April Showers Bring Musical Flowers
Northside High School Auditorium
Warner Robins, Georgia
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
7:30 PM
Northside High School Symphonic Band I
Chuck Herron, Conductor
The Big Four March
Karl L. King (1891–1971)
Arr. James Swearingen
Lux Aurumque
The Ascension
Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)
Robert W. Smith (b. 1958)
Mercer University Wind Ensemble
Douglas Hill, Conductor
John Lincourt, Graduate Conductor
The Spirit Sleeping
I.
Pegasus
John Gibson (b. 1946)
Loch Lomond
Frank Ticheli (b. 1958)
Pagan Dances
I.
Ritual
James Barnes (b. 1949)
Wedding Dance
Jacques Press (1903–1985)
Mercer University Wind Ensemble
John Lincourt, Graduate Conductor
The Hounds of Spring
Alfred Reed (1921–2005)
Combined Northside Symphonic Band I & Mercer Winds
Chuck Herron, Conductor
The Planets
Venus
Mars
Gustav Holst (1874–1934)
Arr. Calvin Custer
Chuck Herron, Conductor Bio
Chuck Herron is a native of Kingsport, Tennessee where he attended Robinson
Middle School and graduated from Dobynns Bennett High School. Mr. Herron received
numerous accolades in high school for his trumpet talent; first chair in the TMEA All State
Band twice, selection to the Tennessee Governors School for the Arts, as well as the
opportunity to study trumpet with numerous professionals.
Mr. Herron is a 2003 graduate of the University of Georgia with degrees in Trumpet
Performance and Music Education and 2014 graduate of Kent State University with a
Master’s in Music Education. While at the University of Georgia Mr. Herron was a member
of numerous performing ensembles and studied trumpet with Dr. Edward Sandor and the
late Fred Mills, founding member of the Canadian Brass. During the 2001 football Season
Mr. Herron was the Battle Hymn Trumpet Soloist for the Redcoat Marching Band.
He has taught middle and high school band in Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia. Currently
he is in his fourth year at Northside High School where the band has received numerous
Superior Ratings in Concert and Marching Band Festivals and the band has doubled in size
from 60 wind players to over 120.
Program Notes
Northside High School Symphonic Band I
The Big Four March
Karl King
In 1919, Karl King returned to Canton where he directed the Grand Army Band. He
also ventured into music publishing business by establishing his company ‘K.L. King Music
House’. The company published its first work, “Broadway One-Step”. By 1920, he had
settled in Fort Dodge. From then on, he conducted the Fort Dodge Municipal Band, which
he continued to do so for the next fifty-one years. Joseph Hermann, who then became the
president of Bandmasters Association, was a member of his band. King worked passionately
for the betterment of the band and later it became famous as King’s Band. Karl King played
an important role in the enactment of the Iowa Band Law in 1921, which allowed cities to
impose a local tax for maintenance of a band. When the law was passed he felt so ecstatic
that he celebrated the news with his famous march named “Iowa Band Law”.
Lux Aurumque
Eric Whitacre
The inspiration for the work was a short poem in English, "Light and Gold", by
Edward Esch (born 1970), which begins with the word "Light" and ends "angels sing softly
to the new-born babe". Charles Anthony Silvestri translated this text into Latin for Whitacre,
and attempted to render "the original poem into Latin as and as as I could". The piece was
composed in 2000 on a commission from the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay and dedicated
to Dr. Jo-Michael Scheibe. It was published in 2001. In 2005, Whitacre adapted it for wind
band, a version first performed and dedicated to Gary Green, Director of Bands at Miami
University Frost School of Music.
The Ascension
Robert W. Smith
Commissioned by the George Mason University Band, "The Ascension" represents
Dante's ascension into heaven. The piece follows typical overture form, starting out with
Dante looking up to the stars atop Mount Purgatory. A swift horn motif starts Dante's
ascension, moving faster than thought. Technically difficult woodwind runs add to the speed
of Dante's ascension, as well as loud, dissonant trombone glissandos. The middle of the
piece slows down, where the band sings accompanied by bowed vibraphone and pitched
wine glasses. The opening theme of the movement is repeated in the woodwinds, while the
remainder of the band sings "alleluia." After a short horn solo, the music of the gods and of
heaven builds to a climax with a trumpet solo, which is then expanded on by the rest of the
band. The piece then speeds up again with the same horn motif, finishing with a climactic
and dramatic crescendo to the final note, as Dante finally arrives in Heaven. The movement
begins in E-flat major, modulates to C minor, then modulates to B-flat major at the trumpet
solo. When the horn motif returns, the piece once again modulates to C minor, where it
stays for the rest of the piece.
