Kai Smith

MUS 319 — Dabback

Program Project

Program

Festive Overture (tr Hunsberger) — Dmitri Shostakovich (6:40)

Polovetsian Dances (tr Hindsley) — Alexander Borodin (17:00)

Symphonies of Wind Instruments — Igor Stravinsky (9:15)

Romeo and Juliet (tr Hindsley) — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (19:10)

1. Rationale

For this concert, I thought I would put together a concert with all Russian

composers. I believe that these four pieces come together really nicely for a high

school band because it covers a wide variety of musical styles and periods and

because it presents multiple musical challenges for all players involved. Not

only would it be a great educational opportunity for the students in the band,

but this program would great to play as a fundraising event for the school’s

Russian language department. This fundraiser would also be an opportunity to

help alleviate the rising tensions in the U.S. and Russian political climate by

showing how Russian music has been influential to the U.S. public sphere for

the past couple centuries.

2. Program Notes

Festive Overture

Written in 1954, Festive Overture was premiered in observance of the

37th anniversary of the 1917 Revolution. And while named an “overture”

there is no other piece that is supposed to follow it. Although the music

opens with the grandest of all ceremonial fanfares in the bright key of A

major, the music reaches a more lyrical melody. Shostakovich develops

 this material in his typical style, using both themes in counterpoint,

before the fanfare returns and leads to a rousing coda. (Kennedy Center)

Polovetsian Dances

Polovetsian Dances was originally a ballet sequence within an opera

called Prince Igor. The opera was unfinished when Borodin died in 1887.

His friends, the composers Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander

Glazunov, finished it and oversaw its first complete performance in 1890.

The opera is an epic story about the Russian Prince Igor Svyatoslavich’s

battle against invading Polovtsian tribes in the 12th century.

Symphonies for Wind Instruments

Symphonies of Wind Instruments premiered on June 10, 1920 in London

at Queen’s Hall with Serge Koussevitsky conducting. The reception was

terrible. The audience laughed, complained, and hissed. He certainly

achieved his wish to write something that was “not pleasing.” A

reviewer for the Times reported, however, that the hisses "were no sign of

ill-will towards the composer", and subsided when Stravinsky stood up

at the end of the performance to bow.

Romeo and Juliet

No other play by Shakespeare has inspired as many composers as Romeo

and Juliet. Throughout the romantic era in particular, the drama held an

enormous, and sometimes nearly fatal, attraction. Seldom in

Tchaikovsky's music are form and content as well matched as in Romeo

and Juliet. The contrast between family strife and the lovers' passion

ideally lends itself to sonata form, with two dramatically contrasted

themes; the conflict assures a fierce and combative development section. 

3. Rehearsal Approach

Because Festive Overture is filled with magnificent brass fanfares and

soaring woodwind parts, I would likely rehearse this piece by having the brass

doing a lot of wind patterns or mouthpiece buzzing. This will help the brass

players center the pitches and play with full air support. As for the woodwinds,

I would have them do slow metronome work through the fast passages.

For the Borodin, this piece is much lighter in texture and involves a lot of

diatonic triplet patters so I can include different scale pattern into the ensemble

warm up and have the ensemble sing their parts so that they can hear and match

style. Ensemble warm ups could also include tongued chromatic scale exercises

and simple rhythmic exercises in compound meter.

Because of the rhythmic integrity required to play the Stravinsky and

soloistic nature of each part, I would likely isolate sections or voices and have

the rest of the class “sizzle” the subdivisions so that the group can gain a deeper

understanding of how the internal metronome feels with the music.

Lastly, for the Romeo and Juliet, because there are so many musical motifs

that are imbedded in the music, the biggest challenge the ensemble will face is

ensemble balance. Not only that but the wind band will also have trouble

playing as quietly and delicately as a string section would be able to. To help

accomplish this, I would integrate dynamics into any warm ups that we have

already established with the group. 


 Cited Works

http://www.kennedy-center.org/artist/composition/3748

https://www.a2so.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/March-2015-PNFK.pdf

https://www.indianapolissymphony.org/about/archive/program-notes/stravinsky/

symphonies

http://hpo.org/program-notes-romeo-and-juliet/