Ensemble Concert:

2004-12-05 -- All-University String Orchestra and University of Iowa

Philharmonia Orchestra

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I •

_SUNDAY, PECEMBER 5, 2004, 3 p.m.

All University String Orchestra

·university of Iowa Philharmonia Orchestra

Dr. Wilijam LaRue J9nes; directer ef Orche:,tral Studies ',

) "H oli.day Concert"

l .

. THE ff UNtVERSllY DIVISION OF I:ERFORMING ARTS

, OF lowA COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS~ §CIENCES

ensemble CONC.ERT DECEMBER 5, 2004, 3-p.m . CLAPP RECITAL HALL

.,.

conductors: Valdir Claudino, Jason Hooper;.Enaldo Oliveira, and Jeremy Starr , r • •

PROGRAM

Concerto Gro sso Op. 6 no. 8 in G minor "Ghristmas Concerto"

Vivace

Alle9ro

Ada9io - Alle9ro. - Ada9io

Lar90 Pastorale

Vald_ir Claudino, conductor

Fantasia.on a 17th CenturyTune

Jason Hooper, conduetor

Christmas Sympho ny

Ada9io

Alle9r;o'

Lar90 spiccato

Andante ' Jeremy Starr, conductor

Abdelazar Suite . Overture

Rondeau·

Air

Minuet

}iB Air

Enaldo Oliveira, cond.uctor

Arcangelo Corelli ( 165 3-1713)

Richard Stephan (b, 1929)

G. M. Schiassi (1698-1754)

Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

)

(

)

' INTERMISSION

Chri~tm~s Festival Overtu;e Valdir Claudino, conductor

Overture on Jewish Themes Jeremy Starr, conductor

Chorale "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"

(Awake! The voice is callin9 to us) .·

Jason Hooper, condu0

ctor

Nutcracker Suite ~o. 1, Op. 71a

Ouverture in Miniature

Character Dances

·a) March '

h) Dance ef the Su9arplum Fairy

i:) Russian Daoce: Trepak

d) Arabian Dance: Ceffee

. e) Chinese Dance: Tea

j) Dance. ef the Reed Pip'es

Waltz ef the Flo,wers ·

Enaldo Oliveira, conductor

Sleig~ Ride Jason Hooper, conductor ·

Leroy A1:1derson \1908-197 5) -

Livingston Gearhart ( 1916- 1996)

Johann Seb~stian Bach (1735 -1782) Arr. by Eugene Ormandy

Pyotr Il'yichTchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Leroy Anderson (1908-197 5)

All University String Orchestra Roster (Alphabetic order)

Violin , '

Katya Allen Piai:o performance Des Moines, IA

Sarah Backus Communications Q-i:incy, IL · Katherine ~unce Biology Shorewood, 11

Rachel Coldewey French Council Bluffs, IA

Rachel Corbett Women's Studies/Psychology Iowa City, IA

Sarah Cramer- Journalism'/ French/Intl . Studies Guthrie Center, IA_

Laura ~ David Engl~sh Education Savoy, IL

Megan ' Falat Psychology Cedar Rapids, IA

Anne Fulton Accounting I Decorah, IA Sharon Goetz Japanese Bettendorf, IA

Heidi Hansen Business Cedar Rapids, IA

Ashley Horstman Finance Cedar ~apids, IA

. Katherine J~g Biochemistry Coralville, IA

Kathleen . Johnson Biomedical Engineering Bettendorf, IA

Melissa Krchma Economics ' ' Mequon,WI

Roger Mills Iowa City, Ii}

Georgia Millward Biology/ Anthropology Blairstown; IA

Shaina Monfils Religion / Burlington, IA

Laura ' Newton Health Promotion Iowa City, IA

Ter~sa Ohr Biology/ French Coralville, IA

Sonny · Patel Exercise Science Des.Plaipes, IL

Emily Poisel P~ychology /Religion ,Burlington, IA

Rathi Ravikumar r

Biomedical EngineerJng . Port Orange; _FL

Veronica Sas Finance Glenvie':", IL

Allison J. Vickers English · Clinton, IA )

' ,

,.

