Program Notes

Waubonsie Valley Bands

Fall Band Concerts

October 28 & 29, 2025

The North Face by Jay Bocook

The North Face by Jay Bocook is an exciting and dramatic work for concert band that captures the spirit of adventure, determination, and the raw power of nature. Inspired by the rugged beauty of mountain landscapes, particularly the treacherous northern slopes of great peaks, the music paints a vivid picture of a daring journey through high altitudes, swirling winds, and breathtaking views.

Fragile by Randall Standridge

Fragile by Randall Standridge is a powerful and emotional piece that explores the idea of human vulnerability and the importance of compassion. Through its haunting melodies and dramatic contrasts, the music reminds us that people—just like delicate objects—can be easily hurt, and that kindness and understanding are more important than ever in today’s world.

Composed in a modern, cinematic style, Fragile begins quietly, with soft, lyrical lines that gradually build into moments of intensity and strength. These shifts in the music reflect the emotional ups and downs we all face in life. For our student musicians, this piece has been an opportunity to work on expressive playing, dynamic contrast, and ensemble balance.

Thunder Chase by Larry Clark

This piece was inspired by the movie “Twister”.  Larry Clark was fascinated that people would chase storms.  This piece pays homage to the movie and those who chase storms as their career.  Thunder Chase depicts a high energy chase scene that these science minded individuals go through when trying to better understand these storms.

-program note by Larry Clark

March Phantasma by Randall Standridge

March Phantasma (which was originally titled “Graveyard March”) is a concert march that would be right at home in a haunted house. The piece is written in a minor mode and incorporates hints of the old folk song “The worms crawl In, the worms crawl out.” However, the piece does honor tradition by being written in a traditional march style, with a first strain, second strain, trio, and a dog fight.

-program note by Randall Standridge

Byzantine Dances by Carol Brittin Chambers

Byzantine Dances is generally meant to portray a set of Turkish dances. The opening dance is fast and energetic, written in the style of a Roma Gypsy dance. During this upbeat dance, the melody incorporates grace notes that are fun to play, while the harmony and bass line incorporate enjoyable countermelodies and syncopated lines. The slower section in the middle of the piece is written in the style of a Zeybek dance. This type of dance is often performed by a solo dancer symbolizing courage and heroism. The dancer uses out-stretched arms, almost resembling a great hawk.

- Program Note by Carol Brittin Chambers

Rain by Brian Balmages

Rain is a gentle work with a great deal of expressiveness. It paints a picture of a quiet rainfall with distant rolling thunder. The sound of droplets hitting the ground often puts me at ease for a reason I cannot adequately describe. For this reason, I chose to explain my thoughts through music, which has always been a more powerful means of expression for me than words. The melodic and harmonic lines convey the complexity of rain -- the sadness it brings to some, the calmness it brings to others, and its ability to rejuvenate; the soft droplets outside our window that can be so relaxing, yet can also be the cause of a raging river. It is my hope that groups will experience a wide range of emotions as they rehearse and perform this work.

-Program Notes by Brian Balmages

Steel by Randall D. Standridge

Steel is an energetic concert opener that contains heavy percussion writing, interesting use of syncopation, motivic development, and multiple time signature changes.  It is inspired by my love of fast music and heavily influenced by techno, heavy metal, and symphonic music.  In writing this piece, I have also tried to write interesting parts for instruments that normally are slighted in this area, such as bass woodwinds and brass and the bass drum.  I hope students and audiences alike will enjoy this work.

- Program Note from the composer

Joy Revisited by Frank Ticheli

Above all, Joy Revisited is an expression of its namesake: simple, unabashed joy. The main melody and overall mood of the work (and its companion piece, Joy) were inspired by a signal event: the birth of our first child. The intense feelings that any father would likely feel on such a day were, in my case, accompanied by a simple little tune which grabbed hold of me in the hours preceding her birth, and refused to let go throughout the day and many days thereafter. Indeed, until I jotted it down in my sketchbook, it did not release its grip. Seven years and two children later, I stumbled upon that old sketch and discovered (or rediscovered) that it would serve perfectly as the foundation for a joy-filled concert band overture. 

