repertoire appropriate for college orchestras · – attended new england conservatory, identifying...

REPERTOIRE APPROPRIATE FOR COLLEGE ORCHESTRAS

A presentation by the CODA Repertoire Committee:Joel Neves, Patrick Reynolds, David Tedford, Hannes

Dietrich, Delvyn Case

Introduction

■ “Repertoire and Programming for the 21st Century College Orchestra”

■ Post-conference surveys identify repertoire as foremost concern of CODA members.

■ Repertoire data from CODA members

■ 2011 and 2018 Repertoire Surveys

■ CODA Repertoire Committee

■ Useable repertoire databases for CODA Members

2012 Repertoire Survey

■ 2005-2011 / 52% response rate

■ Most performed

■ Most neglected

■ Programming philosophies

Most Oft-performed: Symphonies

① Beethoven, Symphony No. 5② Dvorak, Symphony No. 8③ Dvorak, Symphony No. 9④ Sibelius, Symphony No. 2⑤ Schubert, Symphony No. 8

Most Oft-performed: Overtures/Tone Poems① Brahms, Academic Festival Overture② Gershwin, American in Paris

Mendelssohn, Hebrides/Fingal’s Cave OvertureMussorgsky, Night on Bald Mountain

③ Beethoven, Egmont Overture④ Respighi, Pines of Rome⑤ Bernstein, Candide Overture

Most Oft-performed: Suites/Dance/Multi-movement

① Stravinsky, Firebird Suite② Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition③ Copland, Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo④ Elgar, Enigma Variations

Prokofiev, Lieutenant Kije SuiteRavel, Mother Goose Suite

Most Neglected: Symphonies■ Bruckner: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9■ Vaughan Williams: 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9■ Schumann: 2■ Schubert: 9■ Liszt: Faust, Dante■ Dvorak: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5■ Sibelius: 4, 6, 7■ Tchaikovsky: 1, 3

Most Neglected: Overtures/Tone Poems■ Dvorak: Water Goblin; Noon Witch; The Golden Spinning Wheel;

The Wild Dove; A Hero’s Song; also, Scherzo capriccioso ■ Berlioz: Le corsaire■ Tchaikovsky: Tempest, Hamlet■ Liszt: Orpheus, Tasso, Mazeppa■ Verdi: I Vespri Siciliani■ Strauss: Don Quixote, Also Sprach Zarathustra■ Wagner: Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin, Prelude and Liebestod

from Tristan und Isolde

Most Neglected: Suites/Dances/Multi-movement■ Tchaikovsky: Sleeping Beauty Suite■ Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No. 2■ Copland: Red Pony Suite■ Berlioz: Dance of the Sylphs and Minuet of the Will-o’-the-Wisps■ Debussy: Images pour orchestre: Gigues and Round Dances of

Spring

Programming Philosophies

Practicality

■ Considering the strengths and weaknesses of my ensemble, can the music be prepared at a high level of excellence within the allotted rehearsal time?

■ “We have a fairly large paying audience and need to perform at a high level, so we are careful to stay within our abilities any given season.” (Daniel Dominick, Austin College)

Pedagogy

■ Does the music advance a technical, musical, or career goal that you want your ensemble, or particular individuals, to experience?

■ “[Preparing repertoire] always with an eye to developing the skills and capacities of the individual musicians.” (Michael Shasberger, Westmont College)

Artistic Need

■ “I try to select compositions that students need to perform. Occasionally, I use music that is larger than our orchestra needs to play but we do it anyway because our students need to play it.” (Dr. J. Robert Gaddis, Campbellsville University)

Beethoven and the Symphony

■ One symphony per semester; one Beethoven symphony per year.

Challenging the Musicians

■ “I try to challenge the best players while making sure that the least capable players will be able to learn a way to play a part that will contribute and in which they will learn something.” (David Hagy, Wake Forest University)

Four-year Strategic Planning

■ “Mozart or Haydn each year; in the course of four years, one Brahms symphony, one or two Beethoven symphonies, other Romantic symphonies (Dvorak, Schumann), later Romantic works (Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Mahler), important 20th century works (Stravinsky, Debussy, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, etc.), American works of the neo-romantic school (Copland, Hansen, Hovhaness, etc.)…. [And the] various ethnic styles and geographic areas--British, Russian, Spanish, French, Scandinavian, Slavic, etc.” (Dan Sommerville, Wheaton College)

