Fall Concert - November 15, 1998

New Colonial March	Robert Browne Hall/J. Boyd
Overture to Nabucco	Giuseppi Verdi/L. Cailliet
Trumpeter's Lullaby	Leroy Anderson/P. J. Lang
Paris Sketches	Martin Ellerby
Danzon from Fancy Free	Leonard Bernstein/J. Krance
Night Flight to Madrid	Kermit & Walter Leslie
Bagatelles	Vincent Persichetti
Concerto for Band	Gordon Jacob
Serenade for Wind Band	Derek Bourgeois
Hands Across the Sea	John Philip Sousa/F. Fennell

Robert Browne Hall is proclaimed and celebrated as one of Maine's finest composers for band, having written over 200 marches. The New Colonial March, dedicated to John Behr, was premiered by Hall's own Military Band at the laying of the cornerstone for the new city hall in Waterville, Maine in 1901.

Verdi's opera Nabucco established his career at the forefront of Italian composers in the mid-nineteenth century. Premiered in 1842, the overture features several prominent themes from the opera, the most notable being Va Pensiero, a stirring chorus sung by the Hebrew slaves and a contemporary reflection of Italy's own nationalistic struggles with political unity.

Leroy Anderson composed his delightful miniature Trumpeter's Lullaby in 1950. In this work the solo trumpet sings a delightfully lyrical theme to a gently rocking accompaniment, contrasted with a middle section that is more playful and lighthearted.

Martin Ellerby's masterful new work for concert band entitled Paris Sketches is his homage to the city of Paris and the various moods evoked by certain scenes painted in the four movements. Within the piece there are strong pastiche elements of Ravel, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Satie and Berlioz, and the work is unified by various bell motives according to the Parisian location.

The ballet Fancy Free (1944) is set in New York and follows the antics of three sailors as they each try to attract women. Various competitive dances are used and the Danzon danced by the third sailor displays an intense emotional Latin-American style. Fancy Free was eventually transformed into the Broadway musical On The Town.

Night Flight to Madrid, a short brisk work, literally flies the audience off to Madrid at a rapid pace! Although there are some characteristics which might be considered Spanish in the music, the overriding effect is one of excitement and brilliance.

Persichetti wrote these Bagatelles, or "trifles", in 1962 on commission from Dartmouth College. They are uncompromising in their musical idiom as each of the four movements paint a different series of rhythmic, harmonic and timbral characters.

Composed in 1969, the Concerto for Band is a work that displays the craft and musicianship of Gordon Jacob. The formal lines of the work are classical in design and the materials inspired by nationalistic materials. The title, however, is misleading for although there are numerous solos for winds and brass (including a wonderfully evocative nocturne for muted brass in the slow movement), the writing for percussion is far more limited and restricted.

Derek Bourgeois is a lecturer at England's Bristol University and a composer whose influences include Walton and Britten. His Serenade for Wind Band is a work built around an original and beautifully simple lyrical theme, but with numerous odd meter accompaniments, including 11/8, 13/8 and 7/8.

One of Sousa's most popular marches, Hands Across the Sea was composed in 1899 and is typical of the kind of fin-de-siecle optimism that pervaded American music of his day.