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Morning Star & Symphony No. 4
The University of Massachusetts-Amherst Wind Ensemble
Malcolm W. Rowell, Jr., Conductor
Professor of Music and instructor of music theory and composition at the University of Massachusetts, Robert Stern was educated at the University of Rochester, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of California at Los Angeles. He has served as resident composer at Yale University (Guest of the Sanford Fellowship), Haverford College, and Hampshire College. In addition to composition awards, including grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, and ASCAP, he has enjoyed numerous fellowships at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo and the Millay Colony for the Arts. Stern's music has been widely performed throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and Israel by prominent groups including the Beaux-Arts String Quartet, the DaCapo Chamber Players and the Eastman Musica Nova. His chamber and orchestral music has been programmed in the Musical Viva Concert Series (Tel Aviv), Lukas Foss's “Meet the Modern” series, the Camden Festival (London), and the Aspen Music Festival. Recent commissions have included new works for the Chamber Music Series of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Library of Congress, the Krosnick/Kalish Duo, and the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia. His works have been recorded on the CRI, Opus One, Centaur, Gasparo, Albany, and Polygram labels.
Stern writes the following about Ultima Fantasia:
Ultima Fantasia was written for Malcolm W. Rowell, Jr. and the University of Massachusetts Wind Ensemble. The piece reflects my long-standing interest in the 14th century Italian madrigal “O tu cara scienzia mia musica” by Florentia which began in 1968 with a series of works based on this madrigal. Ultima Fantasia exploits the virtuoso vocal style of trecento music in 20th-century instrumental terms, especially in the manner in which the winds present a chromatic extension of the 14th-century ideal of vocal melisma. It is set in one movement consisting of several interconnecting sections, with each dealing with a specific rhythmic, harmonic, coloristic, or contrapuntal idea.
As the title suggests, Ultima Fantasia was planned as the final work in this series, but Stern's fascination persisted up to 2000 with Ultimissima Fantasia for viola da gamba and harpsichord, presumably the final piece in the set.
An active composer, Joseph Turrin has written for almost every conceivable medium. He received his formal education at the Eastman and Manhattan Schools of Music. He has been nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize, won the Ann M. Alburger Award for Chamber Music, and received grants from the United Nations (for contributions in the arts), ASCAP, American Music Center, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (five fellowships). His works have been performed by such groups as the U.S. Army Band, Atlantic Brass Quintet, Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, St. Martin-in-the-Fields Academy Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchester (Leipzig, Germany), Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, which also commissioned his Hemispheres, to be premiered on Kurt Masur's final concert with the orchestra in May 2002. Also active in film, Turrin composed the score to Alan Alda's A New Life and was commissioned in 1986 to write an original orchestral score for the restoration of the silent film classic Sadie Thompson. In addition to work in musical theater, Turrin was responsible for the orchestrations of the 1992 Olympic Fanfare for the summer Olympic ceremonies in Barcelona, Spain.
Turrin writes the following about Serenade Romantic:
I composed Serenade Romantic in the summer of 1982 for the New Jersey Wind Symphony. The work is dedicated to the memory of Howard Hanson (1896-1981), composer, conductor, musical statesman and educator. From 1924-1964, he was the director of the Eastman School of Music. When Howard Hanson retired in 1964, his service to the University of Rochester was extended as the director of the newly created Institute of American Music.
While not overly programmatic, Serenade Romantic is a cinematic tribute to Howard Hanson. In a loose tripartite form, it is concerned with several pairs of juxtapositions, such as lightness/darkness and reflection/expression. The haunting opening theme, characterized by a descending third and a leaping seventh, is contrasted with the lush sonorities of the hymn-like second theme. Gaining momentum, the themes are interwoven, creating a dense collage of sound at the work's emotional peak. As Serenade Romantic unwinds, layers of sound are removed one at a time until only the interval of the falling minor third remains; the haunting atmosphere of the opening reestablished, the piece fades into silence.
Like the energy that radiates from the icons housed in our European museums and art galleries, Michael Daugherty's music successfully releases the poetic power of American icons.