Mercer University Wind Ensemble
The Spirit Sleeping
I. Pegasus
John Gibson
This multi-movement composition was written for the Dallas Wind Symphony in
celebration of the life of Howard Dunn, founder of the DWS and former director of the
Southern Methodist University Meadows Wind Ensemble. Gibson takes three mythological
winged entities, which draw a more dramatic effect in music. While there are no program
elements borrowed from the myths to structure the three separated pieces, the only musical
element common to all three pieces is a chorale themed employed in each. Pegasus, the
winged horse who springs from the slain body of Medusa to ultimately fly among the stars
seems to be an appropriate fanfare theme for The Spirit Sleeping.
Source: John Gibson
Loch Lomond
Frank Ticheli
During the Battle of Culloden Moor in April 16, 1746, an army of 7,000 soldiers were
led by Bonnie Prince Charlie (Prince Charles Edward Stuart), and eventually defeated by the
British in an attempt to overthrow King George II. This is the battle that gives such
popularity to this beautiful song. Loch Lomond is a story of two Scottish soldiers who were
imprisoned after the war, and eventually one of them must accept death and the other to let
go and walk free. In Celtic legend if someone dies in foreign land, then their spirit will travel
on the low road, and the living will travel over the mountains to arrive afterwards – the high
road. The song is seen through the soldier’s point of view of whom is about to be executed,
which gives it more of a captivating setting with emotions to both the audience and
performers.
Source: Frank Ticheli
Pagan Dances
I. Ritual
James Barnes
Pagan Dances, as Mr. Barnes would describe it, is the piece that completes his cycle of
the four ‘primitive’ works for symphonic band. Within a ten-year span, Mr. Barnes managed
to complete four major works, which really accents the symphonic band repertoire. His
work began with Visions Macabre in 1978, followed by Invocation and Toccata in 1980, Torch
Dance in 1984, and to finish the remarkable ring, Pagan Dances in 1987. Completed in
December of 1987, the piece was not premiered until February 5, 1988 by the University of
Central Arkansas Symphonic Wind Ensemble at the CBDNA Southwest Division
Convention in Ft. Worth, Texas. Mercer Wind Ensemble will be performing the first
movement of Pagan Dances. The first movement portrays an imaginary scene from the
prehistoric times by beginning with an entrance of the worshipers performing a Ritual dance
before their idol god.
Wedding Dance
Jacques Press
Made popular by Wedding Dance, Press was very discrete about his life. Press spent
many of his years in Hollywood and New York, mainly arranging music for the motion
picture industry. He studied piano and composition in Paris, and then started to have a
career in composition. Before moving to the United States, he toured with his symphony
from 1924–25 performing all of his compositions, and then immigrated to the United States
in 1926. Wedding Dance is taken at a very fast tempo, keeping the listener on they’re feet.
The Hounds of Spring
Alfred Reed
This piece first premiered in Windsor on May 8, 1980, and was commissioned by
Gerald A. N. Brown and the John L. Forster Secondary School Symphonic Band of Windsor
(Ontario, Canada). Brown was the director at the time when this was premiered by the
symphonic band, which was conducted by Alfred Reed. The composer’s purpose was to
capture the twin elements, which are found in the following excerpt from “Atalanta in
Calydon.” This exciting, rhythmic overture for band is in the style of Italian opera overtures
from the 18th–century. In 1865 English poet, Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909),
wrote this poem with such exuberating, youthful gaiety that Reed had an idea of matching
the poem with his music.
Source: Harvard Classics and Alfred Reed
When the hounds of spring are on winter’s traces,
The mother of moths in meadow or plain
Fills the Shadows and windy places
With lisp of leaves and ripple of rain;
Where shall we find her, how shall we sing to her,
Fold our hands round her knees, and cling?
O that man’s heart were as fire and could spring to her,
Fire, or the strength of the streams that spring!
And soft as lips that laugh and hide
That laughing leaves of the trees divide,
And screen from seeing and leave in sight
The god pursuing, the maiden hid.
