Proud Heritage (1955)
WILLIAM E. LATHAM (1917-2004)
"Proud Heritage" is one of William Latham's most well-known works. Latham, a native of Louisiana, studied at Cincinnati College and the Eastman School of Music before a stint in the U.S. Army, where saw active combat towards the end of World War II. Latham spent most of his professional career as a professor at the University of North Texas, retiring in 1981. "Proud Heritage" is a processional march that mixes legato clarinet and euphonium lines with bright brass fanfares and a climactic finish. For many years, it was the parade march for the WIlliamsport High School Blue Band, and has become the standard march of the Williamsport Community Band as well.
Sòlas Ané (2006)
SAMUEL R. HAZO (b. 1966)
Sòlas and Ané are two Gaelic words meaning Joy (Solas) and Yesterday/Yesteryear (Ané). It was named for the absolute pleasure Margene Pappas, director of bands at Oswego High School in Oswego, Illinois, had spending every day living the music with her students. This is what Margene enjoyed the most. Sure, the byproducts of her teaching included Oswego High School’s performances at the Midwest Clinic, Tournament of Roses Parade, and IMEA All-State Convention. And yes, her accolades included the Sudler Legion of Honor, Phi Beta Mu Hall of Fame, Mr. Holland’s Opus Award, and far too many more to list. But Margene is the epitome of the phrase, "Winners aren't in it for the race. They just love to run." Turning on the band room lights every morning for 37 years was Margene Pappas’ passion.
Sòlas Ané was premiered on May 28th, 2006. That day was declared “Margene Pappas Day” in Oswego and the concert featured her present band as well as an Oswego High School alumni band comprised of some of the top professional musicians and music professors in the world. Sadly, the title, Sòlas Ané, gained a deeper and most unfortunate meaning as, one half hour after her final concert, on a day named after her, Margene’s father passed away of pneumonia in Champaign, IL.
(note from the composer)
; (Semicolon) (2023)
JOHN SLICK (b. 1990)
In grammar, a semicolon connects two independent clauses. In the mental health community, a semicolon is a powerful symbol of suicide awareness. It represents a place where one could have chosen to end one's story, but chose to continue on.
According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, there were approximately 1.2 million suicide attempts in 2020. Millions of people live their lives with suicidal thoughts. For several years, I was one of them. I wrote "Semicolon" as a reflection on that period of my life, and as a reminder to myself and others that things really do get better.
"Semicolon" is built from three main melodic ideas. The first is the traditional round "Dona Nobis Pacem" which, roughly translated, means "Lord grant us peace." Much of the material from the beginning of the piece is based on that melody. The second is an original melody which is designed to be vaguely autobiographical. I took contours from Brahms' "Lullaby" and the reaching ascending 4ths and 5ths common in the music of Aaron Copland, two of my favorite composers, and used them as a springboard to a melody which would represent me. The last musical inspiration is the Latin chant tune "Dies Irae," the text of which translates to "day of doom and wrath unfolding." It's a melody that many composers have borrowed over the years, from Hector Berlioz in his "Symphonie Fantastique" to Sergei Rachmaninoff in several of his orchestral works. It's ominous and unsettling, and it serves to unmoor and interrupt the material presented throughout the first half of the piece.
The piece opens with bright, shimmery percussive textures and a solo statement built on the "Dona Nobis" theme. The theme develops into a larger ensemble setting before the first statement of my theme. Both themes are then stated together. The entirety of this first third of the piece is harmonized exclusively with major chords. The result is happy and bright, but somewhat hollow. As a young man, I assumed that being mentally healthy meant never experiencing sadness or anger or anxiety, and mental strength was the ability to push all of those feelings aside. The harmonic language in this part of the piece is designed to represent that idea.
The "Dona Nobis" theme is stated in its entirety by the clarinets, but it soon becomes clear that something is wrong. The music becomes more anxious and fragmented, accelerating into a nervous, edgy feeling before exploding into harsh, angular brass dissonances. The "Dies Irae" theme makes its first appearance as the music whirls and convulses, interrupting and turning in on itself, losing its own direction and cohesiveness. A brief return to the "Dona Nobis" theme offers a brief hope that is quickly dashed as the harmonies dissolve into more dissonances, and a still, numb, unsettled texture takes hold. For me, this was the absolute worst part of my mental health struggles, the days where I felt nothing at all. It was during those numb moments where life felt the least worth living, and the music aims to be equally hopeless.
The ending of the piece is much the same as the beginning, except that it is now harmonized using the full depth of the harmonic vocabulary. The music rises to it's most overtly triumphant in a full-ensemble climax, and, at the end, the solo horn plays the "Dona Nobis" theme. Finally, after all of it, in the shared totality of good and bad, in the full acceptance of the human emotional experience, there is peace.
