Symphonic Overture James Barnes
Tisham Candella
With a background which boasted approximately 200 musical ancestors, it is not surprising that Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750) developed a keen interest in music at an early age. He mastered the violin and clavier and devoted himself to the study and mastery of the organ. As court organist in the town of Arnstadt at the age of eighteen, Bach became interested in composition, devoting every leisure moment to improving his skills. A devout Lutheran, Bach, like his fellow baroque composers, felt that everything a man does and believes is religious. They believed that their music and art helped protect people against the advance of doubt bred by Renaissance ideas of scientific, rational inquiry. During his lifetime, Bach was more famous as an organist and court musician than as a composer. The people of his time considered his baroque compositions too elaborate. His works were largely unknown until rediscovered some eighty years after his death. We are fortunate to enjoy them now as his legacy.
The chorale was a simple, four-line musical form used in the early days of the Protestant Reformation. Chorales were taught to congregations, who were for the most part illiterate, through a process where a cantor would sing one line at a time, with the congregation repeating each line until they could sing it from memory. The chorale upon which this Alfred Reed arrangement is based is number 727 in the BWV index of Bach's works and was written between 1708 and 1717.
This composition is part of a collection for organ entitled The Eight Little Preludes and Fugues. This transcription by R. L. Moehlmann retains the sonority and interplays of the Baroque original. Originally a short, extemporaneous piece of music that developed out of a musicians natural tendency to play a few notes before commencing, the prelude developed into a formal part of the music. The Prelude introduces the musical key of the composition. Eighth-note runs of the woodwinds liven an otherwise somber key of D minor. The Fugue introduces its theme at a brisker tempo and the added voices develop an imitative counterpoint.
In his last position, as director of the St. Thomas Church Choir in Leipzig, Bach's duty made it necessary for him to compose and have ready a new composition for each church day. Much of what survives as his Five complete sets of Church Music for all the Sundays and Holy days of the year had been written by the year 1731, when an unusually early date for Easter meant that Bach had to provide music for the 27th day after Trinity. The Gospel for the day ws the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Mathew 25:1-13). This chorale is the opening movement of his cantata (BVW 140) Wachet auf, ruft uns di Stimme -- Awake! calls the voice of the watchman. It is a bustling portrait in sound of the city of Jerusalem, waiting at midnight, with watchers posted on the battlements for the arrival of the bridegroom. The urgent dotted chords are tossed back and forth between the instrumental sections, relating the restless nature of the crowd. They relay the watchmen's cries in imitative counterpoint. The choral tune is heard in the long notes of the treble instruments, but it never breaks the energy of the work.
The first three notes of this piece are probably the most famous notes of all organ literature. Its titanic diminished chords, thunderous pedal lines, and theatrical dynamic contrasts have brought this work notoriety beyond the church and concert hall and into films ranging from Fantasia to Rollerball. The toccata (derived from the word, toccare, to touch) was a technical work in which difficulties of execution were always present Rather than considering that this work presents a fugue preceded by a toccata, the title of this work is best interpreted as the brilliant composition of a fugue phrase itself, weaving through the blazing, triumphant chords. After the announcement of the theme, the rhythm of sixteenths continues almost without interruption to the final measures.
Little is known of P.D.Q. Bach (1807 - 1742 ?) due to a conspiracy of silence perpetrated by his own parents. The last and least of the great J. S. Bach's twenty-odd children, he was certainly the oddest. His father completely ignored him, setting an example for his family and posterity. He finally attained total obscurity at the time of his death. His musical output would be lost but for the efforts of Professor Peter Schickele, who in 1954, rummaging around in a Bavarian castle in search of musical gems, happened upon the original manuscript of the Sanka Cantata, being employed as a strainer in the castle caretaker's percolator. A cursory examination of the music immediately revealed the reason for the atrocious taste of the coffee. Other works attributed to P.D.Q. Bach are The Abduction of Figaro, Oedipus Tex, Wachet Arf, The Seasonings, The Short-Tempered Clavier, Art of the Ground Round, and The Magic Bassoon. See Prof. Peter Schickele.
