188th Semi-Annual Winter Concert
Welcome to our Winter Band Concert!
In an effort to save paper, we have moved our program to a virtual platform. Keep scrolling for the repertoire for tonight, student-written program notes, and important upcoming dates.
Enjoy the concert!
PROGRAM
Lane Tech Auditorium
6:00pm
November 16th, 2022
Lane Tech Flag Team
Santa Tell Me -Ariana Grande
Lane Tech Champerettes
Lose My Breath - Destiny's Child
Varsity Band
As It Was - Harry Styles
Earthquake - LSU Marching Band
I Want You Back - Jackson 5 arr. Michael Sweeney
Concert Band 2
Aquia Landing - Paul Murtha
Best of Chicago (Make Me Smile, Saturday in The Park, 25 or 6 to 4) - arr. Paul Murtha
Special Guest: Mr. Tellez - drumset
Beginning Band
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy - Joe Zawinul
Midnight Mission - Brian Balmages
Concert Band 1
Salute to the Duke - Duke Ellington arr. Michael Sweeney
Trois Gympnopedies - Erik Satie arr. Anne McGinty
March to the Scaffold (from Symphonie Fantastique) - Hector Berlioz arr. Custer
Symphonic Band
On a Hymnsong of Phillip Bliss - David Holsinger
Overture for a Celebration - Steve Hodges
Lane Tech Varsity Band Flag Team
Santa Tell Me - Ariana Grande
Lane Tech Varsity Band Champerettes
Lose My Breath - Destiny's Child
Concert Band 2
Aquia Landing (Gateway to Freedom March) - Paul Murtha
Aquia (pronounced - uh kwhy' yuh) Landing is located at the confluence of the Aquia Creek and the Potomac River in Staffrod County, Virginia. A pivotal transporation point between southern states and nothern ports, passengers, cargo and entire rail cars were transferred from the RF&P Railroad to steamboat vessels which carried them from the Aquia Creek up the Potomac River to Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD. This key location also positioned Aquia Landing as a major gateway along the "Network to Freedom" through which fugitive enslaved people had to pass in order to reach freedom. Shortly after the start of the Civil War, this important transportation hub became a site of interest to both sides. Union Steamships and Confederate artillery exchanged fire for three days over the landing during the Battle of Aquia Creek (May 31- June 2nd, 1861). A year later in April 1862, the Union troops returned to Stafford, rebuilding the landing, and using it as an operations center for approximately five months. During that period, an estimated 10,000 freedom seekers who sought refuge behind Union lines passed through Stafford, many of whom are believed to have been shipped north from Stafford to Alexandria, VA and Washington DC.
This march was composed in the classic style of J.P. Sousa using the form that he perfected in the early part of the 20th century.
Best of Chicago (Make Me Smile - Saturday in the Park - 25 or 6 to 4
Beginning Band
Concert Band 1
Salute To The Duke - Duke Ellington arr. Michael Sweeney
This medley arranged by Michael Sweeney features three of American composer Duke Ellington's most famous pieces of music: Satin Doll (1953), Mood Indigo (1930), and It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) (1931). These three tunes, all written for Duke Ellington's big band, highlight the virtuosic composer's breadth of work. The piece opens up with Satin Doll, a medium tempo swing where the melody is played first by the trumpets before it is passed across the ensemble. Satin Doll, a haunting ballad, follows. In it's original form, Duke Ellington and creative partner Billy Strayhorn famously put the trombone part as the highest voice, with the clarinet operating as the "bass voice." Sweeney doesn't exactly copy this technique, but instead puts the trombones (with cup mutes), as the lead voice, with muted trumpets below them before the whole band joins in. This voicing creates an effect that we don't often hear in a band setting. The tempo quickly picks up with one of Duke Ellington's most famous tunes, It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing, to close out the piece. This song is now accepted as a "jazz standard." Interestingly enough, it was composed during intermissions at the Lincoln Tavern in Chicago. The tune's title was the mantra of Ellington's trumpet player, Bubber Miley, who was sick at the time it was written.
