[Blgspops] Concert info, update

Sat Oct 18 12:16:05 CDT 2014

Hello everyone!

After going over the music info for the program with a couple of people, 
I noticed something. We have a theme, of sorts.

So, I came up with a proposed 'title' for our concert.

Variations, a Fall Celebration

Please let me know what you think.

Below is the concert order, along with the draft of the notes for the 
program. I'll send out a separate message with the members list in a 
little bit.

> Billings Pops Orchestra Presents:
>
> Variations, a Fall Celebration
>
> October 30, 2014
>
> March to the Scaffold - Hector Berlioz (1831) from Symphonie Fantastique
>
> Convinced that his love is unappreciated, the artist poisons himself 
> with opium. The dose of narcotic, while too weak to cause his death, 
> plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of 
> visions. He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is 
> condemned, led to the scaffold and is witnessing his own execution. As 
> he cries for forgiveness the effects of the narcotic set in. He wants 
> to hide but he cannot so he watches as an onlooker as he dies. The 
> procession advances to the sound of a march that is sometimes somber 
> and wild, and sometimes brilliant and solemn, in which a dull sound of 
> heavy footsteps follows without transition the loudest outbursts. At 
> the end of the march, the clarinet theme reappears like a final 
> thought of love interrupted by the fatal blow of the guillotine when 
> his head bounces down the steps, heard by plucked strings. The crowd 
> cheers.
>
> Variations on a Theme by Haydn – Johannes Brahms (1873)
>
> The St Anthony Chorale, found in many hymnals as “We Thy People Praise 
> Thee”, is the main theme. It's one of the earliest theme and 
> variations known. Don't we all like to change ourselves a bit for 
> Halloween? The composer is experimenting here with a musical idea.
>
> It Had Better Be Tonight - Henry Mancini (1963)
>
> This song was written for the Pink Panther movie starring Peter 
> Sellers. The lyrics, in part, are “If you're ever gonna kiss me, it 
> had better be tonight, while the mandolins are playing and stars are 
> bright.”
>
> Capriccio Espagnol - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Rimsky-Korsakov> (1887)
>
> This is the common Western title for a five movement orchestral suite, 
> based on Spanish <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain> folk melodies, 
> composed by the Russian <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia>. This 
> arrangement by Richard Meyer features two sections of the original 
> capriccio: the 'Alborada' (morning serenade) and the 'Fandango of the 
> Asturias' (a dance traditionally played with guitar and castanet 
> accompaniment).
>
> Variations on a Theme by Handel – Maurice Whitney (1958)
>
> The melody is passed around the orchestra like a hot potato. We hope 
> you have as much fun listening as we do playing it.
>
> Symphony <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony> No. 2 in C minor 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_minor>, Op. 17 – Pyotr Ilyich 
> Tchaikovsky (1872)
>
> Tchaikovsky wrote much of the Little Russian Symphony during his 
> summer holiday at Kamenka in the Ukraine with his sister Aleksandra's 
> family, the Davydovs. The Davydov estate had become the composer's 
> favorite refuge. Alexandra had, in fact, encouraged the composer to 
> make Kamenka his second home. His affection for the estate bore fruit 
> in his using local songs in the symphony he was writing. He even once 
> wrote, in jest, that true credit for the Little Russian's finale 
> should have gone "to the real composer of the said work—Peter 
> Gerasimovich." Gerasimovich, the elderly butler in the Davydov 
> household, sang the folk-song "The Crane" to Tchaikovsky while the 
> composer was working on the symphony. This is also a “Theme and 
> Variations” form.
>
> The Symphony No. 5 in D major/D minor, Op. 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_number> 107, known as the 
> Reformation – Felix Mendelssohn (1830)
>
> This piece was composed by Felix Mendelssohn 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Mendelssohn> in 1830 in honor of 
> the 300th anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburg_Confession>. The Confession is 
> a key document of Lutheranism 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutheranism> and its Presentation to 
> Emperor Charles V 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_V,_Holy_Roman_Emperor> in June 
> 1530 was a momentous event of the Protestant Reformation 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Reformation>. The fourth 
> movement is based on Martin Luther 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther>'s Ein feste Burg ist 
> unser Gott <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Mighty_Fortress_Is_Our_God> 
> (A Mighty Fortress Is Our God). At the very end of the piece, a 
> powerful version of Martin Luther's chorale is played by the entire 
> orchestra.
>
> Rhosymedre – Prelude on a Welsh Hymn Tune – Ralph Vaughn Williams (1938)
>
> Rhosymedre is the name of a hymn tune written by the 19th-century 
> Welsh <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales> priest John David Edwards 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_David_Edwards>. Edwards named the 
> tune after the village of Rhosymedre 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhosymedre> in the County Borough of 
> Wrexham <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_Borough_of_Wrexham>, 
> Wales <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales>, where he was the vicar 
> from 1843 until his death in 1885. The tune has been published and 
> sung to a variety of words. The tune was used by Ralph Vaughan 
> Williams <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Vaughan_Williams> as the 
> basis of the second movement of his organ 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_%28music%29> composition "Three 
> Preludes on Welsh Hymn Tunes". This is probably best known as an 
> orchestral arrangement by Arnold Foster published in 1938.
>
> Thank you for sharing this evening with us as we celebrate fall, 
> Halloween, Reformation and music with you.
>

If anyone has any suggestions for changes, please let me know!

Jacquie
President
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