Symphonic Winds - Tasty Music

I've spent a fair amount of time talking about the composers, the symphonic form, our guest soloist etc. but what are you really going to hear when you come to Evergreen Cultural Centre on November 14th, or Kay Meek Centre on the 21st?

I like to compare music to food. I like food. I like music. Some combinations of food work well and one course will enhance the next. The same goes with music. A great concert is like a great meal - one course flows into the next. You may end up somewhere completely different than you started, but the trip was connected, logical and pleasing.

Saturday's meal will begin with an exciting appetizer. The opening of deMeij's first Symphony is bold and flashy. It enlivens your taste-buds and makes you want more. Ticheli's second movement from his Second Symphony is smooth and velvety. It is filled with nuance and complexity like a truly great soup. The third course, the Scherzo from Vaughan Williams' Eighth Symphony, is small but demands your attention. It draws on some of the complexity of the second course but has a bit of a spicy kick to it that challenges you and excites you. The fourth course is fun and whimsical. It's the kind of dish that combines ingredients that really shouldn't go together. It almost feels like the chef just threw the kitchen scraps into a pot and walked away, but it works. Nothing that seemingly random could possibly work that well. This is the Finale from Ive's Fourth Symphony. The first meal is finished with a simple but perfectly matched desert: Morton Gould's famous Pavanne. The contrast is what makes this desert work. It is refreshing and will send you off to intermission in anticipation of a second round of tasty treats.

I'm not sure how to describe the second half of the concert in gastronomic terms. We open with Wagner, Trauersinfonie. At the risk of being repetitive, I think that we have our second soup course of the evening. This one however is pure cream soup. No chunks of anything. With each spoonful, you'll experience an ever-changing flavour spectrum but nothing is sudden. The next course is beef carpacio. It is simple, but stunning. What little adornment there is simply serves the main ingredient: Mozart, Concerto in C for Oboe. This is followed by the main course. This is not the main course because of it's relative importance to the other courses but more because of it's richness and body.

The Persichetti Symphony for Number 6 is rich and full. It is a meal unto itself in that takes those who experience it on profound journey and with each bite, one experiences the next step in understanding the genius of the chef. The final course of the evening returns us to Morton Gould and the grand Finale to his West Point Symphony. This is kind of finish to a meal that closes all doors to anything further. Perhaps a creme carmel with a nice smokey scotch. It finishes with a bang and leaves you completely satisfied.

Bring your appetite and join us at Evergreen Cultural Centre on Saturday, November 14th or Kay Meek Centre on Saturday, November 21st.

Mozart - Master of the Symphonic Form

Few composers wrote as many symphonies as Mozart did and even fewer did so with such high quality. It was Mozart and Haydn who really defined the symphony that generations followed. So it seems only fitting that PSWE should play a Mozart symphony on our upcoming concert Symphonic Winds.

Fitting, perhaps. But we will pay homage to Mozart in a different way. We will look at a kindred spirit of the symphonic form: the concerto. The concerto is in fact a much older form than the symphony but is similar in that it is multiple movement and the movements themselves, at least in Mozart's day, similar in structure to that of the symphonic movements.

Mozart's Concerto in C for Oboe (and also written for flute), will be performed by the winner of our most recent Youth Soloist Competition. Ron Mann is young oboist currently at the University of British Columbia studying with Vancouver

Symphony Orchestra oboist, Beth Orson. Here's a little more about Ron:

"Ron Mann, 18, is in his second year of a B.Mus. in oboe performance at the University of British Columbia; he has been playing the oboe for four and half years. He studies with Beth Orson, and has worked extensively with Roger Cole, with masterclasses and coachings from James Mason, Rebecca Henderson and Morgan Zentner. This year he is playing in the UBC Symphony Orchestra and Wind Ensemble. In past, he has played with many ensembles including the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra, BC Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and Capilano University Wind Ensemble and has participated in the Kiwanis Festival, earning first place standings, as well as the Royal Conservatory of Music, receiving First Class Honours with Distinction in several oboe-practical examinations. Ron's playing has been recognized by the District of North Vancouver, where he was awarded the Civic Youth Award in 2008 for his achievements. He has taken part in several music festivals including Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific, Marrowstone Summer Music Festival, and UBC Summer Music Institute."