Viola Daniel Bissell Geography Iowa City, IA

Ryan Daly Bi0chemical Engineering Burlington, IA

Elisa Ewing English/French/ Co~munications St. Cloud, MN

( ic~le Guarino Secondary Ed. Math Mt. Prospect, IL

av1ta Narayan Anthropology /Women's Studies West Des Moines, IA

Dina Shalash International Studies Iowa City, IA '

Ruxton Smith Engineering Iowa City, IA

Roxie Speth Art/English Davenport, IA Christ~c}n· Williams Music/Political Science Iowa City, IA

Cello Amy De Jong English Orange City, IA

Colleen Del Monaco Pre-Physical Therapy Dowhers Grove, IL

Ryan , McPartland English/ Art History Cedar Rapids, IA

Claire Morris Open Ames, IA

Elizabeth Nelson Elem. Educ./Spanish Rolling Meadows, IL

Sarah Porter .Open Omaha, NE

Bass Emily ~agstrom Exercise Science Faribault, MN

,Enaldo Oliveira, ma~a9er

Jeremy Starr. & Jeffrey Bieber, librarians

)

Uni~ersity of Iowa Philharmonia Orchestra Roster

Violin 1 Katherine Hoth * Cass~ndre Ruby

Lauren Troll'ey

Anita Kaimal ,

Thanhmai Qotran

Bass Kevin· F~ans;a *

.John Stanford

Angela Peck

Ruthie Lucas

English horn Stuart Breczinski

Horn Tr,~nton Bender 1 2

Alissa Coussens 3

Emily Slattery -4

Justin Miller

Tuba Jeremy Crawford ·

Enaldo Oliveira, mana9er

' Violin 2

Skye Carrasco * Trang Mimi Nguyen

Rachel Peale

l--Iannah Drollinger

Jeffrey Tyler

Ryan Gardner

Flute Megan Luljak 1

JenniferTangeman 2

'Amanda Maas 3 4

Anne Grobstich

Clarinet

Cheryl Poduska * Lauren Silverman,

Daniel Ellickson '

Trumpet Joel Crawford 1

Da~iel Terrell 2 4

Meagan Gugliano 3

Timpani Matthew Nanke

Jeremy Starr & Jeffrey ~ieber, librarians

Viola

Quentin Oli'ver * Christian T. Williams

Jessica La Voie

Kyle Beals

Jen~a Spiering

Piccolo Amanda Maas

Jennifer Tangfman

Bass clarinet Daniel Ellicks~n

Trombone Laura Weaver

Deanna ~uschena

Percussion Virginia Armsµ-ong

Andrew Pelletier

Cello I Wendy Enters *

Katherine Beach

Laura 'Savage

Ursula Dial

Oboe

J ess!ca Loren~ I

John McCauley. 24

,Ma.rk Duncan 3

Stuart Breczinski

~Bassoon Kellie ·Everett 1

Mallory Sharp 2

Laura 1-Ii~schey 3

Rosalind Bu'da 4

Bass trombone Zackary Morton

* Principal'player

1 first for Anderson

(Christmas Festival Overture) )

2 first for Gearhart

3 first for Tchaikovsky

4 first for Anderson

(Slei9h Ride) and Bach

PROGRAM NOTES by the·conductors

Fantasia on a 17th CenturyTune

Richard A. Stephan (b. 1929)

f,.fter receiving lris ,master's degree in ~onducting,and composition from the Eastman School of Music,

Richard Albert Stephan took his musical talents to the inn_er' city schools in his hometown of ~uffalo,

Ne~Yorlc: Throughout his life, Stephan devoted him~elfto the teachjng of young musicians and wrote

the majqri~y of his compositions for his students. He publisryed his first method bo_ok for beginning

string players in 1984 and, in the same year, reached internat~onal ac;claim with the honor of the Fulbright . I

Senior award in Australia. Stephan currently teaches at the Crane ·school of Music in Potsdam, New

York educating musicians in the art of music pedagogy.

