajan Panchal

Bassoon
Chia-Ying Hsieh
Kylie Hansen

Percussion
Parker Olson

Jean-Baptiste Lully (arr. Debra Nagy) | from "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme"

II. Canarie
III. Marche pour le Ceremonie des Turcs
IV. Deuxième Air pour des Turcs
V. Troisième Air pour les Turcs
VI. Chaconne des scaramouches

In the court of Versailles during the reign of Louis the 13th and 14th music had a place of high esteem.  Under the towering presence of Jean Baptiste Lully, musicians honed performances of grandeur and detail to rival the palace itself.  So numerous were the musical events that the musicians were divided into two now famous ensembles. The strings formed Les Vingt-quatre Violons du Roiand the winds intoLes Grand Hautbois or Douze grands hautbois du roi. These ensembles of twenty-four and twelve not only supplied the court with music, but their sense of ensemble, their musical discipline and their command of the French style dominated music of the time and set standards which are the foundation of today’s ensembles.
               The hautbois made up of the strong projecting members of the oboe and bassoon family, primarily served the ceremonies of court as well as other outdoor activities.  Marches were a staple of their repertoire, but they performed as well dances and other incidental music. Music from Lully’s stage work Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme makes up the lion’s share of this program, as well as two marches by the master. 

- Charles Peltz

Personnel

Oboe
David Norville
Elias Medina

English horn (Taille)
Rajan Panchal

Bassoon
Chia-Ying Hsieh
Kylie Hansen

Percussion
Parker Olson

Eugène Bozza | from Duo for Flute and Oboe

I. Moderato

Henry Brant | from "Ghosts and Gargoyles" (2001)

VII.    
V.      Elena Rubin, solo flute
VI.     Elena Rubin, solo flute

In 1939 Henry Brant composed a flute ensemble piece titled Angels and Devils  – before there were flute ensemble pieces.  It is a large work for thirteen flutes and is a classic of the genre and in the canon of modernism.
        Brant was one of the 20th century musicians who was as much an innovator in music as a composer.  His passion was for exploring how sound came to the listener.  As with Giovanni Gabrieli, whose cori spezzati (spaced choirs) exploited the cavernous spaces of St Mark’s in Venice, Brant wanted to exploit the spaces in which music was heard.  To do so he would space apart players within venues, creating varied perspectives for the listener.
        Brant’s 2001 mini-masterwork, Ghosts and Gargoyles for 9 flutes, is the book end to Angels and Devils. In ten short movements, Brant asks his players to be placed about the hall in groups of two. He then has them play as antiphonal ghosts in various styles: jazz and bebop, collages of motives, unison gestures of bells or the blowing of wind. 
        The piece was intended to have one soloist plus octet.  The soloist would play piccolo and the standard C and bass flutes.  We have chosen to award those to different soloists in the ensemble.  The piece is to end with one soloist walking offstage. We will simply end in a darkening twilight of the ghosts.          

– Charles Peltz  

Personnel

Flute
Elena Rubin
Hyo Jin Park
Yeyoung Moon
Javier Castro

Piccolo
Zoe Cagan
Javier Castro
YeYoung Moon

Alto Flute
Hui Lam Mak
Clara Lee
Elena Rubin

Bass Flute
Chase McClung
Nnamdi Odita-Honnah

Jazz Percussion
Gavin Connolly

Howard Blake | from Sinfonietta, op. 300 (1981)

III. Presto

Sinfonietta for Brass was commission by BBC radio producer Jim Parr for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, the prominent British brass ensemble primarily active in the 1980s and 90s. The sinfonietta opens with a stately rhythmic introduction reminiscent of a classical French overture, followed by variations moving through five stylistically contrasting sections before returning to the opening statement. The second movement features the flugelhorn as a lyrical soloist soaring above the ensemble, akin to a traditional da capo aria. The third movement is all perpetual energetic, propelling forward with short rhythms at a fast tempo; the ensemble is split into two choirs playing in call-and-response canons. 

Howard David Blake is an English composer from Brighton, East Sussex. His compositional career has spanned over half a century, writing primarily for film and television. Blake began his formal music training at a young age as a pianist and singer and at 18 won the Hastings Musical Festival Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. Blake’s film arranging and composing career has led him to collaborate with many famous musicians, including the group Queen. Blake is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and received the Order of the British Empire for his services to music.                                                                   

– Nicolás Ayala Cerón

Personnel

French horn
Helen Wargelin

Trumpet
Cameron Abtahi
Kimberly Sabio
Ryan O’Connell
Charles Jones

Trombone
Katherine Franke
Matthew Vezey
Elias Canales

Bass Trombone
Luke Sieve

Tuba
James Curto