Download MISSISSIPPI COMMUNITY SYMPHONIC BAND December 21, 2013

MISSISSIPPI COMMUNITY SYMPHONIC
BAND
December 21, 2013
Christmas Concert
Narrator Notes
INTRODUCTORY ANNOUNCEMENT
Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the
Mississippi Community Symphonic Band’s 2013
Christmas Concert!
Please be sure your cell phones, pagers, and small
children are turned to silent mode, and we ask that you
be sure you’ve left any other noisemakers, traffic flares,
and rotten vegetables outside in your car.
Page 1 of 13
(First Tune)
A Christmas Festival .................................................................... Leroy Anderson
Leroy Anderson is considered to be one of America’s 4
greatest composers, along with George Gershwin,
Aaron Copland, and Charles Ives. Not merely a
musician, he could speak Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic,
German, French, Italian, Swedish, and English. He
turned down an offer to be the United States attaché to
Sweden to pursue a career as a composer.
As you know, the MCSB loves to play Anderson’s
music, having played for you in the past such delightful
favorites as Clarinet Candy, The Irish Washerwoman,
Bugler’s Holiday, Rakes of Mallow, Blue Tango, and A
Trumpeter’s Lullaby.
In the medley of Christmas songs you’re about to hear,
Anderson brings us Joy To The World, Deck The Halls,
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Good King Wenceslas,
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Silent Night, and Jingle
Bells, and he does it all in the inimitable and delightful
Leroy Anderson style.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Leroy Anderson’s classic A
Christmas Festival!
Page 2 of 13
SPECIAL PRESENTATION BY
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN MOORE
Chairman of the
State House Of Representatives
Education Committee
Page 3 of 13
(Follows A Christmas Festival)
Overture To A Winter Celebration .......................................... James Stephenson
Arranger James Stephenson says this next tune “captures the holiday spirit
and unleashes it all over again!” and he’s right.
In our next piece, you’ll hear several tunes you recognize, including Pat-aPan and Good King Wenceslas, each set in a somewhat unusual but
beautiful manner.
Stephenson’s work is so fresh and original, he has been commissioned to
write pieces for Branford Marsalis, for the Dallas Symphony, and a
concerto for the principal trombonist of the Philadelphia orchestra.
The piece we are about to play for you now was commissioned by the
USAF Band of Liberty from Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts, as “Holiday
Fanfare.”
The piece has been renamed and published as Overture to a Winter
Celebration, so enjoy with us now this delightful medley of tunes by James
Stephenson.
Page 4 of 13
Jingle Bells Around The World ............................................ arr. Jerry Williams
Jingle Bells Around there World is a humorous medley of tunes attached
to “re-arrangements” of an old Christmas favorite - “Jingle Bells.” It
suggests what Santa might hear as he passes over places like Mexico,
Scotland, England, Russia, and of course, the United States.
Our guest conductor for this number is Mr. Todd Taylor, a member of our
trombone section, and the band director at Hillcrest Christian School in
south Jackson.
Todd went to school in Iowa, then to Mississippi College, following which
he taught at Provine High School and Forest Hill High School in Jackson
before assuming his duties at Hillcrest, where he has continued their
tradition of all-superior ratings with both concert and marching bands.
Todd is going to do much more than just wave the stick at the band tonight.
He’ll be treating you to a variety of quick-change illustrations of each of the
countries we will musically fly over in this delightful work.
Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Mr. Todd Taylor, man of many
hats, as he directs Jeff Simmons fun piece, Jingle Bells Around The
World.
Page 5 of 13
White Christmas ................................................... Irving Berlin, arr. R.R. Bennett
White Christmas is the best-selling single record of all time, with estimated
sales of over 100 million copies. Unsurprisingly, it is the most well-known
Christmas tune in the world. It was written by Irving Berlin in 1940 and
was first performed by Crosby on his NBC radio show The Kraft Music
Hall on Christmas Day, 1941.
Tonight’s beautiful setting was arranged by Robert Russell Bennett, one of
the most prolific arrangers of the 20th century. Bennett arranged and
orchestrated more than 300 Broadway musical scores, including Show
Boat, No, No, Nanette, Face The Music, Kiss Me, Kate, My Fair Lady
and Camelot. He orchestrated seven of Rodgers & Hammerstein's musicals,
including Oklahoma!, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of
Music. In 1955 he won an Academy Award for his arrangements for the
film version of Oklahoma!
We have all been hearing White Christmas since we were very young. For
most of us, no song can better bring back memories of Christmases long
past, no song is better at creating that peaceful excitement of the
approaching day of celebration. So dream along with us as we play for you
Robert Bennett’s beautiful arrangement of Irving Berlin’s White
Christmas.
Page 6 of 13
Secret Agent Santa .................................................................... arr. Jeff Simmons
(Intermission is next)
Did you really think that Santa spends most of the year at the North Pole?
What if Santa had another job in the off-season? What if Santa was say, …
a secret agent?
Without his red suit and jingle bells he could pass for just another aging
hippy. It would be the perfect disguise for espionage, for a man who knows
about the WHOLE world, and how to get around everywhere
instantaneously.
Filled with fun secret agent musical clichés, this medley of Christmas tunes
was arranged by Jeff Simmons, currently the director of music at Carolina
Opry in Myrtle Beach, SC, and a band music Arranger/Composer for
Arranger's Publishing Company.
Let your imagination fly now, as you accompany Kris “James Bond”
Kringle to a world of international intrigue, with Jeff Simmons’ fun tune,
Secret Agent Santa.
