Wind Symphony

About the Program

Program notes by Mark Bilyeu except where noted. 

Giovanni Gabrieli
Canzon Primi Toni From Sacrae Symphoniae
Born c. 1557, Venice, Italy  
Died August 1612, Venice, Italy  
Published 1597 
Duration 4 minutes  

Giovanni Gabrieli was an Italian composer and organist who was very influential in his time, which was during the confluence of the Renaissance and Baroque musical styles. He worked as the principal organist and composer at St. Mark Basilica in Venice. Canzon per sonar primi toni is in the Dorian mode, which comprises a set of intervals and melodies that do not correspond neatly with either the major or minor harmonies that would become standard by the end of the Baroque era. It was composed for two ensembles, each with four parts. These ensembles would be seated across from each other in the choir lofts at St. Mark, creating a marvelous “stereo” effect. The piece begins with a rhythmic theme common in its time, the “dactyl foot” which consists of one long note followed by two shorter notes. The choirs engage in a call-and-response with each other, and sometimes play together. Most of the phrases are begun with the dactyl pattern, sometimes in diminution. Sacrae Symphonia was such a popular publication that many young composers from the North came to Venice to study and brought Italian Baroque style back with them to Germany and other important centers of music. 

– Penny Brandt

Kathryn Salfelder
Cathedrals
Born 1987, Paterson, NJ
Composed 2008
Premiered September 18, 2008, Arizona State University Wind Bands, Gary W. Hill, conductor
Published 2008
Duration 6 mins

The 16th Century composer Giovanni Gabrieli wrote music to showcase the architecture of the Cathedral of St. Mark in Venice, utilizing antiphonal groups (separate groups on opposite ends of a space) to his great advantage. His music has influenced centuries of composers, including Kathryn Salfelder, who engages late-Medieval and Renaissance polyphony in conversations with 21st-century techniques. As Salfelder writes in her 2008 score of Cathedrals: “Cathedrals is a fantasy on Gabrieli’s Canzon Primi Toni from the Sacrae Symphoniae, which dates from 1597. Written for St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, the canzon is transcribed for two brass choirs, each comprised of two trumpets and two trombones. The choirs were stationed in opposite balconies of the church according to the antiphonal principle of cori spezzati (broken choirs), which forms the basis of much of Gabrieli’s writing. Cathedrals is an adventure in ‘neo-renaissance’ music, in its seating arrangement, antiphonal qualities, 16th century counterpoint, and canonic textures. Its form is structured on the golden ratio (1: .618), which is commonly found not only in nature and art, but also in the motets and masses of Renaissance composers such as Palestrina and Lassus ...The work is a synthesis of the old and the new, evoking the mystery and allure of Gabrieli’s spatial music, intertwined with the rich color palette, modal harmonies, and textures of woodwinds and percussion.”

Alexander Scriabin
Nocturne, op. 9 no. 2.
Born January 6, 1872, Moscow, Russia
Died April 27, 1915, , Moscow, Russia
Composed 1894
Duration 6 minutes

Alexander Scriabin’s Op. 9 is both a revelatory experience and a cautionary tale. While studying at the Moscow conservatory, the nineteen year old—feeling the pressures from his peers Sergei Rachmaninov, Josef Hofmann and Josef Lhévinne (a wildly intimidating cohort to be sharing practice rooms with!)—damaged his right hand while practicing Balakirev’s Islamey and Liszt’s Réminiscences de Don Juan. The doctors were unsure if he would ever gain the full use of his hand again. Scriabin turned his attention to composing, writing his first piano sonata, subtitling it “cry against God, against fate.” He also composed his set of two works, Op. 9, which includes the Nocturne. As a life-long admirer of Chopin, it is not surprising that a nineteen-year-old Scriabin would write an homage to the Polish pianist who crafted 21 of these nocturnal songs, but perhaps it is surprising that he only wrote two! This nocturne unfolds with a plaintive melody, featuring all the lush and dense harmonies that would come to be associated with Scriabin’s music. As you listen, trying to imagine a pianist single-handedly (literally!) delivering such a virtuosic and yet contemplative offering. In 1975, Alfred Reed transcribed the work for concert band, greatly expanding the palate of instrumental color available in Scriabin's harmony.

Paul Dooley
Masks & Machines
Born 1983, Santa Rosa, California
Composed 2015
Premiered March 3, 2015, University of Miami Frost Wind Ensemble
Duration 9 minutes

Masks and Machines is inspired by the early twentieth century works of Bauhaus artist Oskar Schlemmer, and the Neoclassical music of Igor Stravinsky.  I admire the simplicity of shapes and color in Schlemmer's works such as the Bauhaus Stairway and Triadic Ballet as well as the renaissance and baroque musical influences in Stravinsky's Pulcinella.  Masks and Machines contains three contrasting character pieces featuring renaissance brass music, Baroque fortspinnung (a term describing how composers develop a melody using repetition and sequences) in virtuosic mallet percussion, lush oboe, clarinet and bassoon solos, and machine-like flute rips. Dooley has earned a degree in music composition where his mentors included Frank Ticheli, Stephen Hartke and Frederick Lesemann. He completed a master's and a doctorate in composition at the University of Michigan, in 2013, he joined the University of Michigan faculty, where he created and directs the Performing Arts Technology department’s annual Computer Music Showcase. He has won numerous awards and recognitions, including both the 2016 Sousa/ABA/Ostwald Award and the 2015 William D. Revelli Prize for Masks and Machines. 

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About the Artists

Douglas Henderson

Douglas Henderson serves as associate director of bands at The University of Texas at Austin, where his responsibilities include conducting the Wind Symphony, teaching advanced undergraduate and graduate conducting, and teaching band literature. Prior to joining the UT faculty, Dr. Henderson was an associate professor, associate director of bands, and director of athletic bands at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Henderson is active as a guest conductor, adjudicator, and clinician throughout the United States, and he has guest conducted in Austria and Japan. He is a frequent guest conductor of the World Youth Wind Orchestra Project (WYWOP), in Schladming, Austria. Dr. Henderson received his bachelor of music degree in music studies from The University of Texas at Austin, his master of music degree in wind conducting from Michigan State University, and his doctor of musical arts degree in wind conducting from The University of Texas at Austin. From 2003-2006, he was the associate director of bands at J.J. Pearce High School in Richardson, Texas.

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Wind Symphony

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