“In reflecting on the challenges and changes our fall semester was going to have, this question came to mind: Do these changes affect us in our music making? Do they affect us as people and musicians, or are they just the outward trappings, a different approach to the same fundamental endeavor?” Hollinger said.
“Transformation is ‘a thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance.’ While our instrumental ensembles appear very different in form this fall, the bands at their core are still composed of musicians striving to engage in one of mankind’s meaningful art forms. Music provides a psychological and spiritual refuge in life’s storms. Musicians gain a relief and a revitalization when they come together to create a thing of beauty, and their audiences can tap into this nourishment when they engage in a performance.
“Amid all the upset of routine and uproar of emotion, amid all the changes this year, beauty remains. Almost all of the repertoire for this fall engages in this idea of transformation.”
The setting, arranging and transformation of folk songs lies at the heart of the wind band repertoire.
The full wind ensemble performs three movements from Percy Grainger’s “Lincolnshire Posy.” Grainger traveled throughout Lincolnshire, England, collecting and recorded folk songs on wax cylinders. Unlike composers who used folk songs as the basis for their own compositions, Grainger tried to match the original intent of each folk song.
Several important musical works originally set for other instrumentation have been arranged or edited in chamber settings for the band. Performed by the brass choir, “Misericordia domini” was originally composed as a double vocal motet by Michael Praetorius setting portions of Psalm 33, “Rejoice in the Lord, O ye Righteous.”
“The Carnival of the Animals,” a humorous musical suite of 14 movements by Camille Saint-Saëns, is a musical representations of various animals. Woodwind and percussion performers depict lions, fish and other aquatic animals, skeletons, donkeys, hens and kangaroos as they perform four movements from this suite.
“Pictures at an Exhibition” by Modest Mussorgsky depicts his tour of an exhibition of artist, architect, and designer Viktor Hartmann’s work resulting in the musical depiction of 10 pieces. The brass and percussion perform four of these movements representing Mussorgsky walking “now leisurely, now briskly” through the exhibition; a Polish cart on enormous wheels, drawn by oxen; Baba Yaga’s hut on chicken’s legs; and the great city gates of Kiev.
The final translation through transcription is a mixed chamber setting of “Londonderry Air.” Other works include four original compositions for various chamber ensembles — “Variations on a Theme of Paganini” by Hiroaki Kataoka for woodwinds and percussion, “Sofapilla” for percussion ensemble, “Centennial Fanfare” for brass choir and “Makam Dance” for mixed chamber ensemble conducted by Victoria Alumbaugh, a senior music education major from Neoga, Ill.
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NOTE: A number that appears immediately after a person’s name (i.e. Jane Doe ’18) is a reference to the year that person earned their bachelor’s degree from Culver-Stockton.