TIM REYNISH WEBSITE
HOMEPAGE: JUNE 2006
Many greetings to anyone browsing this website for the first time. You will find that my poor long-suffering webmaster Mike Grieff tries to introduce an element of organisation in his PAGELIST, but I find that there is so much significant music being written and given great performances and recordings, that it is increasingly hard to keep all this information tidy…and I do ramble on I am afraid.
The last couple of months have seen again a wave of new works commissioned, performed, recorded or rediscovered. Some notes on this material can be found below, but special mention must be made of the terrific recording by Daron Hagen of his opera Bandanna, commissioned by CBDNA, recorded by and released on Albany on June 1st. This is powerful music in a powerful performance and is an outstanding addition to our literature, see below for notes on the European premiere.
An important feature of wind music in the past couple
of months has been the increased involvement of leading orchestral musicians in
our field. Leonard Slatkin conducted the President’s Own in a very exciting
concert at Strathmore Music Center, Baltimore, in a programme of Bach, Prokofiev
and Corigliano. Larry Combs, formerly principal clarinet of the Chicago
Symphony, gave the premiere of Dana Wilson’s new concerto for Clarinet and
Wind Band, Liquid Ebony, while Chris
Brubeck, son of Dave, has contributed two great works for wind quintet and
jazz, and an exciting piece for band entitled The Spirit of Liberty.
Chris, pictured here on the left, is off this summer to Prague to perform his second Trombone Concerto with the Czech National Symphony with whom he recorded a CD for Koch called Convergence. He writes:
At last, my newest orchestral cd, CONVERGENCE is out on Koch International Classics. The cd includes 3 of my orchestral compositions: River of Song , (which I wrote for Frederica von Stade); Convergence (commissioned by the Boston Pops in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Symphony Hall); and The Prague Concerto, my second trombone concerto.The cd was recorded in surround sound. I wrote Convergence with an antiphonal brass ensemble and wrote in an antiphonal woodwind section in The Prague Concerto, so both pieces really take advantage of the surround sound qualities, especially as they were recorded in the amazing Rudolfinum concert hall in Prague.
Incidentally, the soprano soloist on this CD is Rachel Luxon, who worked with me at the RNCM as Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte. Another vocal connection is that Jane Eaglen, who did a memorable Prelude und Liebestod at Manchester with me, will star in Daron Hagen’s Amelia commissioned by Seattle Opera for 2010. With this professional cross-over between the various genres, are we moving gradually towards a time when we stop talking about wind band, as opposed to orchestral, choral, operatic jazz or chamber music, and will we start training musicians rather than band directors?
Apropos last year’s furore over band literature, Stephen Budiansky and Tim Foley have written an article on this subject for the WASBE Journal which is also available on
http://www.budiansky.com/music.html
Meanwhile a recent telephone call from Germany enquired about British works for Horn and Band. I gave entirely the wrong answer, until after two more return calls I was able to recommend works by Martin Ellerby and Paul Hart. We do desperately need a band equivalent of Orchestral Music; A Handbook by David Daniels.
Book Description on the Amazon website:
Familiar to conductors, orchestra managers, and music librarians, this compact sourcebook provides information necessary to plan orchestral programs and organize rehearsals
Here is a really useful research project for some grad students, to start a web catalogue of repertoire, cross-referenced as in Daniels with nationality, orchestration, timing and type of work.
