butler university symphonic wind ensemble

Jordan College of the Arts | Butler University | 4600 Sunset Ave | Indianapolis, IN | 46208

BUTLER UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MUSIC presents

BUTLER UNIVERSITY SYMPHONIC WIND ENSEMBLE

Michael Colburn, conductor Tyler Long, graduate assistant

Thursday, November 18, 2021 7:30 P.M.

Schrott Center for the Arts

The thirty-fourth program of the Butler University School of Music 2021-22 season


PROGRAM

Early Light (1999) Carolyn Bremer (1957-2018)

Old Home Days (1954/1971) Charles Ives (1874-1954)

Arr. Jonathan Elkus

1. Waltz 2. a) The Opera House (from “Memories”) b) Old Home Day (Chorus)

3. The Collection 4. Slow March

5. London Bridge is Fallen Down

Tyler Long, conductor

Enigma Variations (1899/1978)

Edward Elgar (1857-1934) Transcr. Earl Slocum

Theme Var. 1 (Var. I "C.A.E.") .

Var. 2 (Var. IV "W.M.B.") Var. 3 (Var. V ”R.P.A.”) Var. 4 (Var. XI "G.R.S.")

Var. 5 (Var. IX "Nimrod") Var. 6 (Var. XIV Finale "E.D.U.")

INTERMISSION

Combination March (1896/1975) Scott Joplin (1868-1917)

Arr. Gunther Schuller

Maple Leaf Rag (1899/1974) Scott Joplin (1868-1917) Arr. Arthur Frackenpohl

Masquerade for Band (1965) Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987)

A Far Cry from Fairview (2019) Michael Schelle (b. 1950)


PROGRAM NOTES

Early Light (1999) Carolyn Bremer (1957-2018)

Carolyn Bremer was born in Santa Monica, California on Oct. 28, 1957, and received her musical training at CalArts, the Eastman School of Music, and UC Santa Barbara, where she earned a PhD in Composition. For many years she was a member of the faculty of the University of Oklahoma, and served as chair of their composition department from 1991-2000. She returned to her native California to serve as the chair of the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at the California State University, Long Beach, a position she held at the time of her untimely death in in September, 2018. Bremer won a number of awards and grants throughout her career, including Meet the Composer, the American Music Center, the Kirkpatrick Foundation, and the FIPSE program at the U.S. Department of Education. She was also awarded a Dissertation Fellowship from the Regents of the University of California.

Early Light was written for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and received its premiere performance in July, 1995. The material is largely derived from "The Star Spangled Banner." One need not attribute an excess of patriotic fervor in the composer as a source for this optimistic homage to our national anthem; Carolyn Bremer, a passionate baseball fan since childhood, drew upon her feelings of happy anticipation at hearing the anthem played before ball games when writing the piece. The slapstick heard near the end echoes the crack of the bat on a long home run. Old Home Days (1954/1971) Charles Ives (1874-1954), arranged by Jonathan Elkus

Charles E. Ives was born in the small town of Danbury, Connecticut in 1874. Even the first- time listener will quickly notice how unique and evocative his music is. Ives ability to portray a scene, whether it is people at the theatre, a concert in the park, or a steamship departing from the port, was one of his most impressive skills. Perhaps the most influential figure in young Ives’ life was his father, George, who was a bandleader in the Civil War and a renowned musician in the Danbury area. In fact, the industrial town became known as the “most musical town in Connecticut”, mostly due to George’s artistic contributions as a church and civic musician. George was known for being a musical “experimenter” of sorts, and regularly included Charles in the process, a relationship that would bear musical fruit many years later.