I am grateful for the musicians on stage who treated this very personal piece with a kindness, respect, and diligence far beyond my wildest expectations. I am so proud to present this piece to you for the first time today.
If you are struggling with your mental health, are or have contemplated suicide, or know somebody who has, help is available. Dial 211 in Maryland or 988 nationwide to be connected with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. And, please, stay. The world needs you here.
(note from the composer)
Gathering Places (2006)
PIERRE LA PLANTE (b. 1943)
"Gathering Places" was commissioned by the Page High School Band, and coincided with the opening of the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the site at the famous Woolworth's Lunch Counter Sit-Ins of 1960.
The music of the Civil Rights era was largely drawn from folk tunes, spirituals, and old-timey Gospel and hymn tunes. So it seemed reasonable to base this piece on that musical heritage. While we most often associate spirituals with the Afro-American song tradition, this piece also borrows from the lesser-known White spirituals, often associated with the Protestant Revival movement prevalent in the United States throughout the 19th century. These songs have a popular folk-tune quality, often pentatonic in nature, that is quite different from European hymns and anthems.
The three tunes used (in order) are: Brethren, We Have Met to Worship by William Moore (1825), Shall We Gather at the River? by Robert Lowry (1864), and A Great Camp Meeting in the Promised Land (Walk Together Children, Don't Get Weary), an anonymous Afro-American spiritual. The three tunes were deliberately chosen for their titles and verses, which evoke the imagery of gathering--of coming together as brothers and sisters--in church, at the river, and at the Big Tent. We are reminded (believer and non-believer alike) that in a time of change and diversity we need to respect our differences and each others' rights and live together in harmony the best we can.
(note from the composer)
Affirmation (2021)
RANDALL D. STANDRIDGE (b. 1976)
This one is for all the outcasts, the geeks, the marginalized, the wallflowers, and the people who are “different.” Every once in a while, I believe you get to “say something” with a piece of music. When I was in High School, I was definitely NOT one of the popular crowd. My tastes in music, art, and movies were too weird. I was awkward. I was not a very attractive guy. Generally, I was that “gay, artsy kid.” If I could go back in time, I would give that younger me a hug and say “you are FINE the way you are. You are AMAZING.”
This new work, AFFIRMATION (Grade 3) commissioned by the Barrington Middle School Band and their director, Mr. David Triplett-Rosa, is an anthem for all the kids who ever felt like they didn’t belong. It was premiered April 8th, 2021. A huge thank you again to David and the band for letting me write this work and trusting me with its message.
It would have been easy to write something soft, lyrical, and saccharine, but I wanted to take a different approach…I wanted it to be a celebration.
This is the single happiest thing I have ever written in my career.
So this one goes out to the band geeks, the nerdy kids, the art kids, the drama kids, the punk rockers, the LGBTQA+ kids, the kids of color, and the all the people (kids and adults) who have ever been made to feel “less than” because of who they are.
You are beautiful.
You are JUST FINE the way you are.
And you are WORTH celebrating.
We all have more in common than we have different…our common humanity.
Peace, Love, and Music.
(note from the composer)
Nimrod from "Enigma Variations" (1899)
EDWARD ELGAR (1857-1934)
Arr. Alfred Reed (1921-2005)
On an October evening in 1898, Edward Elgar, tired from a day’s teaching, lit a cigar and began to improvise at the piano. One theme in particular struck his wife’s fancy, and she asked what it was. “Nothing,” he replied, “but something might be made of it. Powell [the future Variation II] would have done this, or Nevinson [Variation XII] would have looked at it like this.” He played some more and asked, “Who is that like?” “I cannot say,” Alice Elgar replied, “but it is exactly the way Billy Baker [Variation IV] goes out of the room. Surely,” she added, “you are doing something that has never been done before.”
“Commenced in a spirit of humor & continued in deep seriousness,” is how Elgar later described the genesis of the work that would make all the difference in his life. He was in his forties and still had to scrape together a living with long hours of teaching and hackwork for his publisher. When he finished the Variations, he sent the score to the great German conductor Hans Richter, who agreed to introduce the work in London. Richter’s advocacy meant a lot. A famed interpreter of both Wagner and Brahms, he had been active and adored in England since the late 1870s. The Variations proved a landmark, not just for Elgar, but for English music.
Elgar presented two mysteries, the identity of the “friends pictured within” and something darker at which he hinted in his program note. The first of these was easy, each friend save one being identified by initials or a nickname. As for the other, Elgar wrote, “The enigma I will not explain—its ‘dark saying’ must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the apparent 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. . . .”
