The Tri State Wind Symphony returns on July 1 for our annual Star-Spangled Spectacular concert, once again sponsored by our good friends at American Trust. I should also take the time to thank the other grant providers who have been so helpful to us this season. These include Mediacom and the Dubuque Racing Association. You have to be aware that only two years ago the band had no rehearsal facilities and very little equipment to speak of. Thanks to these kinds of grant dollars and the generosity of Westminster Presbyterian Church (for rehearsal facilities and storage), we're able to move forward toward becoming more and more independent. Largely our needs these days include grant dollars to assist us in increasing our music library. Band music is increasingly expensive, with the music for a given concert costing anywhere from $500 to $1000, depending on the compositions. But with the grant dollars we are able to gather, as well as our "passing the hat," our library will grow.
This week's concert will finally include a march by John Philip Sousa, his famous El Capitan. This was Sousa's number one encore march and was featured on nearly every concert that his famous band ever played. Originally composed in a vocal setting from an 1895 operetta of the same name, El Capitan was cast as a march in 1896. The original operetta was highly successful, but is seen very little these days. Fortunately, the march lives on as a delightful setting of Sousa's ability to adapt and expand.
America, or "My Country 'Tis of Thee, utilizes the same melody as the British national anthem "God Save the Queen." While the origins of the tune are largely unknown, it was apparently first performed in September 1745, making this tune the oldest selection on our concerts. John Cacavas' stunning concert slow march version was arranged especially for and dedicated to the U.S. Navy Band. It has been a part of the band's library for many years and is used on various important state occasions.
A native of Minnesota, John Zdechlik has written a large number of works for the concert band medium. Images of Aura Lee is presented as a peppy, two-step minstrel song; a somber, more serious statement symbolic of the Civil War, and a light-hearted Scottish dance. A section ensues which signals the struggles between the North and South before the conflict eventually subsides. In the last section, the song is stated in its entirety, and the piece concludes in a spirit of resolution and peace.
The sounds of the great American song book appear in Warren Barker's arrangement of Recorded by Sinatra. The "Chairman of the Board"'s greatest hits appear, including "High Hopes," "Young at Heart," "Love is the Tender Trap," "Love and Marriage." and "My Kind of Town."
The music of George M. Cohan has become synonymous with America and the Great White Way of Broadway. This music, which has inspired Americans for the last century with its rousing spirit and color, is ideally suited for the band. John Cacavas' arrangement of the music of Cohan--Star-Spangled Spectacular--includes some of the composer's most familiar melodies: "Mary's a Grand Old Name," "Give My Regards to Broadway," "Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway." "Yankee Doodle Dandy," and "You're a Grand Old Flag."
Bob Lowden's Armed Forces Salute has been a part of these patriotic concerts since their inception many years ago. Containing the songs of each of the services (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard), it is a fitting tribute to those men and women who have so nobly served our country in peace time and in war.
A symphonic prologue for winds, Rushmore by Alfred Reed was commissioned by the Rushmore Summer Music Camp in South Dakota in 1980. It was first performed that year by the camp's symphonic band under the direction of Kenneth Bloomquist (one of my former teachers!) As the composer writes, "A brooding, mystic opening, representing, perhaps, the four great faces carved in stone gazing over the plains of America, introduces a broad melodic line that is meant to symbolize the inner strength and calm majesty represented by these four great Americans as guardians of our tradition and faith in the freedom of man. As this theme is developed, rising ever higher in the band's registers, echoes of the opening fanfares enter, leading to a combination of this theme together with "America the Beautiful," and bringing the work to a close in all the majesty and colors of which the modern concert band or wind ensemble is capable."
John Philip Sousa wrote, "Here came one of the most vivid incidents of my career. As the vessel (the steamship Teutonic) steamed out of the harbor, I was pacing the deck, absorbed in thoughts of my manager's death and the many duties and decisions which awaited me in New York. Suddenly I began to sense the rhythmic beat of a band playing within my brain. It kept on ceaselessly, playing, playing, playing. Throughout the whole tense voyage, that imaginary band continued to unfold the same themes, echoing and re-echoing the most distinct melody. I did not transfer a note of that music to paper while I was on the steamer, but when we reached shore, I set down the measures that my brain-band had been playing for me, and not a note of it has ever been changed. The composition is known the world over as The Stars and Stripes Forever and is probably my most popular march.
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