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THE CRANE SYMPHONIC BAND
Program Notes • 13 April 2017
INSTINCTIVE TRAVELS
Michael Markowski
Michael Markowski burst onto the concert band scene in 2006 with his
breakthrough composition, Shadow Rituals, the unanimous winner of the First
Frank Ticheli Composition Contest sponsored by Manhattan Beach Music. Three
years later, Markowski returned full force with his work, Instinctive Travels. This
seven-minute musical excursion is a brisk and bustling escapade that propels the
audience through defibrillating rhythms, indulgent mood swings, and a
kaleidoscope of instrumental colors.
suspensions. But the breadth of the five-part polyphonic writing and the richness
of the harmonic sonority make the Fantasia one of the grandest of all Bach's
compositions for organ. It is also one that lends itself most perfectly to the sound
and sonorities of the modern wind band.
The transcription by Richard Franko Goldman and Robert L. Leist was
undertaken as a memorial to Edwin Franko Goldman, who was the first
bandmaster to include the works of Bach regularly in the band's concert repertoire,
and who did so much to introduce the music of this great master to wide audiences.
In this transcription, an attempt is made to recapture the sound of the Baroque
organ through the medium of the modern band. The Goldman Band, Richard
Franko Goldman conducting, gave the first performance of this transcription on
July 1, 1957.
FOLK DANCES
Dmitri Shostakovich
Markowski is an active participant in the many various performing and creative
arts. With ongoing dalliances into acting, screenwriting, cinematography, as well
as literary writing and graphic design, Markowski is well-versed in multiple forms
of communication. And so it is no surprise to discover captivating storytelling in
his musical compositions. Instinctive Travels evokes joyful euphoria, excitable
anticipation, laughter and giddiness, and heroic exhilaration.
Dmitri Shostakovich stands as one of the landmark composers of the twentieth
century. Much of his music is intimately connected to the political environment
in which he lived. Despite suffering intense scrutiny from the Soviet government,
Shostakovich’s music succeeded in conveying great expressivity, often with
underlying political messages, at times critical of the government, and at other
times lauding [disingenuously, perhaps] that same government.
Markowski’s musical compositions resonate with today’s audiences because of
the cross-generational influences that have shaped this young composer’s mind.
He can combine the wittiness of a Gilbert & Sullivan patter song with the
insightful social justice message of hip hop; he can meld a Broadway torch song
with the smack of a viral video’s irreverent criticism. With a knack for performing
(theater, cinema, literature, music), Michael Markowski is a communicator.
Better yet, Michael Markowski is a new-generation raconteur.
Shostakovich wrote the suite Op. 63, Native Leningrad in 1942. This suite was
culled from the incidental music for a "concert play spectacle" entitled Native
Country or Motherland. It was scored for tenor and bass soloists, choir and
orchestra, and was premiered on November 7, 1942 at the Dzerzhinsky Central
Club. It was written as a tribute to the courage of the citizens of Leningrad.
You just might hear a hint of John Adams, Frank Ticheli, or John Mackey in
Markowski’s music. But don’t discount the likely influences of A Tribe Called
Quest, Judy Garland, or perhaps even Max Weinberg as well. While along for the
ride, Instinctive Travels might just intersect with any and all of these perennial
performers! But Markowski is his own composer in every right. Instinctive
Travels journeys into the exciting and inventive mind of Michael Markowski —
a protocomposer for the next generation of excursionist band music.
Note by Lawrence Stoffel
FANTASIA
IN
G BWV 572
Johann Sebastian Bach
Bach composed the great G Major Fantasia for organ between 1703 and 1707
during his residence in Arnstadt. It was here, at the beginning of his career, that
his music was found to be too full of “wonderful variations and foreign tones;”
and certainly the Fantasia is strikingly dissonant in its constant texture of
The suite, Native Leningrad, Op. 63 has four movements: Overture – October
1917, Song of the Victorious October (Song of the River Neva), Youth Dance
(Song of the Sailors), and Song of Leningrad
The "Youth Dance" is the movement transcribed as Folk Dances. It first received
this name when transcribed for piano by Lev Solin. The name stuck when retranscribed for military band by M. Vakhutinsky. H. Robert Reynolds rescored
Vakhutinsky's transcription, making it suitable for American wind bands.