-Program Note by composer

In Heaven’s Air by Samuel Hazo

“my love is as fair as any mother’s child,
though not so bright as those gold candles
fix’d in heaven’s air”

Sonnet 21, William Shakespeare

In Heaven’s Air is a single-movement, lyrical piece that presents its chorale-like melody three times. The three statements of the chorale are connected by different transitional material, creating a small rondo form. The opening section of the piece represents love on earth followed by the letting go of a loved one and the transformation of the soul to heaven, then God’s love, and finally the soul’s arrival in heaven.

-notes from the publisher

A Tallis Prelude by Douglas Akey

A Tallis Prelude is based on a psalm melody written by English organist and composer Thomas Tallis. Tallis was born in 1505 and died in 1585. In 1567, he wrote nine four-voice hymn tunes for a Psalter for Matthew Parker, the first Archbishop of Canterbury. The third of these tunes, Why fum’th in fight, is the basis of Akey’s A Tallis Prelude. This same Tallis melody has proven to be popular with other composers, as it was also used in Ralph Vaughan Williams' masterwork, Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis. It was later used in Fisher Tull’s master piece for band, Sketches on a Tudor Psalm.

Akey’s composition for band is a single-movement work, essentially through-composed, with an introduction, a development, and a coda. The composition is a refreshing work for young band, using sixteenth-century modal melody as the basis for contemporary concert band writing. Performance of A Tallis Prelude requires a musically mature and accomplished ensemble to meet the challenges of this engaging composition.

- Program Note from Dennis Beck

Danse Bohmeien by Randall Standridge

Danse Bohémien is inspired by the many great can-cans, galops, and quick-steps that populate the music repertoire. Among my favorites of these is Pas Redouble by Camille Saint-Saens. There is so much unbridled energy and boisterous fun in that piece that one cannot help but be caught up in sheer joy the piece communicates. This is the spirit that I sought to capture in Dance Bohémien (roughly translated as "Gypsy Dance" or "Bohemian Dance"). The piece is intended to be used as a concert opener, finale, or possibly as an encore.

I owe the title to a suggestion by one of my students; Hayley Denton, you are a Bohemian and Gypsy in your own right, and may the musical muses smile upon you for it.

- Program Note by composer

Espana Cani by Pascual Marquina, arr. Robert Longfield

España Cañí (meaning "Gypsy Spain" in Spanish ) is a famous instrumental Spanish piece of paso doble music by Pascual Marquina (1873-1948). The song was written around 1921. It is also known as the Spanish Gypsy Dance. The work was composed on a train ride to Madrid, inspired by the rattle of the train. Originally bearing the name of The Cañí Patternmaker, it was dedicated to José López de la Osa. The work was premiered in Almansa (where José López lived) at his door, performed by the band Engineers of Madrid.

- Program Note from publisher

My Soul A Canvas arr. Todd Stalter

In an effort to convey an impression of someone who took their own life, this piece represents feelings of solitude, loneliness, confidence, determination, and conflict.  As a more personal connection, the central theme’s rhythm is built on her name, solos for the instrument she played, and her love of nature and art.  Not to be forgotten, the pain and grief of those who are left behind is also represented.

-Program Notes from the composer

The Wilderness by Rossano Galante

The Wilderness is a dark, musical journey that captures the beauty and harshness of a cold, snow-covered forest in the mountains. The main theme, stated by winds, captures the solitary feeling of the vastness of the landscape. This theme is interrupted by dissonant brass ostinatos. After the full ensemble reiterates the main theme, the work transitions to a lyrical, melancholy theme. This is the wilderness at night when it is dark and solitary. The piece continues with a fast, dramatic theme capturing a sense of danger that the inhabitants of the forest create. The piece concludes with the full ensemble recapitulating material from the main opening theme.

- Program Note from publisher

British Eighth by Zo Elliot

The British Eighth is a march written in 1943 and was dedicated to General Sir Bernard L. Montgomery and the Eighth Army after their North African victory in World War II. It follows a typical European march style with a more stately tempo and flowing melody. This march was played by the Marching Illini at every University of Illinois football game while I was in college and is one of the marches I truly love. The melody at the trio is stunningly gorgeous, yet continues with some punctuated entrances to keep the march style present.