Page 7 of 13
INTERMISSION
We will now take about a fifteen minute break,
while we set up the stage for the Mississippi
Swing!
(…MS SWING PERFORMANCE…)
(DPM narration after intermission)
Wasn’t that terrific! Let’s have another round of
applause for David Schommer and The
Mississippi Swing!
While we put the stage back together for the
concert band, let me call your attention to the
inserts in your programs.
...
Page 8 of 13
(First after intermission)
Sleigh Ride ........................................................................................Leroy Anderson
Leroy Anderson wrote dozens of highly acclaimed works, including A
Christmas Festival, our concert opener tonight. One of his most famous
compositions is his delightful winter fantasy, Sleigh Ride.
Ironically, this tune was written during a July heat wave in 1948. The tune
remains – like most of Anderson’s music – as young and fresh today as it
was the day it was written.
It is interesting to note that while the Sleigh Ride tune is usually associated
with Christmas, the words to the song never specifically mention a holiday
or a religion.
The song was first recorded in 1950, and hit the Cashbox best-sellers list
when it was re-released in 1952. According to ASCAP, the American
Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, Sleigh Ride consistently
ranks in the top 10 most performed tunes worldwide during the Christmas
season. You know you’ve already heard it a couple hundred times since
Thanksgiving.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we are excited to open the second half of our
concert with Leroy Anderson’s delightful classic, Sleigh Ride.
Page 9 of 13
Christmas Variants ........................................................................ Eliot del Borgo
One of the most somber yet inspiring of our familiar Christmas hymns is
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.
The tune itself is thought to have originated as early as the 12th century,
although at least one version of the Latin Veni, Veni, Emmanuel dates from
the 8th century.
The lyrics to this hymn are based on Isaiah 7:14, an old-testament prophecy
of the birth of Jesus.
Elliot del Borgo has done an absolutely masterful job of setting this carol
for symphonic band, capturing both the somberness and the exultation in a
way that will touch your heart.
Del Borgo was a prolific composer, with over 600 published works,
including the music for the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid. Sadly, he left us
in May of 2013.
Ladies and Gentlemen, allow your hearts to be touched now by del Borgo’s
gorgeous setting of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” titled Christmas
Variants.
Page 10 of 13
Panis Angelicus ....................................................... Cesar Franck, arr. D. P. Miller
Our next tune is Panis Angelicus, which translates as “Bread of the
Angels.”
Saint Thomas Aquinas, who died in 1274, wrote these words in his
hymn “Sacris Solemniis” for the Feast of Corpus Christi. Centuries
later, in 1872, Cesar Franck set the words from this hymn for tenor,
harp, cello, and organ, and incorporated this new music into his Mass,
opus 12.
Tonight, we are delighted to have joining us the Mississippi Boychoir,
singing Panis Angelicus with the band. Don’t worry if you can’t
understand the words – the boys will be singing in Latin.
Boychoirs began in the cathedrals of Europe over fifteen hundred years
ago. They added the prepubescent male voice ranges to hymns, since at
that time women were banned from the performance of sacred music.
Boychoirs have become a Euro-American tradition over the centuries,
with the Vienna Boychoir being the most well known example.
In 1995, the Mississippi Boychoir was founded, with the mission of
training musically talented young men in the qualities needed to
become leaders, and to showcase their talents.
Please welcome director Lelon Thompson and the Mississippi
Boychoir, as they sing with the MCSB, David Miller’s arrangement of
Cesar Franck’s Panis Angelicus.
Page 11 of 13
Christmas Pop Sing-Along ........................................................... arr James Ployhar
Now it’s YOUR TURN! It just wouldn’t be Christmas unless we all get to
sing, now would it!
James Ployhar has put together a delightful medley of Christmas pop tunes
just for you, so you can sing right along with the Mississippi Community
Symphonic Band and the Boychoir, and be an active part of this concert!
We’ll start off with “Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town;” then we can relax
and imagine snowflakes on our noses as we sing “Silver Bells;” next, we
smile and remember our childhoods as we join in “Rudolph The RedNosed Reindeer;” and we can feel our hearts fill with the warmth of the
season and goodwill to all as we sing our wish everyone to “Have Yourself
A Merry Little Christmas.”
As a special surprise, we have an extra-special SONG LEADER tonight!
According to the internet, this song leader was born about 280 AD in
Lycia, what is now present-day Turkey. You know who this is!
Welcome to the microphone, SANTA! And join with us and the
Mississippi Boychoir, don’t be shy! Follow the words in your programs, if
you need the words, and sing along with us all now in this delightful
celebration of Christmas.
Maestro, take it away!
Page 12 of 13
Hallelujah Chorus ............................................................................................ Handel Longfield
End of concert
George Frederic Handel wrote the oratorio The Messiah in 1741. What
most people don’t know is that he wrote the entire work in an unbelievably
short time – a mere twenty-one days!
The story goes that at the work’s premiere performance in April of 1742,
King George II, in attendance at the concert, was so moved by the joy and
jubilation reflected in the Hallelujah Chorus that he rose to his feet. Of
course when the king stands, no one sits, so the entire audience also stood.
Audiences continue to honor this tradition even today by standing during
the performance of this powerful and inspiring work.
If you are able, you may also wish to stand, in celebration of true reason for
the season, and rejoice with us all as we close our concert with Handel’s
awe inspiring Hallelujah Chorus.
(There will be no encore. Bows only)
Page 13 of 13