Fantasia on a l 7'h Century Tune was•originally publishecl under the ,title "Meditations" in . 1965 . In

this work, Stephan successfully combines beautiful ~elodies and dynamic shapes with a variety of musical

colors_. Each time Stephan presents the 'fantasia theme, the musicians are required to achieve a different

effect to create new colors. He, achieves this not only with the contrast of volume, but with specific

techniques su~ as pizzicato, the µ.lucking of the string, and con sordino, "".hich darkens the s~ring timbre

as a hard rubber mute restricts the vibration of the strings. Stephan also increases tension at the climax

of the work calling _for double-stops in the violins, where -the mu~icians are required to play two·

simulta_neous pitches by bowing on two strings. A_s Stephan closes his piece, the texture thins and the .

orchestra decreases their volume to a pianissimo. ) '

~oncerto Grosso Op. 6 no .. 8 in G minor - "Christmas Concerto" Arcan9elo Corelli (1653 - -1713)

,.

Arcangelo Corelli was an Italian composer and violinist. As a violin teacher, °Corelli produced many .

, great students, making him the most influential violin teacher of his time, but he yvould be recognized

more for his compositions, mainly his co.ncerti ~ros~i. A~ a· composer he was recognized as the first

composer to produce only instrumental pieces. l .

The concerto grosso, as a musical genre, was developed in Rome from the instrumental Canzona

during the secohd half of the 17th century. Its main characteristic is a group of soloists known as Concertina

altern~ting with a l;rge ensemble, known_.'as Ripieno or the Concerto Grosso. When Corelli first came to

Rome, the genre was already popular. His only collection of concerti grossj, opus 6, was a result of

more than 20 years of his life. They wen~ published, after his death, but there are many reports of early

works used as a base for the composer's revision before publication. One of the most famous of Corelli:'s

concerto grossi is numBer 8 of opus 6, ep.titled, "Concerto fattq per la notte di Natale" (Christmas

Concerto), printed in 1714. In the instrumentation for opU:s 6, Corelli used the fo;mat of two violins

and cello for the Concertina, opposed. to a Ripieno of two violins, viola, and basso contihuo. Thi.s was a

' ' ·-

' peculiar orchestration for Co:r:clli because he spent a great a:nount of his life playing together with life-

long student Mateo Fornati and cellist Giovanni Lorenzo Lulier. .

The Cfiristmas Concerto is divided in seven movements altei;nating between fast and slow

tempos . At times, the Concertina part diverges from the Ripieno and the former present more elaborate

· musical material, faster and liveli~r, often contrapuntal, playing off each other i~ musical dialogue.

Christmas Symphony Gaetano' Ma~ia Schiassi (1609 ~ 1754)_

Italian composer.Gaetano Maria Schiassi ,'known primarily for his operas, specialized in violin and spent

the majority of his early musical career playing in virtuoso instrumental ensembles. That ~xpe~icnce on

the violin resulted in ~ell-suited string ~ompositions, from which comes his charming Christmas Symphony.

/\s with Corelli's Christmas Concerto, th~ only. resemblance to' anything seasonal is the title. One might

sense Schiassi's infectious exuberance, though, and without h~sitati~n claim it personifies the holiday ' . ~ ' spirit.

The printed four movements act as a whole, primarily using the first and third as preparation

for the sprig~tly1second and fourth. The opening Adagio lasts for just thrir~y-four measures, ringing in

the ebullient key of D major. The grand introduction gives way to an energetic Allegro that all but dances

_off th·e page with its im~tative brilliance and delightful string "'riting. The sparse and almost timid Largo

spiccato is unexpected, its B minor key barely having fifteen bars to elaborate before ,settling into a

connecting resolution. The minor flavor quickly vanishes with the enthusiastic retu;n o·f I) major in th~

Andante. However, instead of a rousing'fmale with a dramatic conclusion, Schiassi amply invigorates,

then brings· the music to a peaceful end.

Music from Abdelazar Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695)

Ar-r. Hilmar Hockner,

The English compo.ser Henry Purcell is recognized as one of the mostimpor~t 17th-century composers.

