CONCERT PROGRAM

Wednesday, March 15th - Saskatoon Community Bands Present "Nostalgia"

7:30pm at the Broadway Theatre

Featuring Wind Ensemble & Jazz Band

Nostalgia – defined as “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, with happy personal associations.” In this their second concert of the season, the Saskatoon Community Wind Ensemble & Jazz Band take-a-look-back at the events and concerts which helped shape the 40- year history of the organization. Included are some of the songs from the several CD’s the Wind Ensemble recorded over the years, the award-winning festival repertoire and audience favorites from the band tours and concert exchanges with bands from around the province and across Alberta. 

PROGRAM NOTES

Wind Ensemble – Peter England, Conductor

Italian in Algiers – (Gioacchino Rossini) 

Rossini was one of the great composers of the Italian operatic school. His is a most remarkable record in that all his operas (some 35) were written in a period of two decades and after “William Tell” (1829) he was never to write another stage work. His last 40 years were spent as a gourmet, who prided himself as a chef. It’s coincidental that tonight we open and close our program with two of his most outstanding works. 


Shenandoah – (Frank Ticheli) 

The Shenandoah River is located in Virginia. The origin of the name is unclear, although it is generally agreed that this was a named in 1750 by the Cherokee, as a tribute to a visiting chief. The name means “Daughters of the Moon”.

The origins of the folksong are equally obscure, but date to the 19th century. Many variants on the melody and text have been handed down through the years, the most popular telling the story of an early settler’s love for a Native American Woman.


Prelude, Siciliano and Rondo - (Malcolm Arnold arr. John Paynter)

This piece was originally written for brass bands for which England is well-known. It was titled Little Suite for Brass. John Paynter expanded the arrangement to include woodwinds and additional percussion, but faithfully retains the breeze effervescence of the original composition. 

All three movements are written in short, clear five-part song form. The Prelude begins bombastically in fanfare stye, but reaches a middle climax and winds down to a quiet return of the opening measures. The liltingly expressive Siciliano is both slower and more expressive, allowing solo instruments and smaller choirs of sound to be heard. It, too, ends quietly. The rollicking five-part Rondo provides a romping finale in which the technical brilliance of the modern wind band is set forth in boastful brilliance. 


Bugler’s Holiday - (Leroy Anderson)

Leroy Anderson (1908-1975) made a living – and a good living, at that – writing recognizable favorites like “A Trumpeter’s Lullaby”, “The Syncopated Clock”.  And for the season presently at hand, he will always be remembered for having composed “Sleigh Ride”, a winter composition that featured sleigh bells and the visualization of a horse-drawn sleigh, popularized by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra with three separate recordings, in 1949, 1963, and 1970. 

But Anderson was anything but a one-hit wonder, and within his fertile composing mind he had designs on an endless variety of tunes, featuring an endless variety of instrumentation.  Bugler’s Holiday was one of those inspirations.  Everyone will recognize Bugler’s Holiday when they hear it, one of the most popular compositions by one of the country’s most popular composers of light concert music during the early to mid-20th century. Today the Wind Ensemble is pleased to feature three members of the organization as our trio soloists: 

Nick Fanner: Nick is a retired band director in the Public Board of Education and the conductor of the Community Intermediate Concert Band & Beginner Jazz Band. In addition, he is active in the community as guest conductor, clinician and actively performing jazz musician. 

Robert Wagner: Robert is an IT professional at the Canadian Light Source and a devoted parent to two sons and two stepdaughters who moved from the US to Canada 8 years ago. In his teenage years, he toured the US for 3 summers with the Marauders Drum & Bugle Corps of Longview, Washington and studied trumpet technique with Joe Marcinkiewicz (of Marcinkiewicz Co. trumpets and mouthpieces).  After a move to the Midwest US, he spent 12 years as a community member playing with the University of Wisconsin Marathon County jazz band where he grew to love big band lead playing. When he can find 3 like-minded friends, he also enjoys singing in the barbershop style.

Eric Behm: Eric Behm is a 30 year-old computer programmer from Ohio. Music has deeply influenced his life from a young age, beginning with playing trumpet in the fifth grade. By seventh grade he had formed a successful ska band that played at local venues. Throughout highschool, Eric could always be found in the band room, participating in concert, jazz, and marching band. He continued to expand his musical talents in piano, guitar, and voice - but ultimately decided that trumpet was his passion. After graduation, he entered the University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music and studied trumpet for 3 years. Throughout college, he also toured with a punk rock band where he sang back-up vocals and played keys. While music remained a constant in his life, his career path shifted towards his deep interest in technology. In 2021 he moved to Saskatchewan to be with his girlfriend and complete his Bachelors in Computer Science. This is when he found the Saskatoon Community Band and reconnected with his love for trumpet, band music, and performance. 

Additional information on Bugler’s Holiday and Leroy Anderson:

Anderson wrote it during the summer of 1954 at his home in Woodbury, Connecticut, as an instrumental “fun piece” that would show off the virtuosity of both the accomplished and amateur trumpet players.  He wanted his music to be played and enjoyed by everyone, and he wrote to facilitate every level of musician.  Bugler’s Holiday was written in a range so that even the better-than-average high schooler could play it and the piano accompaniment he provided was actually more challenging, he would later claim.

