CONNECTIONS This concert will last approximately 90 minutes.

Tempe High School Wind Ensemble

West Highlands Sojourn

by Robert Sheldon

(approximate duration 7 minutes)

West Highlands Sojourn was inspired by the composer’s travels to the western hill country of England and Wales. The work, in three contrasting movements, is a perfect example of Sheldon’s “real music” for a young band.

The first movement, Stow-on-the-Wold, refers to a rural destination, a market town in Gloucestershire, England. The town is full of stone houses, hotels, shops, and quaint restaurants and tea houses. The music of the first movement is a light, cheerful march.

Bradford Ballade, the second movement, takes us to a borough in Northern England. Bradford, currently a populous area, has an industrial history. The region is now a bustling, metropolitan area, full of shopping and culture, and surrounded by beautiful rolling hillsides and meadows. The lovely, gentle melodies of Bradford Ballade evoke a relaxing, mellow hike through the picturesque countryside.

The third movement, Derwentwater, takes its name from a big lake in northwest England. Derwentwater is a popular vacation destination, with walking trails, swimming, fishing, and boating. Sheldon composed the movement in a brisk 6/8, with several hemiolic interchanges between the brass and the woodwinds. - Nancy Moser

Tempe Winds

Tight Squeeze

by Alex Shapiro

(approximate duration 3 minutes)

From the acclaimed composer of Paper Cut, Alex Shapiro, this unique, high-energy work could be described by the following: imagine Arnold Schoenberg, Henry Mancini, and Charlie Parker walking into a dance club in Havana, and staying for three minutes. Tight Squeeze ventures into new territory as it explores chromaticism and syncopation against a prerecorded percussion groove. The result is the repertoire's first electroacoustic twelve-tone techno Latin bebop band piece! Okay, maybe Schoenberg did all that first, but it never sounded quite like this!

"The twelve pitches are first introduced in all their chromatic glory at bars 7-10, and they reappear in different keys throughout the piece. The music, however, is not really in any key at all, since I only think in terms of keys if I'm locked out of my car.

Which leads to the title, which has nothing to do with my car. It has everything to do with a young gull who landed on a rock in front of my desk window as I was finishing this music, with a sizable flounder, uh, floundering in his clamped beak. The rather goofy-looking bird was having a challenging time figuring out how to swallow his windfall. I said to the bird, "Wow, tight squeeze!", and immediately realized that all these notes that were cramming the score page would soon be squeezing through the students’ instruments, as snugly as a fat flounder in a gull's mouth." - Alex Shapiro

Tempe Winds

into the sun

by Jodie Blackshaw

(approximate duration 11 minutes)

Into the Sun is a scrapbook of stories told by many of their passage to Australia, whether it be as free settlers in the 1800s, post World War II immigrants or refugees seeking asylum with a focus on those who came to the Western Sydney region. It is roughly in six sections: Arrival; A New Land, a New Life; Camps & Confusion; Acculturation: A Yearning for Home and All That is Familiar; Opportunity: With New-Found Enthusiasm; Reflection: With a Feeling of Inner Peace of Calmness.

From the composer: Into the Sun was written to raise awareness regarding the plight of refugees. Whilst the stories used pertain to people gaining residency in Australia, they remain universal. Students are able to read real-life stories that the composer has used as inspiration and directors have the opportunity to explore more localised stories within the context of their own country with their students. Tolerance comes from understanding and it is the composer’s desire for all people to love one another. This piece was written to encourage all children to gain an understanding of the desperate situation so many refugees are placed in and how important it is to help them when and where possible.

Tempe Winds

danzón No. 2

by Arturo Márquez, transcribed by Oliver Nickel

(approximate duration 10 minutes)

Originally written for orchestra, Danzón No. 2 has enjoyed significant popularity on performance programs everywhere. The danzón itself was Cuban-born, from a natural synthesis of Spanish, British, and French dance forms, and this work is built on a beautiful, elegant main theme, stated on clarinet, building in intensity before erupting into passionate rhythms later.

In recent years, Márquez has written a series of danzónes, works based on an elegant Cuban dance that migrated to Veracruz, Mexico. His Danzón No. 2 is among the most popular Latin American works to emerge since the 1950s, enhanced by its use by Gustavo Dudamel with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra in their 2007 tour of the United States and Europe.

Tempe Winds & Tempe High School Wind Ensemble

Into the Blue

by Cait Nishimura

(approximate duration 2 minutes)

Into the Blue is an uplifting, exciting, short piece for concert band that was inspired by the experience of flying above the clouds and into the clear, cloudless, blue sky. Repeated ostinatos represent a constant energy and forward motion, while memorable melodic fragments depict the feeling of soaring through the sky toward a new destination.

This work was commissioned by the Ingersoll District C.I. Grade 9 Band, under the direction of Margot Northcott, in the spring of 2018. The key signature and melodic content of the first theme (letter A) were based on the musical spelling of the school's mascot, "Ace".