LOST AT SEA
ITHACA COLLEGE CONCERT BAND
Benjamin Rochford, director
FLUTE
Nawar Aboud
Emma Cardamone
Aaron Cowen
Brooke Delmage
Jamie Friedlander, piccolo
Zoe Lisa
Gillian Nord
Cameron Ting
Rebecca Weinman
Dionisia Yanniotis, piccolo
Alan Zimmerman
OBOE
Jamie Heskett
CLARINET
Evelyn Balzer
Brendan Blazier
Sammi Bullock
Lillian Caccamo
Raelin Meacham
Xavier Pagano
Sami Shone, bass
EJ Tucker
Toag Wolf, E-flat
BASSOON
Jessie Read
Milo Vinson
ALTO SAXOPHONE
Nick Gilbert
Lindsey Green
Isaac Hophan, soprano
Beckett Olson
TENOR SAXOPHONE
Alyssa Ayerle
BARITONE SAXOPHONE
Bailey Briggs
Daniel Edelman
HORN
Emma Bradley
Lucas Ferguson
Joel Rivera
Simon Stainbrook
TRUMPET
Jayden Casey
Erik Figueroa
Larkin Hanna
Nathan Johnson
Cameron Nocera
Anthony Reyes
TROMBONE
Thomas Burkum
Victor Chicas Caceros
Ian Equinozzi, bass
Alexander Little
Ilan Medwed
EUPHONIUM
Patrick Hogan
Elvis Lazo
TUBA
Seamus Buford
Alex Nacion
Wyndam Withington
DOUBLE BASS
Dylan Drannbauer
PIANO
Samantha Buchanan
PERCUSSION
Sierra Dages
Audrey Diddle
Maddie Krebs
Frankie Marks
Kendall Schreffler
Rachel Somers
Numerous composers have set the words of Wild Nights! to music (Lee Hoiby's song setting and John Adams' Harmonium come immediately to mind). However, to my knowledge, no one has used this wonderfully sensuous poem as the basis for a purely instrumental tone poem. This was my aim, and in so doing I focused most heavily on the lines “Done with the compass,/Done with the chart” and “Rowing in Eden!/Ah! the sea!” These words suggested the sense of freedom and ecstatic joy that I tried to express in my work.
Throughout the piece, even during its darker middle section, the music is mercurial, impetuous, optimistic. A jazzy syncopated rhythmic motive permeates the journey. Unexpected events come and go, lending spontaneity and a sense of freedom. The work is composed in five distinct sections, but contained within each section are numerous surprises and a devil-may-care swagger. Surprises are found at every turn, and continue right through the final cadence.
- Program note by composer
This work is also known as Hebrides Overture. Virtually a tone poem, it was written in 1832 and is still as popular as ever.
After a busy concert season in London, Mendelssohn made a pleasure tour through Scotland, where he was greatly impressed by the wild and beautiful scenery. There he conceived the idea of the Fingal's Cave Overture, one of the pieces in which his poetic imagination found happiest and most flawless expression. The ocean-washed cave on the Isle of Staffa, in the Hebrides, and the ruins of a vast, fantastic castle are suggested, with eerie sights and sounds making up the dramatic thoughts of the overture.
- Program note from Program Notes for Band
Written in 1923 for the following year’s Wembley Exhibition, Sea Songs is a march medley of three well-known sea shanties: Princess Royal, Admiral Benbow, and Portsmouth. Written in typical march form with a trio, it was published simultaneously for brass band and wind band, and was later transcribed by the composer for symphony orchestra. It should be noted that Sea Songs was originally intended to be the final movement of Vaughan Williams’s Folk Song Suite
- Program Note by Nikk Pilato
As its name suggests, Whale and Sea is about Mother Sea and the largest creature on earth, the whale. There are about 80 species of whales today. Some species migrate thousands of kilometers each year from polar seas to warm waters near the equator, and here I tried to imagine traveling with them.
Opening scene is the Arctic Ocean. On dark indigo waters amongst the ice, dorsal and tail fins appear and disappear slightly, suggesting the presence of some undersea creature. After a moment of silence, a huge black mountain-like body, far beyond imagination, suddenly appears in front of the viewer in slow motion. A solo flute begins the story of the ancient history of whales and humans. An old-fashioned melody inspired by the legends of the northern lands is carried over to the soprano saxophone solo, which repeats and develops into the woodwind and brass.
Mid-song reaches the warm southern ocean, after a long journey. Here the whales welcome the birth of their offspring. As the ascending unison of the woodwinds peaks, brass join in, and everyone slowly descends. The image is of a hymn to celebrate the birth of new life, sung in a rousing voice against a majestic seascape glistening in the sun's rays. This part develops and returns in the latter half of the piece.
In the ending, previous motifs are interspersed in fragments, as if recalling the journey. It expresses the emotion and joy that wells up in this world where all living things are precious and beautiful, such as the blue sea, the shining sun, and the vibrant creatures. The song closes with a powerful and spectacular ""Song of Life"" in animated rhythm.
- Program note by composer
Of Sailors and Whales (Five Scenes from Melville) is a five-movement work based on scenes from Herman Melville's Moby Dick. It was commissioned by and is dedicated to the California Band Directors Association, Inc., and was premiered in February 1990 by the California All-State Band, conducted by the composer. The work is sub-dedicated to Robert Lanon White, Commander USN (Ret.), who went to sea as a simple sailor.
The composer provided these notes for each movement:
I. Ishmael - "I go to sea as a simple sailor."
II. Queequeg - "It was quite plain that he must be some abominable savage, but Queequeg was a creature in the transitory state -- neither caterpillar nor butterfly."
III. Father Mapple - "This ended, in prolonged solemn tones, like the continual tolling of a bell in a ship that is foundering at sea in a fog -- in such tones he commenced reading the following hymn; but changing his manner towards the concluding stanzas, burst forth with a pealing exultation and joy."
The ribs and terrors in the whale arched over me a dismal gloom
While all God's sunlit waves rolled by, and lift me lower down to doom. In black distress I called my God when I could scarce believe Him mine, He bowed His ear to my complaint, no more the whale did me confine. My songs forever shall record that terrible, that joyful hour,
I give the glory to my God, His all the mercy and the power.
IV. Ahab - "So powerfully did the whole grim aspect of Ahab affect me that for the first few moments I hardly noted the barbaric white leg upon which he partly stood."
V. The White Whale - "Moby Dick seemed combinedly possessed by all the angels that fell from heaven. The birds! - the birds! They mark the spot ... The whale, the whale! Up helm, up helm! Oh, all ye sweet powers of air, now hug me close ... He turns to meet us ... My God, stand by me now!”
- Program note from score