2018 CODA Repertoire Surveys

■ Expand repertoire possibilities for CODA members

■ CODA Repertoire Committee

■ Woman-Composed and Contemporary Repertoire Surveys– 1) playable 2) artistically meritorious– program size: Large, Medium, Small– CODA conductor commentary

■ Data: responses, totals, most oft-suggested composers, pieces, categories

■ Highlighted repertoire

Highlighted Repertoire■ Woman-Composed Works

– Entr’acte – Caroline Shaw (Chaowen Ting)– Symphony No. 1 – Florence Price (Delvyn Case)– Rockwell Reflections – Stella Sung (Patrick Reynolds)

■ Contemporary Works– Nei Sogni – Carlos Velez (Paul Luongo)– Hometown Miniatures – Drew Fennell (David Tedford) – The Ghosts of Alder Gulch – Richard Pearson Thomas (Hannes Dietrich)

Entr’acte – Caroline Shaw (2011)

■ From CODA Survey: Recommended in Medium and Small categories.

■ Composer Bio: A native of Greenville, North Carolina, Caroline Shaw began writing music at the age of ten. She studied the violin through the Suzuki method, later earning degrees in violin performance from Rice and Yale universities. In 2010, she entered a PhD program in composition at Princeton. At the age of 30, she became the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music after writing the a cappella composition, Partita for 8 Voices.

■ Instrumentation and duration: String Orchestra, 10’


■ Background/meaning of piece:– “Entr’acte was written in 2011 after hearing the Brentano Quartet play

Haydn’s Op. 77 No. 2 — with their spare and soulful shift to the D-flat major trio in the minuet. It is structured like a minuet and trio, riffing on that classical form but taking it a little further. I love the way some music (like the minuets of Op. 77) suddenly takes you to the other side of Alice’s looking glass, in a kind of absurd, subtle, technicolor transition.” (Caroline Shaw)


■ String quartet version

■ Composer self-published and very affordable ($100 for PDFs of score and parts)

■ CODA conductor comments (from survey) + committee member comments:– “Difficult independent rhythms, mixed meter, awkward chromatic leaps”– “Really fun, intriguing piece for a younger string orchestra. Full of

extended techniques that are fairly easy to execute.”– “This is a string orchestra piece that nicely balances some

contemporary techniques with diatonic sections.”– “It's a great choice for contemporary piece by a woman composer. It's

about 10 minutes long.”

Symphony No. 1 – Florence Price (1932)

■ From CODA Survey: Recommended in Large category.

■ Biography:– First African-American woman to have a piece performed by a major

orchestra. – Attended New England Conservatory, identifying as Mexican in order to

gain admission. Returned to Little Rock after NEC, but soon fled to Chicago with her family due to racial violence. Divorced in 1931, she built a professional career as a single mother, studying, composing, and submitting music to competitions.

– Won the Wanamaker prize for her Symphony no. 1, which was premiered by Chicago Symphony in 1932.

– Orchestral works include 4 symphonies (one lost), 3 tone poems, Concert Overture, 2 violin concertos, piano concerto.

■ Four movements, 40 minutes, 2+2pic.2.2.2/4.2.3.1/timp.perc/str– Mvt 1: (16 minutes): satisfying and dramatic, heavily indebted to Dvorak

in its scoring and pentatonic melodies.– Mvt 2: (13 minutes): strongest. Rich brass chorales, obliquely

referencing spirituals, alternating with lyrical string-heavy passages.– Mvt 3: (4 minutes): only movement that directly references syncopated

African-American styles.– Mvt 4: (5 minutes) is a vigorous compound-meter jog featuring minor

pentatonic material.

■ Audio (Complete piece) (0, 16:30, 30:00, 33:30)

■ G. Schirmer (rental). Individual movements are available to rent.



■ Derivative of Dvorak. Symphony no. 3 in C minor is stronger; includes two wonderful jazz-influenced movements.

■ I also highly recommend “The Mississippi River” (30 minutes):– powerful, moving, and wonderfully varied travelogue – quotes a huge range of American music (spirituals, pop songs, cowboy

songs, and Native American melodies.) – The use of the spiritual “Go Down Moses”, with its refrain of “Let My

People Go” makes this piece a powerful statement about racism and equality.