While the melodies used in "Youth Dance" are reminiscent of folk tunes,
Shostakovich's work is original. Considering the programmatic nature of the
work, it is justifiable to assume Shostakovich wished to evoke an overt Russian
sentiment in the same way that Gustav Holst's First Suite in E-flat and Gordon
Jacobs' Original Suite sound and feel distinctly British.
GLORIOSA
KING COTTON
Yasuhide Ito
John Philip Sousa
Gloriosa is inspired by the songs of the Kakure-Kirishitan (Crypto-Christians) of
Kyushu who continued to practice their faith surreptitiously after the ban of
Christianity, which had been introduced to that southern region in the mid-16th
century by Roman Catholic missionary Francisco Xavier. The worship brought
with it a variety of western music.
Sousa composed King Cotton in 1895 for the Cotton States and International
Exposition of the same year – an event intended to encourage international trade
by promoting the region to the world, and to showcase products and new
technologies related to the cotton industry. Although President Grover Cleveland
presided over the exposition’s opening, the most notable and historically
important event of the Exposition was Booker T. Washington’s address on the
topic of race relations, which laid the groundwork for the Atlanta Compromise.
Though Christianity was proscribed in 1612 by authority of the Tokugawa
Shogunate in Edo (today Tokyo), Kakure-Kirishitan continued advocating
sermons and disguised songs. Melodies and lyrics such as Gregorian chant were
obliged to be “Japanized.” For example, the Latin word “Gloriosa” was changed
to “Gururiyoza.” This adaptation of liturgy for survival inspired Ito to write this
piece in order to reveal and solve this unique cultural mystery.
The composer explains:
Nagasaki district in Kyushu region continued to accept foreign culture
even during the seclusion period, as Japan’s only window to the outer
world. After the proscription of Christianity, the faith was preserved and
handed down in secret in the Nagasaki and Shimabara areas of Kyushu
region. My interest was piqued by the way in which the Latin words of
Gregorian chants were gradually ‘Japanized’ during the 200 years of
hidden practice of the Christian faith. That music forms the basis of
Gloriosa.
I. Oratio
The Gregorian chant “Gloriosa” begins with the words, “O gloriosa Domina
excelsa super sidera que te creavit provide lactasti sacro ubere.” The first
movement Oratio opens with bells sounding the hymn’s initial phrases. The
movement as a whole evokes the fervent prayers and suffering of the CryptoChristians.
II. Cantus
The second movement, Cantus showcases a brilliant blend of Gregorian chant and
Japanese elements by opening with a solo passage for the ryuteki, a type of flute.
The theme is based on San Juan-sama no Uta (The Song of Saint John), a 17thcentury song commemorating the “Great Martyrdom of Nagasaki” where a
number of Kyushu Christians were killed in 1622.
II. Dies Festus
The third and final movement, Dies Festus, takes as its theme the Nagasaki folk
song, Nagasaki Bura Bura Bushi, where many Crypto-Christians lived.
Gloriosa, fusing Gregorian chant and Japanese folk music, displays the most
sophisticated counterpoint yet found in any Japanese composition for wind
orchestra.
Regarding King Cotton – Sousa and his band were much sought after, as they had
great drawing power at fairs and expositions. Ironically, due to financial woes,
the officials of the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta attempted
to cancel their three-week contract with Sousa. At Sousa's insistence, the contract
was ultimately honored, and his ensemble “won the day,” receiving rave reviews
in the press:
...The band is a mascot. It has pulled many expositions out of financial ruts. It actually
saved the Midwinter Fair in San Francisco. Recently at the St. Louis and Dallas
expositions, Sousa's Band proved an extraordinary musical attention, and played before
enormous audiences. It is safe to predict that history will repeat itself in Atlanta, and that
the band will do the Exposition immense good. A great many people in South Carolina,
Alabama and Georgia have postponed their visit to the Exposition so as to be here during
Sousa's engagement, and these people will now begin to pour in.
Sousa's latest march, King Cotton, has proved a winner. It has been heard from one end of
Dixie to the other and has aroused great enthusiasm and proved a fine advertisement for
the Exposition.
The Sousa Band did indeed save the exposition from financial ruin, and the
officials who attempted to renege on Sousa's contract now pleaded with him to
extend it. King Cotton was named the official march of the exposition, and it has
since become one of the perennial Sousa favorites.