Following Charles’ music education at Yale, he took an unexpected path into the business world, and became a clerk with the New York-based Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1898. During the early years of his insurance career, his only musical activities were a brief stint as organist at Central Presbyterian Church in Manhattan and the continuation of composing during his off- hours. It is from this period that the most experimental works of his collection arose. His pen and paper became a laboratory of sorts, experimenting with sounds completely foreign to concert- goers of the time. Out of this period came Central Park in the Dark, his Third Symphony, and Four Ragtime Dances - only a few years after Joplin’s monumental Maple Leaf Rag. Old Home Days was arranged by Jonathan Elkus in 1979 and is based mostly on some of Ives’ sketches for voice and piano. Throughout his career, Ives frequently utilized favorite popular tunes he recalled from his quintessential New England childhood. This work is a collection of some of those songs - stories ranging from the excitement of being in the opera house before the curtain to a lament over the death of a family pet. - Program note by Tyler Long Enigma Variations (1899/1978) Edward Elgar (1857-1934), transcribed by Earl Slocum Occasionally a composer will create a work within a well-established form that is unlike anything that precedes it, serving as a reminder of the incredible creative possibilities that still exist all around us. This is exactly what British composer Edward Elgar did with his “Variations on an Original Theme,” a work better known by its informal title, “Enigma Variations.” A lifelong fan of puzzles, riddles, and codes, this composition provided the composer with a unique opportunity to combine his favorite hobby with his passion for music. The work is a mystery on several levels. Firstly, each variation is a musical portrait of a friend or loved one who is


represented by a series of initials or a nickname at the beginning of the variations. However, this was a puzzle easily solved by anyone familiar with Elgar’s family and friends, and Elgar himself provided the answers when a piano roll version of the music was published in 1929. The second puzzling element of the work is the unique nature of the melodic fragments that appear to constitute the theme. These fragments are indeed heard at the beginning of the piece, the traditional position of a theme, and it is clearly this material that is developed in the subsequent variations. But Elgar does not label this introduction as the “Theme,” instead affixing the term “Enigma.” Adding to the mystery is the following statement from the composer: “The Enigma I will not explain – its ‘dark saying’ must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the connection between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture; further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes’, but is not played...So the principal theme never appears, even as in some recent dramas...the chief character is never on the stage.” Music scholars and code breakers of every ilk have attempted to solve this riddle for decades, with possible answers ranging from Auld Lang Syne to a musical epigram of the last name of J. S. Bach. Try as they might, no one has yet cracked the code, a fact which would have undoubtedly delighted the composer. Elgar did express concern that the interest in the riddle would overwhelm the work itself, suggesting: “there is nothing to be gained in an artistic or musical sense by solving the enigma...the listener should hear the music as music, and not trouble himself with the intricacies of the programme.” Even without the mystery of the “Enigma,” in this composition Elgar created one of the most beautiful and beloved examples of the theme and variation technique ever written.

Earl Slocum's setting for concert band is not a transcription of the entire work, but features several variations that he felt would work especially well for concert band. Combination March (1896/1975), arranged by Gunther Schuller Maple Leaf Rag (1899/1974), arranged by Arthur Frackenpohl Scott Joplin (1868-1917)

While his renown as the "King of Ragtime" would eventually rival that of other musical royalty such as the "March King" John Philip Sousa, and the "Waltz King" Johann Strauss II, Scott Joplin's identity as an African-American meant that his path to success was considerably more formidable than his royal counterparts. The differences in his journey quickly become evident when one tries to discern details about his early life. While we do know that he was the child of Giles Joplin, a one-time slave from North Carolina, and Florence Givens, a free-born African- American woman from Kentucky, the exact date and location of his birth are lost to history. The best guess is that Joplin entered the world in November, 1868, when his family was residing somewhere in Texas. The first confirmed record of the Joplin family after Scott's birth is when they moved to Texarkana in 1880, where Scott spent the majority of his childhood. He first learned to play music from family members, and eventually began to study formally with Julius White, a German immigrant who was so impressed with Joplin's talent and potential that he offered him lessons for free. While these lessons incorporated conventional technique and theory, Weiss also introduced his young student to classical music, including opera, greatly expanding Joplin's musical horizons.