The Planets
Gustav Holst arr. Calvin Custer
Venus
Mars
It wasn’t until November 15, 1920 when the London Symphony Orchestra under the
baton of Albert Coates premiered Gustav Holst’s complete work of The Planets. Holst’s first
time conducting all eight movements wasn’t until October 13, 1923 when he premiered it
with the LSO again at the Queen’s Hall Orchestra at a Promenade Concert. Holst only
made two recordings of The Planets before his passing. The first recording was acoustic and
was made in sessions between 1922 and 1924; the second recording utilized a more modern
electrical recording process, and that recording was made in 1926. Holst attended the
Cheltenham Grammar School from 1886–1891. His compositions started in 1886, and his
major influences were Mendelssohn, Chopin, Grieg and most importantly Sullivan. His
father tried to steer him away from becoming a concert pianist, but since Gustav had neuritis
in his right arm, this prevented him from making a living as a pianist. Holst eventually was
accepted at the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Charles Villers Stanford. To
help support himself, Holst played trombone professionally at seaside resorts in the summer
and in the London theatres during winter. He eventually secured an occasional engagement
in symphony concerts in 1897 under the baton of Richard Strauss at Queen’s Hall.
Personnel
Northside High School Symphonic I
Flutes
Hannah Fauquier
Emma Rowland
Natalie Quesenberry
Nick Wong
Blake Hattaway
Nikki Pekney
Lauren Thompson
Oboe
William Crouch
Clarinet
Sarah Landreth
Hannah Nguyen
Jordan King
Abira Oates
Diana Yanez Robles
Aaliyah Dixon
Rhi Willis
Antonia Wiggins
Bass Clarinet
Ally McDonald
F Horn
Will King
Will Wood
Kathrin Allen
Jose Casillas
Lylee Quinn
Trumpet
Steven Landreth
Jordan Glover
Jade Wright
Jada Ross
Reagan Sanders
Rachael Chafin
Trombone
Kyra Wong
Cody Tribble
Alex Evert
TJ Amica
Aaron Sewell
Matt Gill
Contra Bass Clarinet
Chellis Benton
Baritone
Robert Gilstrap
Chris Walds
Maggie Jones
Alto Saxophone
Kaitlyn May
Alex Oakly
Daniel Nguyen
Tuba
Darvin Rumph
Josh Tucker
Christian Glover
Tenor Saxophone
Virginia Buzzell
Casey Blackwell
Percussion
Merry Grace Quinata
Zoe Berry
Zakary Nichols
Daniel Underwood
Farrah Lynn Mullis
Armonte Nesbitt
Matt Davis
Baritone Saxophone
Nick Oakley
Mercer University Wind Ensemble
*denotes section leader
Flutes/Piccolo
Lilly Mauti - Piccolo
1st – Jasmine Bailey*
Kennedi Johnson
Molly Addison
2nd - Andrea Hilden
Sophia Harlan
Kelsey Andrews
Trumpets
1st – Rolando Fernandez*
2nd - Dillon Watkins
3rd - Daniel Sohn
Drew Roberts
Oboe
Maia Nichols
Horns
Megan Cargin*
Kirston Cox
Carter Watkins
Ana Olsen
Zack Mikos
Clarinets
1st - Antonio Ponce*
Tara Barton
2nd - Taylor Wilson
3rd - Taylor Heilesen
Trombones
John Lincourt*
Andrew Braley
Riley Chapman
Jack Faulkner-Bass
Bass Clarinet
Brandon Reagan
Euphonium
Ryan Lambright*
Beau Harper
Cody Taylor
Bassoons
Marlon Moody
Saxophones
Alto 1 – Roy Miller*
Alto 2 – Kristian Taylor
Tenor - Justin Furness
Bari - Denzel Washington
Tuba
Kyle Montgomery*
Cameron Underwood
Percussion
Josh Bowman*
Brian Tyra
Mike Scott
Marcus Reddick
Acknowledgements
Dr. Greg Peavy, Principal-Northside High School
Dr. Mark Scott, Superintendent-Houston County Schools
Dr. David Keith, Dean Townsend School of Music
Guest Percussionists: Dr. Marcus Reddick, Townsend School of Music
Mr. Mike Scott, Director of Bands, Central High School Macon
Upcoming Concerts