Have a great summer or winter,
Tim Reynish
NEW:
140606: Article - Performance Practice
220606: Article - Simon Rattle in Interview
220606: Article - Taming the Decibels
220606: Article - Not a Core Repertoire List
ARGENTINA Conference for November in Cordoba
AUSTRIAN composer Thomas Doss writes Magic Overture
EUROPEAN Premiere of CBDNA Opera Commission
GERMANY WASBE commissioning opportunity
IRAQ inspiration for Elegy for solo oboe and wind ensemble
IRELAND school band piece at grade 3
IRELAND WASBE Conference premiere planned with mezzo soprano solo
JAPAN Euphonium solo with piano published by Studio Music
LUXEMBOURG Trumpet Concerto Project by Phillipe Scharz
MALLORCAN music by Derek Bourgeois
MEXICAN resident premieres second Trombone Concerto
NEW ZEALAND tone poem premiered at Ithaca College
RUSSIAN Piano Concerto scores hit with US Marines
SCOTTISH leading young composer’s new work for wind ensemble
SERBIA influence for Kenneth Hesketh’s Vranjanka
USA Clarinet concerto premiered by Larry Combs
The 3rd Conference to be held by Iberoamericano de Compositores, Directores, Arregladores e Instrumentistas de Bandas Sinfónicas will take place in Cordoba, Argentina from the 31st of October to the 4th of November, 2006 Information from Vicente Moncho , vicmon@onenet.com.ar
Magic Overture: this high-energy work was composed by Thomas Doss as an anniversary present for the Burgermusik Gotzis in Austria. It is an upbeat work with lots of syncopation and technical passages. Different rhythmic figures make their way from instrument to instrument throughout the piece. The challenge with this work will be to keep the energy level up until the slow section and then pick it right back up to finish the work. Published by Mitropa
EUROPEAN OPERA PREMIERE
The European premiere of the CBDNA commissioned opera, Bandanna by Daron Hagen was given in Parr Hall, Warrington England, by the North Cheshire Wind Orchestra with soloists from the RNCM, conductor Mark Heron. The opera was enthusiastically received and English publishing agent, Schotts are seeking other venues for performance. The premiere recording of the opera will be issued on June 1st by Albany records on TROY 849/50, conducted by the composer. This is certainly one of the most significant recording events in wind music in recent years.
A consortium headed by the German WASBE Section will commission a work for symphonic band from Axel Ruoff. It will be premiered by the Heilbronn Philharmonic Winds during the 2nd German Wind Forum in Stuttgart, Germany, on 3 March 2007. An invitation to participate in the consortium is being offered to all by the German WASBE Section. The work will be scored for symphonic band, be grade 5 in difficulty and have a duration of 10 to 12 minutes. At this time, no title has been selected. The piece will be published by Strube-Verlag in Munich, Germany. There is no minimum contribution. Every consortium member who contributes a minimum of € 50.00 / US$ 70.00 / GBP 40.00 will be mentioned in the printed edition of the score and will receive a copy of the score signed by the composer. The deadline for participating in the consortium is 1 September 2006.
Those interested in supporting this project are requested to complete the commissioning form [PDF; 60K] and send it to the German WASBE Section. Participation in the consortium takes effect with the crediting of the contribution to the account of the German WASBE Section.
IRAQ is the inspiration for a new Oboe Concerto by Edwin Roxburgh, to be premiered at the Royal Northern College of Music on 27th June by Melinda Maxwell and the RNCM Wind Orchestra as part of the series commissioned in memory of William Reynish. Entitled Elegy for Ur, a brief report on the present state of that great city will suffice as a programme:
At the 6,000-year-old Sumerian city of Ur with its massive ziggurat, or stepped temple-tower (built in the period 2112 - 2095 B.C. and restored by Nebuchadnezzar II in the sixth century B.C.), the Marines spray-painted their motto, "Semper Fi" (semper fidelis, always faithful) onto its walls.[20] The military then made the monument "off limits" to everyone in order to disguise the desecration that had occurred there, including the looting by U.S. soldiers of clay bricks used in the construction of the ancient buildings.
Until April 2003, the area around Ur, in the environs of Nasiriyah, was remote and sacrosanct. However, the U.S. military chose the land immediately adjacent to the ziggurat to build its huge Tallil Air Base with two runways measuring 12,000 and 9,700 feet respectively and four satellite camps. In the process, military engineers moved more than 9,500 truckloads of dirt in order to build 350,000 square feet of hangars and other facilities for aircraft and Predator unmanned drones. They completely ruined the area, the literal heartland of human civilization, for any further archaeological research or future tourism. On October 24, 2003, according to the Global Security Organization, the Army and Air Force built its own modern ziggurat. It "opened its second Burger King at Tallil. The new facility, co-located with [a] . . . Pizza Hut, provides another Burger King restaurant so that more service men and women serving in Iraq can, if only for a moment, forget about the task at hand in the desert and get a whiff of that familiar scent that takes them back home."[21]
IRELAND - PIECE FOR GRADE 3 SCHOOL BAND –Fergal Carroll has followed his Song of Lir with a second school band piece for the William Reynish project. Blackwater is a one movement work based on two old Celtic tunes, with a slow introduction and a middle section in 5/4. The composer writes:
The River Blackwater is the largest in the south-west of Ireland and flows through the counties of Waterford and Cork before entering the Celtic Sea at the town of Youghal.