Probably only Alice Elgar and the composer’s friend August Jaeger knew the secret of the unplayed larger theme—if, indeed, there was a secret. Elgar wrote descriptive notes for the variations; unattributed quotations in what follows come from those notes.
Variation IX (Nimrod), the most loved of the variations—“Jaeger” is the German for “hunter,” and Nimrod is the “mighty hunter” mentioned in Genesis 10. August Jaeger was a German-born musician of frail health and great soul who worked for the London music publishing house of Novello and who, more than anyone except Alice Elgar, sustained the composer through his frequent and severe periods of depression. “The Variation . . . is the record of a long summer evening talk, when my friend discoursed eloquently on the slow movements of Beethoven, and said that no one could approach Beethoven at his best in this field, a view with which I cordially concurred.” Jaeger, still young, died in 1909, and nearly twenty years later Elgar wrote: “His place has been occupied but never filled.”
(note by Michael Steinberg, San Francisco Symphony)
The Light Eternal (1991)
JAMES SWEARINGEN (b. 1947)
On February 3, 1943, The S.S. Dorchester, an American troop transport vessel, sank in the icy waters off the coast of Greenland, the victim of a German U-boat. Of the 904 men aboard, 605 were lost. Among those who perished were four Army chaplains, each of a different faith, each called to the same duty.
The testimony of the survivors tells the story best; “As overcrowded lifeboats capsized, as rafts drifted away empty and men milled around on deck on the ragged edge of panic, the only fragment of hope came from these four men… and when the life jackets were gone, they gave away their own.”
As the survivors swam away, they remember the chaplains standing – their arms linked-braced against the slanting deck. They were praying; words of prayer in Latin, Hebrew, and English, addressed to the same God.
"The Light Eternal," based on the well-known hymn "God of Our Fathers," is a reflective work that musically recounts this magnificent story. Commissioned by the Orrville High School Concert Band, Rob Hennell and Dave Tibbitts, directors, the premiere performance took place on May 19, 1991, at the University of Akron Wayne College in Orrville, Ohio.
It should be noted that the 50th anniversary of the story of The Four Chaplains was commemorated on February 3, 1993. A complete reprint of this moving story was printed in the June 1989 Reader’s Digest.
"The Light Eternal" is dedicated to the memory of The Four Chaplains, Lt. G. L. Fox, Lt. A. D. Goode, Lt. C. V. Poling and Lt. J. P. Washington.
(note from the composer)
The Boys of Wexford (1963)
SAMMY NESTICO (1924-2021)
The Boys of Wexford is a well-known Irish folk song with lyrics by Robert Dwyer Joyce (1830-1883). The county Wexford, ancestral home to the Kennedy family, was the site of great joy and celebration during President John F. Kennedy's 1963 summer visit. The folk song was performed many times for JFK during his visit and he was even presented a piano/vocal score by the dignitaries.
Upon returning to Washington, the president summoned Albert Schoepper, then conductor of the Marine Band, to the White House. A great fan of the "The President's Own," Kennedy asked if, when they had time, one of the arrangers would orchestrate the song so the band could play it. Schoepper assigned the task to chief arranger Sammy Nestico on Friday. Monday, the Marine Band was at the White House playing The Boys of Wexford for the president, who pronounced it his "official" march. No one could know that just a few short months later the Marine Band would escort the president to his final resting place in Arlington Cemetery.
(note from the score)
AMERICAN CIVIL WAR FANTASY (1961)
Jerry H. Bilik (b. 1933)
Jerry Bilik composed the American Civil War Fantasy in 1961 for a halftime show presented by the University of Michigan Marching Band under the direction of William Revelli. The production concluded with the unrolling of an American Flag that covered the entire football field. The show was so highly regarded, the music was adjusted to fit the concert stage and has since become a classic of the symphonic band repertoire.
After a brief introduction using the main themes in fragments, the work takes us to the period just before the Civil War. We hear popular tunes of the mid-nineteenth century, Listen to the Mockingbird, Dixieland, and Camptown Races From the distance come the sound of drums and the strain of John Brown’s Body, announcing the first signs of the coming war. Next, little whispers of music from both the North and the South take us toward wartime, and the two armies coming closer and closer. Finally in a shattering explosion we can hear the sounds of the battles. This eventually dies away, giving birth to The Battle Hymn of the Republic. The music then builds in grandeur, representing the spiritual hope for a peaceful and prosperous United States of America.
Featured in the medley are: Listen To The Mocking Bird; Dixieland; Camptown Races; John Brown's Body; Dixie; Battle Cry Of Freedom; Maryland, My Maryland; When Johnny Comes Marching Home; Just Before The Battle, Mother; Marching Through Georgia; The Yellow Rose Of Texas and Battle Hymn Of The Republic.
(program note from Appalachian State University)