He began his career with the choir of the Chapel Royal, where he serv·ed as assistant to the head

instrument-keeper of the king's wind and keyboard instruments. He soon left the choir and studied .

with John Blow and Christopher Gibb<:ms, while working at the Westminster Abbey. In· 1679, he took

over the position held-by Blow as organist of the Abbey and in 1682, took the position as one of the

three organists at Chapa! Royal. Finally, he succeeded John Hingeston as instrument keeper in December .

1683. His career was primarily to be a composer for the royal court, despite his post at the Chapel 0

and

Abbey;'where he eventually was buried near the organ. The Ab?elazar ~uite was composed as incidental })

music for the. tragedy by playwright A. B.ehn, and was first performed in the London Drury Lane

Theater in 1695'.

, I

Overture on Jewish T,hemes l,ivin9ston Gearhart ( 1916 - 1996)

Dedicated t~ education and the gr~wth of young musicians, Livfogston Gearhart, a gifted pianist, arrang!'!d

several pieces for full orchestra in order to provide g<:>od music with manageable instrumentation.

Many optional parts appear within the .score for when an orchestra lacks needed personnel; i.e. bass

· clarinets if there are no bassoons or, a 3,d violin part for beginning violinists. I-le writes in his Letter !o

a Young Musfoian, "in preparing yourself for any kind of work - not just music - a most important

development i's the ability tCJ explore for yourself,'' ~nd so, in 'this arrangem ent, Gearhart e?Cplores the

· '°'"' _world of Jewi~h song. - ·

Gearhart offers three familia; 'themes ,in his Overture on Jewish Themes. The first, and by far most

modern of the three, is Tzena, Tzena, a song written d\U"ing World War II, which translates into "Come • , I

out, come out girls, see th~ soldier boys in the village.' Don't be,.don't be - don't be shy! Let's sing and

. dance, all of us together." The song is performed in a three-part round and is duly presented as such in

Gearhart's arr~gement. Tzena 's majo~ mode helps contrast it with the second theme, presented in a

somber minor. Artza Alinu represents the solemn nature common to ·many Je"".ish folk songs . Its words

soberly proclaim, "We have gon,e up to the land oflsrael, we_ have already plowed and so~n, but we have

not harvested.;' The finill theme 'gives an energetic boost "fith the well-known I-iavah Na9iela, "Come let

us be g~ad and rejoice . Let us sing. · Awa}ce, friends, ":ith a joyful heart."

W,\chet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BVW 140

"Sleepers Awake" Johann Sebastian Ba~h (1685 -: 1750) Arr. Eugene Ormandy

With his appointment as the director of the St. Thomas Church Choir in· Leipzig, Joliann Sel:ias~ian Bach ·

was e~pected to COTUpose new mt1sic for each church service. Sleepers Awake was writt~n for Easter

Sunday in the year 1731 . Throughout the wo;k, Bach uses a compositional devise called text painting,

which uses music to describe the text._ As the prelude unfolds, the texture increases as new in~truments

are added and the music builds to the fmal chord.

Leopold Stokowski. the long _time conduct0r of the Philadelphia orchestra, recei¥ed the bulk

-0f his -popularity through his arrangements of J. S. Bach's works for the modern-day orchestra. Hi~

. orchestration of'Tocatta and Fu9ue in D Minor appeared in the major animated feature "Fantasia" by Walt

Dfsney .. Rather than listening to the applause from ~e appreciative audience, St~kowski state<{ that tb,e

)?roper response was "spiritual_ silence. When' you see a beautiful ~ainting, you do ~-?t appla4d ."

When Eugene Ormandy succeeded Stokowski in 1936, he followed the tradition of arranging

Bach's works . ' In 1940, Ormancly arranged ,the chorale prelude from Sl!epers ,1-~ake, and in place of the

c;horal text, he evokes the· m essage with the colors and dynamics of orchestration. Remaining true to

Bach's conception, Ormandy begins with strings alone and gradually adds wind instrume~ts . With the

entry of the brass, near the conclusion, the yolume levels increase ana the orchestra builds to a glorious

sustain.