Two main themes provide the melodic material for this 6 minute work. An old Irish air, Cape Clear, is the basis of the main theme. The region after which it is named is not far from where the Blackwater rises. Against this is placed an original counter-melody which we hear at the beginning in the style of a plainchant. There is a central episode [from bar 137] where this counter-melody is developed. It is placed into a dance-like 5/4 metre and carried first by the woodwinds before the entire band brings us into the final section [at bar 192] where the ‘Cape Clear’ theme is heard again..
Blackwater is intended for younger bands of between grade 3 and 3.5 standard. It was commissioned by Timothy Reynish and completed in the autumn of 2005.
IRISH-born Stephen McNeff has offered the world premiere of Images in Stone, a song cycle for mezzo soprano and wind ensemble, to be given at the WASBE Conference. McNeff was recently appointed composer in residence with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and is working closely with Marin Alsop on a number of projects. He is particularly known for his opera and theatre work, and his works for wind ensemble include Ghosts and Wasteland Music 1 & 2, as well as a fine Clarinet concerto.
FANTASY VARIATIONS for Euphonium and Piano by Ito Yasuhide
Just released from the Studio Music Company, London is the piano version of Fantasy Variations by Ito. This enjoyable Variations which includes a folk tune of AINU but composed in the Chaconne and Fugue style has been well known among Euphonium players. Now it is newly engraved and its Piano part is effectively revised. This piece is often selected as required pieces for contests.
In the past, it was picked up as the required piece for the Falcone contest as well as for the Japan Wind and Percussion Competition in 2004.
Now available in music stores. ISBN M-050-06359-9.
Duration 8.5 minutes
Original version for Euphonium and Band is currently under preparation.
Phillipe Scharz, Principal Trumpet with the National Orchestra of Wales, is working on a commission project for three trumpet concerti from Luxembourg composers to be premiered and recorded in February 2007. A Concerto for four Trumpets by Frisch will be published by Bronsheim, as will a Concerto for solo Trumpet by Marco Pütz which is partly commissioned in memory of William Reynish and will be in my series. The third work will be by Marcel Wengler, and this will probably be published by Maecenas Music.
From MALLORCA NEW WORKS BY DEREK BOURGEOIS
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229 |
Lliria Celebration Wind Band |
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231 |
Piccolo Picante Solo Piccolo and Wind Band Hafabra Music |
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236 |
Felanitx Fiestas – Suite of 3 Pasodobles Wind Band |
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239 |
Concerto for Bass Trombone and Wind Band Solo Bass Trombone and Wind Band Hafabra Music |
His Symphony of Winds is now available in a new edition by HaFaBra and is highly recommended as a wonderful romantic piece, appealing to both players and audiences alike.
Composer Leroy Osman has for some time being working in Meriden, Yucatan, Mexico, and sends a report of his latest work, Concerto No. 2 for Tuba, Winds and Percussion.
Osman’s Concerto No. 2 for tuba was composed between December 2005 and March 2006 and is in a standard three-movement form. The work employs the wind section of a symphony orchestra with a slightly extended percussion section. The Concerto was commissioned by Dave Kirk (Houston Symphony Orchestra Tubist) and was premiered on 21 May 2006 with the Clear Brook Wind Symphony (Stan Mauldin, conductor).Concerto No. 2 for Tuba, Winds and Percussion will be published by RBC Music San Antonio, Texas (projected release will be October of 2006).
This is the fourth collaboration between the composer and soloist Dave Kirk who has referred to the work as the”Hebraic” Concerto because of the numerous references to and use of Jewish harmonic and melodic material. The rhapsodic first movement is strongly influenced by the oriental and Jewish music of Aaron Avshalomoff (a composer that Osmon feels should be given another critical analysis The second movement uses melodies that are strongly reminiscent of Eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish melodies and demonstrate the ability of the tuba to perform long beautiful, flowing melodic lines. The finale is reminiscent in style of the high spirits of the music of Leonard Bernstein.
New Zealander Chris Marshall’s second work commissioned by Tim Reynish, Resonance, was premiered at Ithaca College on 27th April, and is a tone poem with a sound world quite unique in the wind repertoire. It will be shortly published by Maecenas. Chris writes:
I was honoured when Tim and Hilary Reynish commissioned me to write a second piece in memory of William. This time I wanted to write music of a more contemplative nature as a contrast to L'homme armé: Variations. 'Resonance' is divided into two main sections. The first uses several thematic fragments arranged in their own 'orbits'. At each appearance they inter-react with each other and evolve. The second section moves back in time to reveal the whole theme in its original form, a simple hymn-like tune. After three variations, material from both sections combines in a brief coda. This is abstract music; there is no programme. However, prior to and during the composition process, images of nineteenth century New Zealand kept coming to mind.