It was a bright, happy-sounding piece that immediately found favor with concert bands and orchestras alike.  It became a popular encore piece for all of the country’s popular performing groups – symphonic bands, symphony orchestras, and even the president’s own…the White House Marine Band.  It was a piece that many municipal bands would use to dress up a performance and leave the audience whistling as they left the building.  

Born on June 29, 1908, Leroy Anderson became one of America’s musical icons for his imagination and ability to always trump his last-known composition – legendary for his knack of leaving his audience wanting more, and his aptitude for delivering.  His 1952 composition, Plink, Plank, Plunk, became the theme for the popular TV show, I’ve Got A Secret.  And The Typewriter would become a favorite for a variety of radio news productions.

He died in 1975 at the age of 67 and his contemporaries, like composer/director John Williams would compare his legacy and popularity to greatest of the greats.  What John Phillip Sousa was to marches…Leroy Anderson was to the whimsical and happy tunes of his day – songs that sounded like everyday life, songs that made people happy, and to this day as popular and recognizable as The Stars and Stripes Forever.

The Washington Post March (John Philip Sousa, edited Frederick Fennell)

This popular march by Sousa probably helped the famous paper become known around the world. He wrote it in 1889 and first played it with the Marine Band at an award ceremony for an essay contest sponsored by the newspaper. Sousa liked words almost as much as music and he responded to the Post’s quest for a march with unusual success, even for him. The march was very popular when the ‘90s were billed as a gay and happy time, remembered today in song and dance. Among the partner steps then the social rage a home and abroad was the six-eight two-step – one of these vigorously sliding and hopping experience that capture and hold the popular fancy.

William Tell Overture (G. Rossini arr. Robert Longfield) 

William Tell was originally a drama written by Friedrich Schiller in 1804. The play centers around the Swiss marksman William Tell and shows the Swiss struggle for independence from the Habsburg Empire in the early fourteenth-century. Rossini wrote a four-part opera with the same name, which premiered at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris on 3rd August 1829. However, after three performances one of the four acts was cut due to the sheer length of the opera – which in full comes to around four hours in duration. As well as this, the casting requirements, set and musical demands has meant that this opera has not been staged in full many times since its conception.

The overture is perhaps the most well-known part of the opera, with the last section being the most famous. The overture is split into four sections, which all lead into each other with no breaks.  It has become a staple in concert repertoire, with the final section appearing in lots of modern-day popular media, most notably as the theme tune for The Lone Ranger. Interestingly, the overture did not originate with this opera, in fact 24 operas before Rossini composed this overture for one of his earlier operas, Elizabeth, Queen of England. Therefore, contrary to popular belief, the William Tell Overture does not take its melodies from the opera, but a pre-existing work by Rossini.


INTERMISSION 

Jazz Band  - Doug Gilmour, Conductor

Such Sweet Thunder (Ellington, Strayhorn/arr Kamuf)

Oh, Lady Be Good (Gershwin/arr White)

Blue Bossa (Dorham/arr Sweeney)

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (Zawinul/arr Jennings)

Mr. GK (Caruba)

Peter Gunn Theme (Mancini/arr Lewis)

Wind Ensemble Personnel

Director
Peter England

Flute

Alison Montgomery

Ann Salmon

Clarinet
Dale Brown
Marie Darichuk
Jessica Engele
Sarah Hadley
Laurene Jemieff
Lyle Johnson
Gina Streisel

Bass Clarinet
Bailey Rysavy

Alto Saxophone
Chantel Chizen
Stewart Parkinson

Tenor Saxophone
Sarah Pickering
Paige Wilson

Baritone Saxophone
Geoff Cooke

Trumpet
Eric Behm
Bob Cowan
Tom Powell
Robert Wagner
Rob Wilson
Karen Winmill

French Horn
James Couperthwaite
Lorelei Ford
Arlene Shiplett

Trombone
Spencer Gerwing
Brian Hoessler
Kathleen Norton

Baritone
Frank Wilson

Tuba
Jody Rysavy

Percussion
D’Arce McMillan

Jazz Band Personnel

Director
Doug Gilmour

Flute

Tracy Edmonds

Ann Salmon

Oboe
Roxanne Laforge

Clarinet
Ramona Brenholen
Joanne Engele
Bronwen McRae
Marjorie Reimer
Karen Shantz
Sandy Wilson
Cathryn Wood

Soprano Saxophone
Gina Streisel

Alto Saxophone
Chantel Chizen
Stewart Parkinson
Randy Schentag

Tenor Saxophone
Ken Jensen
Hope Potter
Paige Wilson

Baritone Saxophone
Garnet Dunham

Trumpet
James Couperthwaite
Jess Glasman
Dorothy Hyde
C.D. McIvor
Robert Wagner

Trombone
James Gibney
Laura Jardine

Guitar
Jim Gillis

String Bass
Catherine McIvor

Piano
Barb Sambasivam

Percussion
D'Arce McMillan

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