Concert Band 2
Abaco Overture- Throughout history, Mankind has harnessed the wild, domesticating many species and adapting them to our needs. Of all the animals that mankind has domesticated, the horse is certainly one of the most important - if not THE most important, for the horse was the precursor of the automobile; the only rapid and reliable method of transportation for probably the best past of 2,000 years. In many places, it still is the only reliable and rapid method of transportation.
The wild horses of Abaco have been known for as long as the Bahamas as been colonized. Until recently however, their importance was never known. Today, though, the Wild Horses of Abaco are now recognized as being some of the few Spanish Barb horses remaining in existence.
Although horses have subsequently been introduced to the Bahamas from both North America and from Britain, DNA testing on the Abaco horses has shown without doubt their relationship with the Spanish Barbs. The horses are now officially known as "Abaco Barbs."
How the horses got to Abaco in the first place remains unkown. Columbus was the first European to set foot in the islands in 1492. He was rapidly followed by various Spanish conquistadors who passed through the Bahamas en route to Hispaniola and Central America. It is possible that one or more of these early expeditions released horses on the island of Abaco. Another possibility is that the horses swam ashore from one of the many Spanish shipwrecks that occurred at this time in the shallow reef-infested waters of the islands. In 1595, a whole Spanish fleet of seventeen ships was wrecked off Abaco. Any one of the horses carried by these ships would have been able to swim ashore.
Concert Band 1
Brandenburg Jubilee - Written in celebration of the opening of the Berlin Wall and Germany's new freedom, the introduction to Brandenburg Jubilee contains three themes simultaneously playing from J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerti. Featured are themes from Concerto No. 2, 3rd movement, Concerto No. 3, 1st movement and Concerto No. 1, 1st movement. The first main theme expands the Concerto No. 2, 3rd movement theme. The slow theme at measure 29 is taken from Bach's Concerto No. 5, 2nd movement.
The 6/8 section beginning at measure 57 signals the quiet beginning of the theme from the final movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. The staccato eighth notes should be performed as if playing pizzacato on a stringed instrument. The section builds throughout until the full forte brass statement of "Ode to Joy" begins at meausre 108.
Second Military Suite in F- Gustav Holst
(Program Notes from Philharmonic Winds):
Holst’s Second Suite in E-Flat, composed in 1911, uses English folk songs and folk dance tunes throughout, being written at a time when Holst needed to rest from the strain of original composition. The opening march movement uses three tunes, the first of which is a lively morris dance. The folk song “Swansea Town” is next, played broadly and lyrically by the euphonium, followed by the entire band playing the tune in block harmonies - a typically English sound. “Claudy Banks” is the third tune, brimming with vitality and the vibrant sound of unison clarinets. The first two tunes are repeated to conclude the first movement. “The Song of the Blacksmith,” is the basis of the third movement, which evokes visions of the sparks from red hot metal being beaten with a lively hammer’s rhythm on the blacksmith’s anvil.
Diamond Tide- Viet Cuong
From the composer:
A 2010 article published in Nature Physics details an experiment in which scientists were able to successfully melt a diamond and, for the first time, measure the temperature and pressure necessary to do so. When diamonds are heated to very high temperatures, they don’t melt; they simply turn into graphite, which then melts (and the thought of liquid graphite isn’t nearly as appealing or beautiful as liquid diamond.) Therefore, the addition of extremely high pressure—40 million times the pressure we feel on Earth at sea level—is crucial to melt a diamond.
The extreme temperature and pressure used in this experiment are found Neptune and Uranus, and scientists therefore believe that seas of liquid diamond are possible on these two planets. Oceans of diamond may also account for these planets’ peculiar magnetic and geographic poles, which do not line up like they do here on Earth. Lastly, as the scientists were melting the diamonds, they saw floating shards of solid diamond forming in the pools—just like icebergs in our oceans. Imagine: distant planets with oceans of liquid diamond filled with bergs of sparkling solid diamonds drifting in the tide…
These theories are obviously all conjecture, but this alluring imagery provided heaps of inspiration for Diamond Tide, which utilizes the “melting” sounds of metallic water percussion and trombone glissandi throughout.
Symphonic Band
Slava - When Mstislav Rostropovich ("Slava" to his friends) invited Leonard Bernstein to help him launch his inaugural concerts as Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra, he also asked him to write a rousing new opening piece for the festivities. This Overture is the result, and the world premiere took place on October 11, 1977 with Rostropovich conducting his orchestra at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
The first theme of SLAVA! is a vaudevillian razz-ma-tazz tune filled with side-slipping modulations and sliding trombones. Theme two, which prominently features the electric guitar, is a canonic tune in 7/8 time. A very brief kind of development section follows, after which the two themes recur in reverse order. Near the end they are combined with a quotation (proclaimed by the ubiquitous trombones) from the 'Coronation Scene' of Moussorgsky's Boris Goudonov, where the chorus sings the Russian word "slava!" meaning "glory!" In this way, of course, the composer is paying an extra four-bar homage to his friend Slava Rostropovich, to whom this Overture is fondly dedicated.