Joplin began his musical career as a member of the Texas Medley Boys, a vocal quartet that specialized in the minstrelsy repertoire that was expected of African-American musicians of the time. In addition to singing, it is likely that Joplin also played piano, violin, and cornet as part of their highly acclaimed programs. By the mid-1890s, Joplin settled in Sedalia, Missouri, where he performed regularly as a piano soloist, and as the leader of a six-piece dance orchestra. He first published compositions came in 1895 and 1896; two songs, two marches (including his "Combination March"), and a waltz. While these selections were all quite competent, they stayed neatly within the confines of the Western European forms suggested by the titles. There is not a ragtime rhythm to be found in any of these early works, nor is there any suggestion of the originality and deftness that would come to characterize Joplin's later works.

Around the same time as these early compositions there was a movement among African- American musicians to incorporate polyrhythmic elements of their own heritage into a number of traditional American forms such as the march. While Ernest Hogan is credited with the first published piece in the Ragtime style, his "La Pa Ma La," released in 1895, it is known that African- American musicians had been experimenting with these types of rhythms for decades, especially in places like St. Louis and Sedalia. Among these early experimenters in Ragtime was Scott Joplin, but he didn't begin publishing works in the style until 1897, the year that saw the release of his "Original Rags," a work that did not garner much attention. Undeterred, Joplin kept experimenting with the form until he was ready to offer up his first Ragtime masterpiece, "The Maple Leaf Rag," published in 1899. Although he may have been a few years behind his contemporaries, he more than


made up for lost time with the quality of this work, which would become the prototypical Ragtime piece, and lead to his title "The King of Ragtime." Masquerade for Band (1965) Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987) In addition to his remarkable success as a composer, Vincent Persichetti was an impressive pedagogue who wrote several textbooks and reference works, many of which are still in use. In 1961, he authored "Twentieth Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practices," a text for which Persichetti composed short illustrations of various twentieth century compositional techniques. Although none of the examples is more than a few measures in length, Persichetti found himself increasingly haunted by these musical orphans, which seemingly yearned to be fully explored and developed. In the words of the composer, "I realized that certain examples had a thematic kernel in common. These examples from the harmony book evolved into a set of variations for fifty wind and percussion instruments. The work is a masquerade of my book: I called it Masquerade for Band." While the composer labeled the work a "theme and variations," it does not strictly adhere to the traditions of the style, a form that Persichetti did not admire. According to the composer, "a set of variations must have an overall line. There must be a dramatic shape...variations with red lights and green lights are silly to me." It comes as no surprise, then, that the theme of Masquerade (or more precisely, the "thematic kernel") is freely developed and manipulated in a widely ranging and fascinating set of variations, the lines between which are quite indistinct at times. Masquerade for Band was written when Persichetti was at the height of his craft and provides clear evidence that the band world is fortunate that this masterful composer devoted so much time and energy to the cause of wind music. A Far Cry from Fairview (2019) Michael Schelle (b. 1950) Born in 1950, composer Michael Schelle was raised in northern New Jersey and graduated from NHR High School where, as Captain of the track team, he held the all-state distance records in the javelin, shot put and hammer for three years running. Now, 30+ years running as Composer in Residence at Butler University, his music has been commissioned and / or performed by over 350 orchestras, symphonic bands and professional chamber ensembles across the US and abroad, including the Chicago Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the major orchestras of Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Louisville, Cincinnati, Kansas City and Cleveland, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Urban Elektra (Phoenix), ISIS (Dallas) and XTET (Los Angeles). Recent international performances of his music have included Kammerorchester Basel (Switzerland), the St. Petersburg (Russia) Chamber Orchestra, the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra (Moscow), the Czestochowa Philharmonic (Poland), Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional (Costa Rica), the Koenig Ensemble of London, the Banff Centre (Canada), the Beijing Opera House, CoMET (Tokyo), the Firenza New Music Festival (Italy), Zimbabwe, and the Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) Symphonic Wind Ensemble. He has received composition grants and awards from over 30 prestigious arts organizations including the Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, American Symphony Orchestra League (NYC), National Band Association (2012 Revelli Composition Prize), the Barlow Foundation, New York State Arts Council, Great Lakes Arts Alliance, New England Arts Foundation, the Welsh Arts Council (Cardiff) and the American Pianists Association, and has held extended composition residencies at dozens of leading American universities and new music festivals, Spoleto USA, Wolf Trap, the MacDowell Colony (NH), and in Europe, China and Japan, including Nagoya Imperial University. For his alter ego, during the summers of 1998 – 2005, Schelle lived in Los Angeles, writing a film music book (The Score, published in 2000 by Silman-James Press, LA, and translated / published in Korea in 2013) - and working on the original scores for such Hollywood blockbusters (?) as The Mummy, G Men from Hell and Bikini Prison.