My great-great grandfather was one of hundreds of English missionaries in the North Island during a period of rapid Maori conversion to Christianity. This was the time of the Maori prophets, their writings revealing a vivid amalgam of Victorian Christianity and Polynesian warrior culture – attempts to make sense of the turmoil and upheaval of colonisation. Mission schools were frequently built in clearings in the dense forest. Contemporary accounts speak of the volume of the native bird song being so intense that lessons often had to be abandoned. These days the exquisite sound of a solitary toy or korimako in the forest is like a pale echo of that time. I picture my ancestor in a small mission school in the forest and imagine his thoughts drifting from the earnest faces of his students to memories of his own youth back in England.
The performance of Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto by the US Marine Band conducted by Leonard Slatkin caused something of a furore. Slatkin expressed initial qualms about tackling a wind band arrangement of a major work, but admitted to being totally won over by the transcription by Master Sgt Don Patterson. The Washington Post noted in 21st March:
The Marines then turned to Prokofiev, playing his third piano concerto in an astonishingly resourceful transcription by Master Sgt. Donald Patterson that made one forget the orchestra entirely. Staff Sgt. AnnaMaria Mottola's solos could have used more swagger and rubato, but her tremendous concentration and drive made for an exhilarating performance.
CIRCUS MAXIMUS
The major work in the programme was Circus Maximus, the third Symphony by John Corigliano, The Washington Post said
A group of Marines surrounded hundreds of people and carried out a prolonged assault on Sunday afternoon in the Music Center at Strathmore. Of course, as members of "The President's Own" U.S. Marine Band, they were armed only with winds, brass and percussion. Still, they were playing John Corigliano's Symphony No. 3, "Circus Maximus," under National Symphony Orchestra music director and longtime Corigliano advocate Leonard Slatkin, and "Circus Maximus" is an often brutal, tremendously compelling work that depends on surrounding the audience with overwhelming musical force to make its point. It would be hard to imagine better advocacy for the work than the performance by Slatkin and the Marine Band; every single moment felt vivid, vital and powerful.
DAVID HORNE, born 1970, has already consolidated his reputation as one of Scotland’s leading composers. He is published by Boosey and Hawkes, and details of his career and works are available on their website. Waves and Refrains is dedicated to the memory of William Reynish, and is a fifteen minute virtuoso work for wind ensemble, to be premiered at the Royal Northern College of Music on 27th June 2006 by the RNCM Wind Orchestra.
SERBIA is the inspiration for Kenneth Hesketh’s latest work, Vranjanka. Premiered by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the RNCM on November 5th 2005, the work will be published by Faber. Ken Hesketh writes:
Vranjanka (the title means "From Vranje," a town in southern Serbia, pronounced VRAHN-yahn-kah ) is loosely based on the traditional folksong Šano Dušo. The melody exists in two versions, one in 7/8 and one in 3/4. I have chosen the version in 7/8 and in doing so, have extended the melodic ideas of the original with new material.
The musical form of the piece is as follows: a fairly slow introductory section where the theme is only hinted at but never heard and a faster second section cast in a set of variations on the folksong. These are not variations in the traditional sense, with clearly marked beginnings and endings, but ongoing developments of the various melodic material in the folksong with original material 'growing out' along side.
The text for Vranjanka influenced the composition more often than not at an unconscious level, but it is included here for reference:
Sana, my soul, opens the door to me,
Open the door to me and I will give you coins.
My heart is burning for you, Sana.
Your fair face, Sana, is snow from the mountains,
Your forehead, Sana, is like moonlight.
That mouth of yours, Sana, like a deep red sunset,
That eye, my darling, makes me burn.
When night comes, marvellous Sana, I twist in sadness,
Your beauty, Sana, will not let me sleep.
LARRY COMBS, for many years principal clarinet of the Chicago Symphony, gave the world premiere of Liquid Ebony by Dana Wilson with the US Military Academy at west Point, conducted by Timothy Holtan. The three movement clarinet concerto is a transcription by the composer of Liquid Gold for saxophone and band. Also in the programme was Adam Gorb’s latest piece, Adrenaline City to be published by Studio Music.