Tickets are now available from your friendly, neighbourhood PSWE musician or from the Evergreen Cultural Centre Box office for the performance on November 14th. Tickets for November 21st are available from Kay Meek Centre.

So, what is a Symphony? Really.

In my last post, I talked about different uses of the word symphony but what do we mean when we talk about a Symphony?

The history of the symphony began as an overture to operas back in the days of Monteverdi and Cavalli in the 1600's. Gradually, over the next century the symphony started to gain more structure. As an overture, it took on a fast-slow-fast form that eventually split into separate movements.

By the time Haydn and Mozart got their hands on the form it was an established four movement form. The first movement is fast and in sonata form. The second is slow a

nd more free. The third is a dance in three, later to be called a scherzo and the final movement is again fast. What Haydn and Mozart were able to do was to transform the symphony into a major art form.

From here through to modern day, the symphony has attracted the most major composer and have been the chosen form form their "magnum opuses." After Mozart, very few composers wrote more than 10 symphonies. Beethoven broke ground with many of his symphonies, most notably, the 9th, the "Choral Symphony." Berlioz wrote his famous Symphonie Fantastique, Mahler his Eighth Symphony dubbed the "Symphony of a Thousand" and Shostakovich's epic Seventh Symphony "Leningrad."

As is the case with most forms and musical traditions, the 20th century opened the doors to great experimentation and influence from other musical realms. The term symphony, in contemporary composer's hands tends to be used to indicate a major musical work that stems from the grand symphonic tradition but can stray some distance from the tight definition it once had.

PSWE will be presenting two symphonies in November: one in it's entirety and one "constructed." The Persichetti Symphony No. 6 - Symphony for Band. Although Persichetti had a very distinct melodic and harmonic language he had a clear formal influence from the classical symp

hony. The work is in four movements. After a slow introduction the first movement is predominantly quick, lively and rhythmic. The second movement is slow and expressive and is given the expression marking "doloroso" (sorrowful.) The third is a dance in 6/8 time. Although it is not written in the traditional 3/4 time that many Classical symphonies were, the three feel is very present in this movement. The final movement is a lively rondo form that ends big and bold.

The "constructed" symphony that PSWE will perform takes movements from four different symphonies to give the listener a sense of what four different composers do with the symphonic form. We will open with the first movement of Johan de Meij's Symphony No. 1 - Lord of the Rings. This is a symphony that pre-dates the Lord of the Rings movies and should not be confused with the score to that trilogy by Canadian composer, Howard Shore. The first movement of de Meij's symphony is entitled Gandalf and is bold and majestic and includes reference to Gandalf's incredibly fast horse, Shadofax. The piece is tonal and his heavily influenced by the

work of the great Romantic composers. Our second movement comes from Frank Ticheli's Second Symphony that was written in 2oo3 for legendary conductor Jim Croft upon his retirement. The second movement is a slow and deeply expressive work entitled Dreams Under a New Moon. Our third movement is actually the second movement of Ralph Vaughan William's Eighth Symphony. Vaughan Williams played with the formal structure of a symphony a bit in his Eighth and switched the slow and scherzo movements. His Scherzo alla Marcia is written exclusively for the wind section of the orchestra with strings being employed in the other three movements. We will finish our symphony with a transcription of the great Finale from the Fourth Symphony of Charles Ives. Full of humour and partial quotes of popular songs of his day that will be immediately recognizable to the listener but always with a twist, this is an exciting and fun way to end our exploration of the symphonic form.

Please be sure to purchase tickets on line at Evergreen Cultural Centre for the our presentation of Symphonic Winds on November 14th. Or join us at Kay Meek Centre for the same programme on the 21st of November. As always, I encourage any questions, comments or feedback through the use of the comment button below.