The composer offers the following insight on "A Far Cry from Fairview," By means of a G-rated double entendre, the title "A Far Cry from Fairview" can mea the piece is drastically different than what might hae been heard at a Butler Band concert in the 1920s, but can also suggest that there are faint whispers and distant memories of the past. Post-WWI enrollment boomed and the university board decided to move the original Irvington campus – in 1928, the original Fairview amusement park area became the new (and current) home for the Butler University campus community.


The Butler University Symphonic Wind Ensemble would like to thank

Brenda Jamerson and the following members of the Butler University Cheer Team for their participation in the performance of "A Far Cry from Fairview":

Alexis Martinez Mattie Neely Garret Blake Abigail Schuman Mckinzy Lockwood Jackie Lawrence Kyndall Selch

Jaime Jones Kaitlin Allen Lauren Couger Hillary Kulavic Jenna Meciej Maddie Darlington

BUTLER UNIVERSITY SYMPHONIC WIND ENSEMBLE

PICCOLO Abigail Brown, Tinley Park, IL FLUTE Amelia Thurman*, Crown Point, IN Erin Mast, Chagrin Fall, OH Grace Stine, Lake Village, IN Tori Thomas, Elkhart, IN Angela Reinert, Goshen, IN Caleigh Kupferschmid, Long Grove, IL Madelyn Jo McCord, Elkhart, IN Rachel Urban, Fishers, IN Haley Harper, Macy, IN Anna Casey, Mt Prospect, IL Elizabeth Reames, Southgate, MI Ellie Davis, Highland, IN OBOE Megan Sheeley*, Indianapolis, IN Henry Hartley (and English horn), Brownsburg, IN Abbey Kom, South St Paul, MN Laurie Davis, Lexington, KY Enali Rogers, Hammond, IN CLARINET AJ Bowman*, Zionsville, IN Brian Sonderegger, Palatine, IL Kaleb Durfee, Fishers, IN Liz Carter, Indianapolis, IN Chloe Kintner, Depauw, IN Erin Balaska, Fairland, IN Lydia Johnson), Maple Plain, MN (bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet) Lenice Bailey, Ft Wayne, IN Marlena Haefner, Ft Wayne, IN (E-flat clarinet) Anthony Maletta, Portage, IN BASS CLARINET Langford Lessenberry, Glasgow, KY BASSOON Mia Nunokawa*, Indianapolis, IN Grace Moore, Burke, VA Owen Chance, Austin, TX

ALTO SAXOPHONE Mia Traverse*, Colgate, WI James Howard*, Indianapolis, IN Sam Lineweaver, Indianapolis, IN Megan Dudenhoeffer, Greenwood, IN Lizzy Walden, Greenfield, IN

TENOR SAXOPHONE Arie Likhtman, Carmel, IN Korah DeLeon, Michigan City, IN

BARITONE SAXOPHONE Alex Sparks, Avon, IN Tyler Long, Carmel, IN

TRUMPET Brian Hoover*, Indianapolis, IN Nate Peck, Noblesville, IN Mitchell Remington, Indianapolis, IN Vanessa Walker, Borden, IN Brenna Arakelian, Wildwood, MO Luke Isom, Evansville, IN Ashton Roman, Indianapolis, IN HORN Nicole Whitman*, Indianapolis, IN Audrey Freeman, Poway, CA Ian Hickey, Franklin, IN Eric Forrest, Normal, IL TROMBONE Tara Hatheway*, Indianapolis, IN Grace Higgerson, Belleville, IL Michael Mazerolle, Noblesville, IN EUPHONIUM Timio Harris, Carmel, IN Thomas Day, Greenfield, IN Zoe DeVries, Evansville, IN Jennifer Casey, Westmont, IL Becca Mattson, Fishers, IN TUBA Shahab Khan*, Clifton, VA Mark Winchester, Nolensville, TN Patrick Hammett, Jeffersonville, IN