Artistic Director of Settembre Musica in Torino
Michael Daugherty is one of the most performed and commissioned American composers of his generation. He has created a niche in the music world that is uniquely his own, composing concert music inspired by contemporary American popular culture. Daugherty came to international attention when his Metropolis Symphony (1988-93), a tribute to the Superman comic, was performed in 1995 at Carnegie Hall by conductor David Zinman and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He has written several other large works for orchestra, as well as an opera, Jackie O (1997), which has been produced in America, Canada, France, and Sweden. His string quartets have been recorded and included on world tours by the Kronos Quartet. Daugherty has also composed numerous works for wind ensemble, including Desi (1991), Red Cape Tango (1993), Niagara Falls (1997), UFO (2000), and Rosa Parks Boulevard (2001). After studying music composition at North Texas State University (1972-76) and computer music in Paris at Boulez's IRCAM (1979-80), Daugherty received his doctorate from Yale University in 1986 and pursued further studies with composer György Ligeti in Hamburg, Germany (1982-84). During this time he also collaborated with jazz arranger Gil Evans in New York. After teaching music composition for several years at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, he joined the music faculty at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) in 1991, where he is Professor of Composition. In 1999, he began a four-year tenure as composer-in-residence with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Daugherty has received numerous awards for his music, including the Stoeger Prize from Lincoln Center, recognition from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts.
Daugherty writes the following about Motown Metal:
Motown Metal is a seven-minute composition for brass and percussion inspired by the rhythms of industrial Detroit: city of automobile clamor, the sixties Motown sounds and the nineties techno beat. It features instruments made only of metal: four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba and percussion instruments such as vibraphone, glockenspiel, cymbals, and brake drum. The composition is rigorously structured around a series of glissandi crescendos for the trombones, a funky tuba counterpoint, big band staccato chords for the trumpets and the metallic percussion riffs. Motown Metal was premiered by the Detroit Chamber Winds in February 1994, under the direction of H. Robert Reynolds.
Born in Massachusetts, David Maslanka was a clari-netist of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra as a high school student. He later attended the Oberlin College Conservatory where he studied composition with Joseph Wood and clarinet with George Waln. After a year at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, he pursued graduate studies at Michigan State University (M.M. 1968, Ph.D. 1971) studying composition with H. Owen Reed. He has received three National Endowment for the Arts grants from the State University of New York Research Foundation, the Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music, and the American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers. Now a free-lance composer living in Missoula, Montana, he has served on the faculties of the State University of New York at Geneseo, Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, and Kingsborough College of the City University of New York. Works for wind ensemble hold a prominent place in Maslanka's output, including Tears, A Child's Garden of Dreams, and Symphony No. 2, which have previously been recorded by the University of Massachusetts Wind Ensemble.
About Morning Star Maslanka writes:
Morning Star was commissioned by the Grand Ledge, Michigan, High School Wind Symphony, Michael Kaufmann, conductor. It was premiered by them in May of 1997. I was asked to write a celebratory piece for the opening of the wonderful new concert hall at Grand Ledge High.
Morning Star was a surprise to me. In planning the piece, I came up with a great many ideas — enough for three or four pieces. When it came time to compose, I suddenly discarded all of that material and took up a little tune that came to mind. The result is a happy piece, a concept which does not usually attach itself to my music. The piece is a Rondo shape with the “A” portions being sets of variations on the main theme. There are 32 variations in all. The orchestration, while offering enough to the brass and percussion, strongly emphasizes wind color and open sounds.
Morning Star is about beginnings: the dawning of a new day, the opening of a new hall, the beginning of adult life for the young people who premiered the piece, and for those who are playing it now.
“The spontaneous rise of the impulse to shout for the joy of life” is how David Maslanka describes his Symphony No. 4, commissioned by a consortium of collegiate wind bands and premiered by the University of Texas at Austin Wind Ensemble, Jerry F. Junkin, conductor, during the Texas Music Educators' Convention in 1994.
The backbone of the work is the weaving together of several hymn tunes, including two Bach chorales (“Only Trust in God to Guide You” and “Christ Who Makes Us Holy”) and the hymn tune “Old Hundred,” which was performed at Abraham Lincoln's funeral. The presence of these hymns is perhaps best explained by Maslanka's acknowledged fascination with Lincoln. As Maslanka himself writes:
For me, Lincoln's life and death are as critical today as they were more than a century ago. He remains a model for his age. Lincoln maintained in his person the tremendous struggle of opposites raging in the country in his time. He was inwardly open to the boiling chaos, out of which he forged the framework of a new unifying idea… Confirmed in the world by Lincoln was the unshakable idea of the unity of the human race, and by extension the unity of all life, and by further extension, the unity of all life with all matter, with all energy, and with the silent and seemingly empty and unfathomable mystery of our origins… My impulse through this music is to speak of the fundamental human issues of transformation and rebirth in this chaotic time.
University of Massachusetts Wind Ensemble
The Wind Ensemble is an assemblage of the most outstanding woodwind, brass, and percussion students in the Department of Music and Dance at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The ensemble has earned an international reputation for its exemplary interpretation and performance of many of the most significant twentieth-century wind compositions.