The Grand Serenade was composed on commission from Prince Fred of Wein-am-Rhein, for some sort of outdoor occasion. P.D.Q. Bach had originally wanted to write a really big work of thirty-five or forty minutes duration, but he agreed to make it only a third as long when Prince Fred offered to triple the fee. Soon after it was played, a member of the Prince's household used the pages of the score to wrap six large sausages, which were sent to Paris to be presented as a gift to Benjamin Franklin, from whom the Prince was anxious to obtain the specifications for building a glass harmonica, which Franklin had recently perfected. Eventually, the manuscript made its way to an attic in Boston, where Peter Schickele found it among the belongings of an eighteenth century Tory, in a box marked Seditious Material.'' Some adjustments have been made to the arrangement for the lack of a dill piccolo, which is now obsolete and litte is known. (Theodore Presser Co.)
This arrangement by Warren Barker gives a sampling of some of the many tunes that have brought enjoyment to Leroy Anderson's fans. The bright mood of the Beguine tempo of Serenata begins the portrait. A light swing transition introduces The Syncopated Clock. The Blue Tango brings back a Latin tempo before the brisk finale of Bugler's Holiday, which has been credited for motivating the most trumpeters to learn (or improve) the art of double-tonguing.
Famous for his concert music with a pop quality'' (his own words), Leroy Anderson (1908 - 1975) possessed not merely a skill in technique and a rich melodic gift, but also an engaging sense of humor. He was particularly successful in creating descriptive pieces that effectively borrowed sounds and rhythms of the extramusical world, such as the ticking of a clock, the clicking of a typewriter, and the ringing of sleigh bells. Leroy Anderson first studied music with his mother, who was a church organist. He earned a B.A. degree in music at Harvard University in 1929 and an M.A. degree in foreign language there the following year. As a student, he conducted the Harvard Band from 1928 to 1930. He became a music instructor at Radcliffe College from 1930 to 1932 and returned to Harvard as band conductor from 1932 to 1935. Later, he served as a church choir director, an organist, a conductor, and a composer-arranger, whose works in the encore'' category have few equals. Anderson was a captain in the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps during and after World War II.
Broadway has given us a large number of musical performances that have excited the audiences to spontaneously react with applause that interrupts the production. Warren Barker has produced an arrangement of six of these notable songs. Everythings Coming Up Roses was sung by Ethel Merman performing as Rose in Gypsy. Based on the life of Fanny Brice, the 1964 musical Funny Girl featured Barbra Streisand singing People. Alfred Doolittle, Elizas father, told us that his fate could change With a Little Bit of Luck in the production of My Fair Lady. On A Clear Day is both the name of the song and the musical premiered in 1965 that concerns a woman with ESP who has been reincarnated, starring Barbara Harris. It reached a wider audience in the 1970 film with Barbra Streisand. The opening song for The Fantasticks was Try To Remember, extolling the audience to imagine what the sparce set suggests. The success of these musical productions is summed up with Thats Entertainment! written for the MGM musical film The Band Wagon. It has become a signature tune on Broadway and in Hollywood.
Commissioned by the prestigious Northshore Concert Band of Wilmette, Illinois, under the direction of John P. Paynter, this work was written as a feature for solo saxophone quartet (soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone) and concert band. In keeping with its title, Capriccio possesses a light and lively style with a somewhat improvisatory character. The introduction has the quartet establishing the central theme that will be heard throughout the work, appearing in tempo from vivace to andante. Cadenza-like sections place high technical and musical demands on the soloists.
Cole Porter is one of the great song writers of the Twentieth Century. He started to achieve success in the 1920s and by the 30s his Broadway musicals were as popular as those of his contemporaries George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, and Jerome Kern. Arranger Warren Barker has melded nine of Porters tunes from that period into the delightful Cole Porter On Broadway. Porters 1934 musical Anything Goes featured Ethel Merman. Her strong, brassy voice informed us that the conventions of the olden days were gone and now Anything Goes. Porters lyrics were clever, funny, and romantic with great nuances. Amorous situations were topics in You Do Something To Me (1929), Lets Do It (Lets Fall In Love) (1928), and What Is This Thing Called Love? (1929). The musical Anything Goes also featured one of Porters famous list songs, Youre The Top, with more than 60 comparisons to people, places, and things. References to a Bendel bonnet, Lady Aster, Arrow Shirt collars, and Phenolax might not be recognized by contemporary audiences, but the quick and witty responses are still appreciated. Just One Of Those Things was a lucky survivor of the 1935 musical Jubilee that ran for just 169 performances. The lyrics to Love For Sale were considered too explicit for radio broadcast in 1930, granting it instant notoriety. In his last Broadway show, The Gay Divorce, Fred Astaire sang Night and Day. It became one of Porters most recorded songs. This medley fittingly concludes with Blow, Gabriel, Blow from Anything Goes.
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