Download SPACE ODYSSEY - Willamette Valley Concert Band

SPACE ODYSSEY
by the Willamette Valley Concert Band
Please join the Willamette Valley Concert Band when they present “Space Odyssey, a
Musical Trip into Space”, a free concert of music depicting a journey into space visiting various
planets, stars and galaxies by outstanding composers of the 19th to the 21th centuries at 2 pm on
Saturday, March 12 in the Russell Tripp Performance Center on the campus of Linn-Benton
Community College, 6500 Pacific Blvd SW just south of Albany. The concert is being sponsored
by Russell and Duffy Tripp through the LBCC Foundation.
The concert will include a wide variety of music written or arranged for concert band by
American and European composers including Richard Strauss, Gustav Holst, Robert Smith,
Richard Rodgers, Herbert L. Clarke, Richard Saucedo, Foster Payne and Roland Barrett.
Featured soloists on the concert will be trumpetist Steve Iverson playing Herbert L.
Clarke’s The Southern Cross. Clarke, famous cornetist and composer of the early 20th Century,
was principal cornet player with the Sousa Band. He wrote this piece after viewing the Southern
Cross constellation seen in the sky above the Southern Hemisphere. Also featured is trombonist
Don Recek playing Blue Moon written by the famous Broadway musical composer and lyricist
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The title refers to the celestial occurrence of two full moons
in the period of one month.
The concert will open with the opening fanfare from Also Sprach Zarathustra by German
composer Richard Strauss which became famous as the opening background music for the movie
Space Odyssey 2001.
Other works on the program will include pieces depicting lift off of the space ship
Enterprise and its flight to distant planets of the solar system which include Beyond the Clouds
and Into the Heavens by Richard Saucedo and Defying Gravity by Steven Reineke.
Cosmic Foundations Initial Expansions: Redshift depicts the formation of our Universe
following the “big bang” and the rapid expansion of matter which eventually formed the
galaxies, stars and planet.
Star Trek: Through the Generations features theme titles from the three generations of
the very popular TV series Star Trek. The work includes Theme from Star Trek, Star Trek the
Next Generation and Theme from Star Trek Deep Space Nine.
Mars and Jupiter are two movements from The Planets by English composer Gustav
Holst. One of his most famous compositions, it includes a wide variety of music depicting all
eight planets in our Solar System. Mars is very martial in character since Mars was the bringer
of war. Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity, is a much lighter and cheerful piece with a hymn like
middle section.
Saturn, The Ringed Planet by American composer Rob Romeyn opens with a pastoral
flavor with bird calls but quickly changes into a whirlwind of tunes and many changing meters.
Closing the concert will be And in the End it Was Earth by Roland Barrett which brings
the space journey to a close as the Enterprise returns to earth. The piece attempts to convey the
inherent beauty, majesty and grandeur of the planet. Mother Earth is a complex and constantly
changing place and a stern but loving and benevolent harbor for life.
The Willamette Valley Concert Band was formed in the spring of 1970 and has
performed concerts in the mid-Willamette Valley for the past 46 years. The 55-member
ensemble includes musicians from Benton, Linn, Marion and Polk Counties. Personnel range in
age from teens to seniors from all walks of life.
Directors of the band are Dr. Richard Sorenson, emeritus professor of music and director
of bands at Western Oregon University, and Christine Barreto, a retired music teacher from the
Lebanon School District. Guest conductor for one selection will be retired North Carolina band
director Mike Rogers who now lives in Albany.
Donations will be gratefully accepted to help defray costs of presenting the concert. Free
parking is available in the south parking lot of LBCC. Russell Tripp Performance Center is
located in Takena Hall.
For further information, go to the band website at www.wvcband.org. or call the director at 503838-3474.