-Program Note by Mark Duker

Amazing Grace by Frank Ticheli

I wanted my setting of Amazing Grace to reflect the powerful simplicity of the words and melody -- to be sincere, to be direct, to be honest -- and not through the use of novel harmonies and clever tricks, but by traveling traditional paths in search of truth and authenticity.

I believe that music has the power to take us to a place that words alone cannot. And so my own feelings about Amazing Grace reside in this setting itself. The harmony, texture, orchestration, and form are inseparable, intertwined so as to be perceived as a single expressive entity.

The spiritual, Amazing Grace, was written by John Newton (1725-1807), a slave ship captain who, after years of transporting slaves across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World, suddenly saw through divine grace the evilness of his acts. First published in 1835 by William Walker in The Southern Harmony, Amazing Grace has since grown to become one of the most beloved of all American spirituals.

Amazing Grace was commissioned by John Whitwell in loving memory of his father, John Harvey Whitwell. It was first performed on February 10, 1994, by the Michigan State University Wind Symphony, John Whitwell conductor.

- Program Note by Frank Ticheli

Liturgical Dances by David Holsinger

Liturgical Dances was commissioned by the Beta Mu chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia to celebrate 75 years at Central Methodist College. It was premiered by Keith House and the CMC Symphonic Band in 1982.

Both the form and content of Liturgical Dances were influenced by Holsinger's own memories of his years at CMC in Beta Mu. His first image (reflection on the emotional and spiritual bonds that united the students) is described by a collage of gentle percussion sounds and a haunting melody by the horns. The second memory (exuberant praise for life and "a glorious Lord who created music") is described in seven short sections, each of which typically begins quietly and builds to a full-band climax. Subtitled Benedicamus socii Domine (let us all, as companions, praise the Lord), the work was first runner-up in the 1981 NBA-DeMoulin and ABA-Ostwald competitions.

- Program Note from Program Notes for Band

Congratulations to the following WVHS Band students on being 

selected as ILMEA District 9 festival participants.

ILMEA Band - Elise Carter, Maddie Duker, Mason Flannagan, Aarohan Jai Anand, Hallie La Monica, Rolando Luna-Ramos, Gwendolyn Narney, Bhavish Patel, Tyler Talaga, Jake Telitz, Bergen Wilzbach

ILMEA Jazz - Elise Carter

ILMEA Orchestra - Jackie Sienicki

WAUBONSIE VALLEY MUSIC OPPORTUNITIES

for WINDS and PERCUSSION

Thank you for attending the Waubonsie Valley Fall Band Concert Series.  In addition to our excellent curricular concert bands, WVHS is proud to offer a wide variety of co-curricular activities, such as:

Marching Warriors – the precision marching band that performs at home football games, area festivals and competitions, as well as local parades. The Marching Warriors season is from June through October.

Warrior Pep Band – the band that performs at home basketball games to cheer the teams on to victory. The season for pep band is December through February.

Jazz – a truly American art form! WVHS is proud to offer a wide array of jazz experiences, including the Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Band, and Jazz Combo. Jazz runs yearlong, performing at home jazz concerts, local festivals, and the annual District 204 Fine Arts Festival.

Percussion – WVHS offers two different co-curricular percussion ensembles: Percussion Ensemble and World Beat. Percussion Ensemble is an auditioned ensemble focusing on contemporary advanced percussion ensembles. World Beat is a non-auditioned percussion group that is open to music students interested in learning the music of various cultures from around the world.

Solo and Ensemble is one of the largest and most important co-curricular music programs at WVHS.  Solo and Ensemble is when students take the initiative to learn how to perform as a soloist and/or run small group ensembles.

Musical Pit Orchestra is the small orchestra that performs the background and interlude music for the annual spring musical.  Auditions and instrumentation are announced second semester once the musical has been chosen.

Summer Music is a fantastic experience for students to continue playing over the summer and developing their musicianship.  WV band students have the opportunity to mentor younger students and encourage them to pursue all that participation in the Fine Arts offers them throughout their life!  Registration material will be made available in April at www.wvhsmusic.org