Under the musical leadership of Malcolm W. Rowell, Jr., the Wind Ensemble has received enthusiastic response from audiences at the CBDNA Eastern Division Conventions in 1984 and 2000, the MENC Eastern Division conventions in 1983, 1989, and 1993, and the MMEA Conference in 1990. Its performances have received recognition from numerous prominent composers and have been broadcast on WFCR Amherst, WCRB Boston, and National Public Radio in Washington, D.C.
Wind Currents marks the fourth compact disc to be released by the University of Massachusetts Wind Ensemble, Malcolm W. Rowell, Jr., Music Director. The Wind Ensemble has previously released the following three compact discs to international critical acclaim: The Wind Music of David Maslanka (Albany Records, 1991), The Symphonic and Wind Music of Charles Bestor (Centaur Records, 1994), and Tears (Albany Records, 1997). Its fifth CD, The Long Good-Bye: The Symphonic Music of Charles Bestor (Centaur Records) will be released in 2002.
Malcolm W. Rowell, jr., Music Director
Director of Bands and Professor of Music at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Malcolm W. Rowell, Jr., is the principal conductor of the University Wind Ensemble and Symphony Band. Formerly the Music Director of the Metropolitan Wind Symphony (1986-1991) and Visiting Conductor of the Boston University Wind Ensemble (1994-1997), he is the Music Director/Conductor of the South Shore Conservatory Summer Music Festival program (Hingham, Massachusetts) and the Massachusetts Wind Orchestra, an adult ensemble which he has propelled into national prominence, performing in Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall and being broadcast on National Public Radio. He founded the UMass Youth Wind Ensemble in 1980 and the UMass Honor Band Festival in 1985, attracting highschool students from throughout the Northeast.
Professor Rowell's conducting style has been influenced by Walter Beeler, Frederick Fennell, and H. Robert Reynolds. A strong proponent of new music, he has commissioned and premiered numerous wind compositions. His musical interpretations have won the praise of composers Leslie Bassett, Warren Benson, Michael Colgrass, John Corigliano, Karel Husa, Martin Mailman, David Maslanka, Cindy McTee, Vaclav Nelhybel, Ron Nelson, Robert Stern, Frank Ticheli, Mary Jeanne Van Appledorn, Dana Wilson, and Gene Young. In addition to his five recordings with the University of Massachusetts Wind Ensemble, Professor Rowell has also released two compact discs with the Massachusetts Wind Orchestra: Prevailing Winds Live! (HDP, 1995) and Windscape (Albany Records, 2002).
In recognition of his professional work, he has received the National Band Association's Citation for Excellence, the Kappa Kappa Psi A. Frank Martin Award for his contribution to college bands, and has frequently been recognized as a University of Massachusetts Distinguished Teacher. In March 1997, he was elected to the American Bandmasters Association, the most prestigious organization of its kind in the United States. Professor Rowell is the President of the Eastern Division of the College Band Directors National Association and Past-President of the New England College Band Directors Association. He holds active membership in CBDNA, NECBA, WASBE, MENC, and MMEA. He is frequently invited to serve as guest conductor/ clinician/lecturer at state and regional festivals throughout the United States, England, and Canada.
University of Massachusetts-Amherst Wind Ensemble Personnel
Joseph Oneschuk#Tom Rice*
*Stern, Turrin, Daughterty, & Maslanka (Morning Star)
Dr. Roger Rideout, interim chair, Department of Music and Dance
Dr. Ernest May, Department of Music and Dance
Jeff Harrison, recording engineer (Harrison Digital Productions)
Shauna Milos, assistant recording engineer (HDP)
Geoff Moss, assistant recording engineer (HDP)
Steven Bodner, program notes
A special thank you to the student musicians for their devotion to musical excellence.
Recorded in the University of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center Concert Hall:
David Maslanka Symphony No. 4 on November 25, 1996
Robert Stern Ultima Fantasia and David Maslanka Morning Star on November 22, 1999
Joseph Turrin Serenade Romantic and Michael Daugherty Motown Metal on December 1, 1999
David Maslanka's Morning Star and Symphony No. 4 are published by Carl Fischer.
Joseph Turrin's Serenade Romantic is available from the composer.
Michael Daughtery's Motown Metal is published by Peer Music.
Robert Stern's Ultima Fantasia is published by Ballerbach Publications.
Cover Art: Bates Miyamoto Design
1 Ultima Fantasia (1990) [13:25]
2 Serenade Romantic (1982) [9:15]
Michael Daugherty (b. 1954)
3 Motown Metal (1994) [6:29]
4 Morning Star (1997) [9:25]
5 Symphony No. 4 (1993) [26:06]
The University of Massachusetts-Amherst Wind Ensemble
Malcolm W. Rowell, Jr., Conductor
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