– Lots of “river” music (fast scalar passages for woodwinds and strings)– Great solo writing for woodwinds, trumpet, & cello, fun percussion parts. – The Moldau + Appalachian Spring

Rockwell Reflections – Stella Sung (2007)

■ From CODA Survey: Recommended in Medium category.

■ About Stella Sung….

As a national and international award-winning composer, Stella Sung’scompositions are performed throughout the United States and abroad. She is the Director of the Center for Research and Education in Arts, Technology, and Entertainment (CREATE) at the University of Central Florida, and is Professor of Music in UCF's School of Visual Arts and Design (Digital Media), College of Arts and Humanities. She served as Composer-in-Residence (2013-16) with the Dayton (OH) Performing Arts Alliance (Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Dayton Ballet, and Dayton Opera). During the course of her three-year residency, she created new works for orchestra, ballet, and opera.


■ Instrumentation 2 (+pic) 2/2/2 – 4/3/3/1 – timp +2 – hp – strings

■ Duration 24:00 (in five movements)

■ For Rockwell Reflections, Stella Sung chose five paintings by Norman Rockwell to use as points of departure for her composition. Like Rockwell’s paintings, these compositions have a strong narrative quality and are personally reflective of Rockwell’s works.

1. Introduction – “Artist Facing Blank Canvas” (1938)

2. Moderato espressivo – “The Stay at Homes” (1927)

3. Scherzo – “Checkers” (1928)

4. Largo espressivo – “Murder in Mississippi” (1965)

5. Andante maestoso – “The Peace Corps, JFK’s Bold Legacy” (1966)


■ Complete performance (audio only)

https://youtu.be/TkoehTRxYDw

■ Complete performance (video)

https://vimeo.com/122851355

■ Publisher: Available through the composer at www.stellasung.com

From the composer: “I would be delighted to have CODA members contact me for performance opportunities. The work is published by me so they will need to contact me for score and parts. Currently, I am having the UCF orchestra librarian handle rental of parts, and part of the fee will go back to the orchestra so as to support the student orchestra.”


CODA conductor comments (from survey):

■ “An excellent and playable work. Intended to be performed with projected images.”

■ “Mostly playable, though there is a trumpet solo that requires ease in the upper range. (Stella has expressed a willingness to re-write it)”

Additional comments:

■ In addition to numerous professional performances, Rockwell Reflections has been performed by the University of Florida Symphony, University of Central Florida Symphony and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.

Nei Sogni – Carlos Velez (2018)

■ This piece was not suggested by a CODA member in the survey. Paul Luongo commissioned it for this year’s CODA conference.

■ Composer bio

Velez's works have been performed by The United States Army Band Clarinet Quartet, the Canton Symphony Orchestra, the Whitman College Orchestra, the Tosca Duo, Clarinundrum, the Una Voce Clarinet Quartet, and others. Velez has taught music theory, aural skills and sight singing, composition, and flute at Valencia College in Orlando, FL, as well as composition, music technology, and music theory at Stetson University in DeLand, FL. He is currently NTT Assistant Professor of Music at Western Oregon University, where he teaches music theory, aural skills, composition, and flute. He holds degrees in composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and Stetson University.


■ Instrumentation and duration

1111-1110-Str-1 Perc (Vibraphone, Chimes)-Organ-Choir (9’)

■ Background/meaning of piece

Nei Sogni is a musical fantasy that derives much of its melodic material from Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli. The work was envisioned as an acoustic representation of Palestrina's dreams during the time in which the Missa was composed. Throughout the piece, colorful textures weave in and out of fragmented iterations from Palestrina's original, creating a kaleidoscope of sounds both old and new. The vibraphone plays an important role in Nei Sogni, representing Palestrina himself, as his mind drifts from one theme to another. Another interesting inclusion in the piece is the portative organ, which adds a distinctly liturgical color palette to the composition.


Audio/video clips of piece

■ You will hear this work performed at the conference by the Whitman College Orchestra & Chamber Singers.

Publisher

■ As part of that commission, the composer has agreed not to move forward with publication of the work and instead make it freely available to any CODA members. Contact information: [email protected]

From Paul Luongo, conductor of Whitman College Orchestra:

■ “This work is designed to be widely accessible to a chamber college orchestra and choir. The organ part can be performed on portative or modern organ.”

