Concert Program

The words for the Christmas Carol Joy to the World come from English hymn writer Isaac Watts (1674-1748), and it wasn’t initially intended to be used as a Christmas Carol. The music as we know it today was composed by New England based composer Lowell Mason (1792-1872), though it is often attributed to G.F. Handel due to similarities with phrases from The Messiah. Over the course of its long history, Joy to the World, has become one of the most popular carols in North America. This arrangement cleverly distributes fragments of the melody throughout the band, punctuated by resounding fanfares.

A marvelous medley of Hanukkah tunes skillfully arranged by Lennie Niehaus includes “Hanukkah, O Hanukkah, “Maoz Tzur” and “Mi Y’Malel”.

In the Bleak Midwinter is a Christmas carol based on a poem by Christina Rossetti. The poem became a Christmas carol after it appeared in The English Hymnal in 1906 with a musical setting by Gustav Holst. Gustav Holst (1874 – 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Robert W. Smith scored this arrangement of Holst’s second movement in memory of his mother-in-law Alta Sue Hawkins who had been a clarinet player and band director. After an opening fanfare the melody is played by a solo clarinet representing Ms. Hawkins.

A Yuletide Festival is a joyous fanfare and a bright musical celebration of the Christmas season. The songs We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Good King Wenceslas and Deck the Halls are combined in various forms to create a festive and buoyant medley of familiar carols to ring in the holidays.

Whitacre states, “Noisy Wheels of Joy is just pure, simple fun, written in the tradition of the great comic operatic overtures, and was designed to start the concert with a bang. The structure is quite formal, but the three themes (love, adventure, and buffo) get thrown around the wind symphony with wild abandon.” The piece has its origins at a film scoring workshop, where Whitacre was tasked to create a score to a 3-4 minute scene from a film. Whitacre recalls: “I took my video home and watched it again and again, and the sound that I kept coming back to was Prokofiev meets John Williams meets the overture to Candide…After the workshop, I transcribed the cue for wind ensemble (almost note for note) and called it Noisy Wheels of Joy, which is a line from the E.E. Cummings poem, I Walked the Boulevard.”

Modal melodies and syncopated rhythms of Middle Eastern music with percussive African drumming bring about a striking blend of musical cultures. The central focus is the pulse of the djembe, an hourglass-shaped drum played with bare hands that's a cultural instrument of West African countries. The groove of the djembe combined with quirky rhythms throughout create an impression not soon forgotten.

Ironically, the idea for the piece first came to the composer during a heatwave in July 1946. Since then, Sleigh Ride has become a beloved staple of the holiday season. With numerous versions abound, the list of artists who have recorded Sleigh Ride ranges from The Boston Pops, to The Muppets, and many more. In 2010, ASCAP named Sleigh Ride the most popular piece of Christmas music in the United States based on performance data from 2,500 radio stations nationwide.

"All I Want for Christmas Is You" is a Christmas song co-written and co-produced by Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff (1994). It is Carey's biggest international success, topping the charts in twenty-six countries. With global sales of over 16 million copies, the song is Carey's biggest international hit, and the 11th best selling single of all time. As of 2017, the song has earned $60 million in royalties. Speaking in 1994, Carey said: "It's very traditional, old-fashioned Christmas. It's very retro, kind of '60s." Afanasieff said it was inspired by producer Phil Spector's 'Wall of Sound' technique from the 1960s.