Symphonic Winds

The word symphony has been used over the centuries to mean very different things. Today, people speak of going to the symphony to mean that they are going to a concert where an orchestra will be performing. We also speak of Mozart's or Shostakovich's Symphony No. Z to signify a particular type of large-form composition that is constructed in a particular way. But it wasn't always this way.

The Oxford Dictionary of Music says that the word has Greek origins and meant "sounding together." It goes on to say:

"(1) In 17th and 18th cents., Sinfonia meant what we should now call an ‘overture’ to an opera, etc., i.e. a short instr. piece often consisting of 3 short sections or movements in quick‐slow‐quick form.

(2) It was also used of an orch. interlude, e.g. the ‘Pastoral’ sym. in Handel's Messiah, in a vocal work. Some 20th‐cent. composers have revived this archaic usage of the term, e.g. Stravinsky in his Symphonies of Wind Instruments ( 1920 )."*

PSWE is about to launch into an exploration of what a symphony is and will present it's findings on November 14th and 21st. Given the nature of the wind ensemble, we will lean toward more modern takes on the symphony but modern does not necessarily mean avant guard.

Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote the Scherzo to his 8th Symphony for winds alone. Richard Wagner wrote his beautiful Trauersinfonie for winds. More recently, composers such as Johan deMeij and Frank Ticheli have written brilliant works taking elements from the symphonic form. We will also take a look at a couple of brilliant transcriptions of orchestral works for winds. Fans of Mozart and Ives will have something for them on this program.

In an effort to present a broad sweep of takes on what symphony means, we will offer single movements of much of these works. We will, however, present one of the greatest symphonies written for winds in it's entirety. Vincent Persichetti's famous Symphony for Band, his sixth symphony, is a brilliant work that shows what a modern master can do with the form.

We hope that you will come back and read more on this blog as we lead up to these concerts. Feel free to post your questions about any of this repertoire or the concert itself. I will do my best to answer your questions.

Most importantly, join us at Evergreen Cultural Centre on November 14th or Kay Meek Centre on November 21st to wrap yourself in the glorious, warm sounds of PSWE and symphonic wind music.

*"Symphony." The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed. rev. Ed. Michael Kennedy. Oxford Music Online. 27 Aug. 2009<http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t237/e10019>

A New Piece by Adam Gorb!

This piece is so new, it hasn't got a title. It hasn't even been written yet.

PSWE is spearheading the commissioning of a new work buy Adam Gorb that is a subversive patriotic march. The piece will be 6-7 minutes in length and will be in the vein of a Charles Ives or Kurt Weill dig at marches. Assuming that we get support for the project, this piece that will be suitable for high school and more advanced ensembles, will be completed for the fall of 2010. It will be premiered in the 2010-11 PSWE season.

What we are looking for is folks who are interested in supporting this commission. Anyone can support to the tune of $500 Canadian. For this financial contribution, each supporter will receive a copy of the score and parts (pre-publication) and will have their name printed in the published score. This is an excellent way of supporting composers and generating new works that will hopefully become part of the repertoire.

If you are interested, please comment to this post or email me directly. If you have questions about the project, please comment so that others may benefit from your inquisitiveness.

But Wait, there's more!

For those following the discussion about quality repertoire emanating from the WASBE conference last month may want to read Stephen Budiansky's latest additions to his web site. They can be found here.

New Season Announced

Our first rehearsal of the new season is one month away. This is when the musicians of PSWE will begin preparing a cornucopia of new repertoire for your listening enjoyment. Mark the following dates on your calendar:

November 14th - Evergreen Cultural Centre - 8pm - Symphonic Winds

November 21st - Kay Meek Centre - 8pm - Symphonic Winds

February 13th - Evergreen Cultural Centre - 8pm - The Joy of Sax

April 18th - Evergreen Cultural Centre - 2pm - Low Blow

April 24th - Kay Meek Centre - 8pm - In the Spotlight

June 19th - Evergreen Cultural Centre - 8pm - All in Good Fun

Check back soon for details on each of the programs and see you all in the new season!