The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 7_1a Pyotr IJ'_yich Tchaikovsk! (1840 ~ 1893)

Pyotr (Peter) Il'yich Tchaikovsky is considered the most important and most popular of the Russian

composers. His· first job was as a clerk in ilie Russ/an bureaucracy, but the young Tchaikovsky was

disappointed with the lack of pi;omotion and he abandoned this career to enter the Mosco~ Conservatory.

The Nutcracker was his third and last ballet. The pie<;e was composed in 1892 follbwing the incre1ible

success of his previous ballet, Sleepin9 Beauty. Encouraged with its success, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, .who was

the director of the Imperial.Theaters, commissioned a ballet and an opera from Tchaikc;>Vsky. To ~ork

on the compositi~n, the comp;ser travele'? to Rouen, S~itzerland to be inspired_ by the beautiful w~ter

and wrote his opera Iolanta and the ballet Shchelkunchik (The Nutcracker) . The ballet premiered December

6, 1892 iq. St. _Petersb~rg at the Mariinsky Theatre.

While composing the ballet, Tchaikovsky did not believe the piece could ever be successful,

mainly because the subject was chosen by the choreographer Marius Petipa, ~d the co~poser did not

like the story. F?rtunately, Tc)'iaikovsky was wrong. The ballet ·was incrcdiqly successful and today· is

one of the most famous Christmas productions. The plot is based on E. T.A. Hoffman's Nutcracker and

Mouse King in a revision by Alexander Dumas. ·

It is Christmas Eve and the Stahlbaum family is hosting their annual Christmas party. The

children, Clara ·anc! Fritz, are dancing and playing as they welcome their friends arc?und the Christmas ,

tree. The godfather Drosselmeyer arrives and gives l:iis gifts to Clara and Fritz. Althougli his gift to

Frit;z is quite nice, he gives (?Iara a beautiful 1:.utcracker that becomes the hit of the party. Fritz becomes

jealous. He grabs the· nut~racker from . Clara and promptly breaks i~. Clara is. heartbroken, but

Prosselmeyer quickly repairs the iiu_tcras;ker with a magi_c hand_kerchief drawn from thin air. As the

evening grows late, the ~ests depart and the Stahlbaum family retires. · Clara, worried about her

beloved nutcracker, sneaks back to _the tree to check ~m him and finds herself in the middle of a battle

between dolls, _ mice, and the gingerbread soldiers left over' from tea. The nutcracker rallies his toy

troops against the wicked mice, and for a moment, it appear.s that µie nu tracker will lose the battle, but

Clara comes to the 'rescue, knocking out the Mol}se King with a well-aimed slipper. The nutcra~ker

magically turns into a handsome prince arid rewards her with a visit to his Kingdom of Sweets where

they are greeted by the Sugar Plutn Fairy. They celebrate with dances written abou~ drinks: chocolate

(a Spanish dance), coffee (Arab) and tea (Chinese). Also included in the work is the Danse ef A,Jirlitons,

a pastoral danc;e with swirlin~ flute -like instrumentai effects. The middle of the ce.lebration contains

one ofTchaikovsky's greatest waltzes, Waltz efthe Flower's. The ballet ends with the entire court of the

nutcracker princ'e paying homage to Clara. · ·

Sleigh Ride , Leroy Anderson (1908 - 1975)

American co~poser Leroy Anderso'n beg~ composing music. at the age of.twelve and astonished his

teacher~ with his ·ability to write infectious melodies. After graduating from Harvard University, he

began his musical .career arranging music for the Boston Pops Orchestra. Audien_ces loved the novel

effects in his works like The 1jpewri.ter where it calls for an actual m~ual typewriter: In 1942, Anderson

put aside his musical career and j~ined the United States Army. Fluent in eleven languages, he was ·

stationed in Iceland and specialized in communications. O n his return, he continues his career as a

composer with great succ~ss '. .