William Wright, Howell, MI Noah Blacha, Avon, IN Angel Olvera, Elkhart, IN PERCUSSION Matthew Brush, Troy, OH Mia Chahmirzadi*, Batavia, IL Maddie Darr, Indianapolis, IN Max Davis, Terre Haute, IN Bennett Lang, Jasper, IN Fox Lopez, Delray Beach, FL CJ McConnell, Westfield, IN Emma Richards, New Palestine, IN Ella Sailer, Carmel, IN

Patrick Thordsen, Old Hickory, TN DOUBLE BASS David Richards, Granger, IN Riley Keller, Clarkston, MI PIANO Nicolas Widel, Indianapolis, IN HARP Melissa Gallant+, Indianapolis, IN * = Principal Player + = Guest Musician

BIOS

MICHAEL COLBURN Michael Colburn currently serves as Butler University’s Director of Bands, a position he has held since August, 2014. In addition to conducting the Butler University Wind Ensemble, he offers instruction in conducting, euphonium, and the history and literature of the wind band. Before coming to Butler, Colburn served for 27 years in “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, where he held a variety of positions including Principal Euphonium (1991-1996), Assistant Director (1996-2004), and Director (2004-2014). As Director, Colburn was music advisor to the White House and regularly conducted the Marine Band and Chamber Orchestra at the Executive Mansion and at the Presidential Inaugurations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He was promoted to Colonel by President Bush in a private Oval Office ceremony in 2007, and in 2014 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by Gen. James Amos, Commandant of the Marine Corps, and the Medal of Honor by the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic Board of Directors. Colburn is an active guest conductor and clinician. He regularly conducts bands at numerous state and regional festivals and has guest conducted several professional and university bands and wind ensembles. Committed to the promotion of new music, Colburn has commissioned band works from a number of highly respected composers such as John Williams, Michael Abels, Stacy Garrop, Michael Gandolfi, David Rakowski, and Melinda Wagner. He has served as the chair of the Sousa-ABA-Ostwald Award, and as an adjudicator for the Sudler Award, the Barlow Endowment, Music for All, and the Col. George S. Howard award for excellence in military bands. Colburn has served as a board member of the National Band Association, and currently serves as the Vice President of the American Bandmasters Association, the Vice President for Project Enhancement for the John Philip Sousa Foundation, and is a member of Washington D.C.’s prestigious Gridiron and Alfalfa Clubs.

TYLER LONG

Tyler Long currently serves as the concert band graduate assistant at Butler University. Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, Tyler received his training at The Ohio State University and Indiana Wesleyan University, finishing his undergraduate experience with degrees in Music Education and Church Music. Before arriving at Butler, Tyler served as a band director at Lewis Cass High School in Walton, IN and co-directed the nine-time ISSMA state champion Marching Kings. Tyler holds memberships in the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), the Indiana Music Education Association (IMEA), the National Band Association (NBA), and the Indiana Bandmasters Association (IBA). Tyler is currently pursuing the Master of Music degree in Instrumental Conducting and Music Education, and is a student of Prof. Michael Colburn.


JCA LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT STATEMENT

We acknowledge that we gather here at Butler University on the traditional land of indigenous peoples including the Potawatomi, Miami, Delaware, and Shawnee. We honor with gratitude the land itself and the

indigenous peoples past and present who have stewarded it throughout the generations. This calls us to commit to continuing to learn how to be better stewards of the land we inhabit, while also acknowledging

that some were brought to this land not by choice.

The Butler University School of Music is proud to acknowledge Meridian Piano Movers

as a corporate sponsor of our programs.

butler university symphonic wind ensemble

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