Three Gymnopedies - Erik Satie arr. Anne McGinty
I. Lent et douloureux
These three pieces, and in particular the first of the three, are some of the most famous solo piano pieces ever written. They were composed in 1888 and were originally published individually. The first movement, Lent et douloureux, translates to "slow and painful." The main melody (first played by the flutes in this arrangement) is deliberately dissonant to create this sense of melancholy. The accompaniment features two alternating chords, which in another context would sound cheerful. The way Satie writes the somber melody on top of a bed of major chords is simple but masterful. Many minimalist composers and painters have been greatly inspired by this piece of music and others by Satie that he has gone on to label Furniture Music.
March To The Scaffold (from Symphonie Fantastique) - Hector Berlioz arr. Custer
Like the Three Gymnopedies, this piece is a part of a larger work. Symphonie Fantastique, composed in 1830, is the masterwork of French composer Hector Berlioz. The work is generally classified as "program music," a piece of music that tells a specific story. The story here is one of an artist, desperate with despair and unrequited loved , who poisons himself with opium and dreams of his own demise. Many believe this was written autobiographically. Berlioz composed this piece for an orchestra of 90 musicians, the largest orchestra in history at that point. The score calls for 4 timpanists, 2 harpists, and 2 ophicleides (also known as the keyed serpent). In the fourth movement, "March to the Scaffold," depicts the artist "plunging into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of visions." He dreams he is being marched to his own death after murdering his beloved.
For Berlioz's full program notes, click here
Symphonic Band
On A Hymnsong of Philip Bliss - by David R. Holsinger
From the composer:
On A Hymnsong Of Philip Bliss is a radical departure of style of this composer. The frantic tempos, the ebullient rhythms we associate with Holsinger are replaced with a restful, gentle, and reflective composition based on the 1876 Philip Bliss-Horatio Spafford hymn, It Is Well with My Soul. Written to honor the retiring principal of Shady Grove Christian Academy, On A Hymnsong Of Philip Blis' was presented as a gift from the SGCA Concert Band to Rev. Steve Edel in May of 1989.
Horatio G. Spafford, a Chicago Presbyterian layman and successful businessman, planned a European trip for his family in 1873. In November of that year, due to unexpected last minute business developments, he had to remain in Chicago; but he sent his wife and four daughters on ahead as scheduled aboard the S.S. Ville du Havre. He expected to follow in a few days. On November 22, the ship was struck by the Lochearn, an English vessel, and sank in twelve minutes. Several days later the survivors were finally landed in Cardiff, Wales, and Mrs. Spafford cabled her husband, “Saved alone.” Shortly afterward, Spafford left by ship to join his bereaved wife.
It is speculated that on the sea near the area where it was thought his four daughters had drowned, Spafford penned this text with words so significantly describing his own personal grief, “When sorrows like sea billows roll...” It is noteworthy, however, that Spafford does not dwell on the theme of life’s sorrows and trials, but focuses attention in the third stanza on the redemptive work of Christ. Humanly speaking, it is amazing that one could experience such personal tragedy and sorrow as did Horatio Spafford and still be able to say with such convincing clarity, “It is well with my soul...”
Hymnwriter Philip Bliss was so impressed with the experience and expression of Spafford’s text that he shortly wrote the music for it, first published in 1876. Bliss was a prolific writer of gospel songs throughout his brief lifetime, and in most cases he wrote both the words and the music. This hymn is one of the few exceptions.
There is speculation that this was perhaps the last gospel song written by Bliss. Bliss and his wife, Lucy, were killed in a train wreck in Ashtabula, Ohio, on December 29, 1876. Most sources mention that Bliss actually escaped from the flames first, but was then killed when he went back into the train to try to rescue is wife. Neither body was ever found.
As a postscript, Bliss’s trunk was salvaged from the wreckage, and in it, evangelist D. W. Whittle found an unfinished hymn, which began, “I know not what awaits me, God kindly veils my eyes...”
Overture for a Celebration - by Steve Hodges.
Overture for a Celebration begins with a bright, jubilant introduction which should be played dynamically before settling into the flowing, legato style of the main theme. The initial presentation of the melody by the low brass should be balanced with the counter bass line played by the tuba and low woodwinds. This work was Commissioned by the River East School Division No. 9, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, in celebration of the 10th anniversary of their Honor Band Program for gifted and talented musicians (April 21 to 23, 1994). This was also dedicated to Miss Frieda Duerksen, elementary music consultant (retired June 1992) in recognition of her dedicated services to music education in the River East School Division.