Hometown Miniatures – Drew Fennell (2002)

■ From CODA Survey: Recommended in Small category

■ About Drew Fennell….“Composer of the Year” for Butler Symphony Orchestra’s 60th Season: featured Fanfare and Theme, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and Hometown Miniatures and a new work entitled Apollo 11. Arranged for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Concert Chorale, and River City Brass. Assistant Principal Solo Cornet and Principal Solo Flugelhorn of River City Brass (Pittsburgh, PA)


■ Instrumentation: 2 (+pic)/2 (+EH)/3 (+Bcl)/2 (+cbn) – 4/3/3/1 – timp +4 – hp– strings

■ Duration: approximately 7 minutes

■ Fennell attempted to recreate the small town USA feel. The piece is divided into four sections, linked by a single theme stated by the horn at the beginning.

– The first section is a musical depiction of the town’s statue or memorial: lyrical, sweeping melody.

– The second section is a celebration/festival: energetic and fast – The third section is a walk through town at dusk: laid back– The final section is a fireworks display: brass fanfare and loud


■ Published by composer: www.drewfennell.com

■ Recordings: – This recording is provided by Jeff Tedford and the Grove City College

Orchestra.

■ CODA conductor comments (from survey) + committee member’s comments:– “high energy with lyrical melodies”– “Great for Americana-themed concert”– “Features compound (festival section) and mixed meters throughout”– “Features each section of the orchestra with at least one of the main

melodies”

The Ghosts of Alder Gulch – Richard Pearson Thomas (2002)

■ From CODA Survey: Recommended in Medium category

■ Montana born composer and pianist, Richard Thomas has had works performed by the Boston Pops, Covent Garden Festival, Houston Grand Opera, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Chautauqua Opera, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Banff Centre, Portland Opera, Skylight Opera Theatre, and Riverside Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. His songs have been sung in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Merkin Concert Hall, WigmoreHall, Joe’s Pub, Le Poisson Rouge. He is a frequent collaborator with The Mirror Visions Ensemble.

■ 2(1d Piccolo).2.2(1d Bass Clarinet).2: 2.2.2.1: Timpani, Percussion(3).Piano 4 hands, Harp, Strings


■ Duration approximately 28 minutes (through-composed in fourteen sections)

■ Recording: https://www.richardpearsonthomas.com/recordings

■ Publisher information: https://keisersouthernmusic.com/compositions/ghosts-alder-gulch-fs

The Ghosts of Alder Gulch – Richard Pearson Thomas (2002)■ About the composition: In May 1863, gold was discovered near the Gravelly

Range of Montana’s Rocky Mountains by Bill Fairwhether and a rag-tag band of prospectors. By summer’s end, tens of thousands of fortune seekers and parasites stretched seventeen miles up Alder Gulch and Virginia City was born. It didn’t last long -- gold rushes never do -- but of the tens of thousands who once inhabited the gulch, a few have lingered, fading shades now --ghosts -- still felt, occasionally seen. Wurdemann's Music Hall museum in nearby Nevada City has a superb collection of antique instruments, music boxes, “orchestrians,” and carousel organs of all shapes and sizes. Although they are powered now by electricity, sometimes it seems that phantom hands are on the valves and keys, and if you listen closely, ethereal voices sing along. The Ghosts of Alder Gulch is a symphonic evocation of those machines and the spirits who are still making music through them.


■ Comment from committee member:

This has proven to be a remarkably effective, evocative and unusual piece. It truly does capture the spirit of Gold Rush Times in Montana. The 4-hand piano part is challenging (at the level of serious ragtime) and there are good solos for most of the principal players. I’ve performed it to great effect with my college orchestra, as well as fine, high school honors ensembles. For anyone who might be interested, I have put together a DVD with photos and audio from Virginia and Nevada Cities in Montana – with both current and historical photos. It also includes video of the amazing “Orchestrians” being played. I’m happy to share this DVD with anyone who might be interested.

Resources on CODAweb.org

■ New and updated sections:– National Conference■ Registration and program■ Interest sessions

– Repertoire ■ Standard, contemporary, woman-composed■ Other resources

– Resources■ Promotion and tenure■ Bowings library■ Program notes

2019 and Beyond

■ Repertoire committee two-year project:– Expand repertoire lists– User-editable database on CODAweb.org– The key is YOU!

repertoire appropriate for college orchestras · – attended new england conservatory, identifying...

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