. siei9h Ride .was written in 1948 for lig4,t orchestra, but it ~as not until 1950 th~t Mitchell

Parish add~d lyrics ~d record~d the best selling album of the year., This work contains several musicai

onomatopoeias: woodblocks_mimicking the clatter·a'fhooves, a slapstick imitates a whip crack, and the

trumpet is played with the valves depressed only half way to i~personate a horse's whinny. This timeless

Christmas tune is presented today in its original orchestration.

· BIOGRAPHIES

VALDIR CLAUDINO is ·a _double bass player from' Br'azil. He received his M.A.

degree in mu~ic from .the University oflowa (May 2000), ·and his B.A. from University

of Belo.Horizonte, Brazil (1995). In 2003, he returned to the Uni~ersity of Iowa to

pursue his doctorate in double bass with Volkan Orhon. and a master's degree in

condu~ting with Dr. William LaRue Jones. As a bass player, Claudino'ha~ be{,n principal

with the UFMG Symphony Or~hestra, the Ouro Preto Chamber Orches~ra, -and the

Sesiminas String Orchestra. He also served as conductor and arranger for the Sesi~~as '

· high school orchastra in 1987. Since 2000, Claudina has been hivited as? teacher and

soloist by The Braz1lian Association of Bassists and the Campos dos Goitacaz_es music festivai'. · ' '

This pr~gram is supported in part by The Elizabeth M. Stanley Performance -~und.

'.

, ,

JASO_N HOOPER is completing his first se~ester at the Universfty of Iowa after

transferring from the School of Music at ?klahoma State University. There, he studied

conducting with Dr. Richard .Prior while teaching lessons in the horn studio, teaching

undergraduate music theory, and serving as the associate c<_mductor of the Oklahoma

State University Symphony"Orchestra. Jason also organized the student.chamber

recitals and conducted ensembles in the student composers' concert. He received his

B.M.A . in horn performance from .Oklahoma State in 2003, studying-with Michelle

Johnson and playing principal horn in the orchestra. Jason is pleased to be studying ' .

with Dr. William LaRue.jones as he pursues an M.A. in orchestral cor_iducting.

EN ALDO OLIVEIRA c_ompleted his B.M.A. in Violin Performance at Santa Marcelina

College (1989) in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he studied violin with.Maria Vischnia and

viofawith M~rcelo Jaffe . He later completed his M.A. at SaO" Paulo University (1998),. Mr. 0 liveira was a member of th.e Sa9 Caetano do Sul Art Foundation String Quartet.

He served as string coordinator at Tom Jobim School of Mu1,ic (1996) and as

pedagogical coor1inator of the Guri Project (from 1997) for the Cultural. State '\

Secretary of Sao Paulo. As coordinator, Mr. Oliveira created several different music "'· . \ .

centers in socio-ecbnomically and underprivileged communities. Mr. Oliveira' is a

docto~ of music arts candidate in orchestral conducting at the University of Iowa

with Dr. William LaRue Jones. Since 2003,.he has· been manager of the University of

Iowa Orchestras and co_- director of the All-University String Orchestra. He recently

became music director of the Saint Ambrose University Community Symphony

Orchestra and music director for, the Greater c ·edar Rapids Yol,lth ; Symphony

Orchestras.

JEREMY STARR comes t~ the Unive~sity of Iowa orchestra department following

his second summer· conducting an all-community string orchestra in his native town

of Emporia, Kansas .' He received his B.M. from Brigham 1oung University, where he

studied violin with Vesna and igor Grnppman and ·served as concertmaster of the

~hilharmonic Orchestra. While in Utah, he played in the first vi'~lin section of the

· Orchestra at Temple Square, the vol~teer performing and r~cording orchestr~ for

the. Church 'of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and, consequently, the Mormon

Tabernacle Choir. During the summers of f002 and 2003, he le~ the Idyllwild Fest_ival

· _ Orchestra as cop.certmaster and spent the last year playing in _the Wichita Symphony.

This fall·marks his first semester studying with Dr. William LaRue Jones in the M.A.