Saturday 17 March 2018

Atlantic Rhapsody - 24th March 2018 - Full Programme

Programme Overview
  • Overture "Candide" 
  • East Coast Pictures 
    1. Shelter Island, 
    2. The Catskills,
    3. New York
  • At Dawn They Slept
  • An Ellington Festival 
Interval 
  • NMPAT Community Choir
  • The Stars and Stripes Forever
  • Head Rush 
  • Incantation and Dance
7:30pm Saturday 24th March 2018
Christ Church, Northampton
Conducted by Graham Tear
with NMPAT Community Choir


Overture to Candide
Leonard Bernstien
arr. Walter Beeler

Bernstein’s Operetta “Candide” opened on Broadway on December 1, 1956 and it closed after just seventy-three performances. Bernstein was less concerned over the loss of money than the failure of a work he cared about deeply. He is quoted to have said, “there’s more of me in that piece than anything else I’ve done.” Indeed, with each revival, Candide won bigger audiences However, the overture was well received from the start, and it promptly became a very popular curtain-raiser. Brilliantly scored, it has a certain type of vitality that is not easy to match.

East Coast Pictures
Nigel Hess

Nigel Hess’ East Coast Pictures were inspired by several visits to a small part of the American East Coast, an area that provides great extremes in the geography and the people.
  • Shelter Island
    Shelter Island is a small island situated near the end of Long Island, a few hours drive east of New York. In the summer it becomes a crowded tourist trap; but in the winter, it is gloriously deserted and bravely faces the onslaught of the turbulent Atlantic, shrouded in sea mists and driving rain. This ‘picture’ is a fond memory of a winter weekend on Shelter Island.
  • The Catskills
    In upstate New York lie the Catskills Mountains—an extraordinary combination of tranquillity and power, peace and majesty. Once seen, they call you back again and again.

  • New York
    New York - or to be more precise, Manhattan. For anyone who is familiar with this bizarre and wonderful city, here is a ‘picture’ that needs no explanation. For those not yet hooked, this is a foretaste of things to come!

At Dawn, They Slept.
Jay Bocook

Jay Bocook is a prolific composer and arranger of concert band music. This musical remembrance pays tribute to fallen heroes of that fateful day at Pearl Harbour that launched the USA into World War II. Opening with a peaceful, flowing woodwind melody, the day is heralded in by a lone bugler. Ominous undertones, powerful scoring, dissonant themes and bombastic percussion capture musically the chaos that followed. It's a powerful musical statement that concludes ultimately on an optimistic note that looks to a brighter future.

An Ellington Festival
Billy Strayhorn & Duke Ellington
Arr. Sammy Nestico

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader of a jazz orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death in a career spanning over fifty years.
This selection includes 3 pieces written by Ellington’s musical collaborator, Billy Strayhorn; Satin Doll, Chelsea Bridge and Take the A train. The latter referring to the then-new ‘A’ subway service that runs through New York City, going at that time from eastern Brooklyn up into Harlem and northern Manhattan. Composed in 1939, after Ellington offered Strayhorn a job in his organisation and gave him money to travel from Pittsburgh to New York City. Ellington wrote directions for Strayhorn to get to his house by subway, directions that began, "Take the A Train".
Satin Doll | Chelsea Bridge | Take the “A” Train

INTERVAL

The NMPAT Community Choir

Cantilena by Karl Jenkins - Some of Karl's work has been used for some very successful advertising campaigns including this piece by Cheltenham & Gloucester in their 1990 advert featuring a pearl fisher.

Christ Be With Me with words ascribed to St. Patrick, music by Pachelbel arr. Stephen Chilvers.

When I Grow Up by Tim Minchin from his Broadway show Matilda, based on Roald Dhal's story of the same name.

Money, Money, Money by ABBA's Benny Andersson and Bjorn Alvaeus

The Best of Bond - giving you exactly what it says. A selection featuring the James Bond Theme, Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice, Live and Let Die, For Your Eyes Only, and Diamonds Are Forever!



The Stars and Stripes Forever
Jon Phillip Sousa
edited by Mark H. Hindsley

Considered to be Sousa’s greatest march, The Stars and Stripes Forever the official National March of the United States of America in 1987.
Sousa wrote that he composed the march on Christmas Day, 1896. He was on an ocean liner on his way home from a vacation with his wife in Europe and had just learned of the recent death of David Blakely, the manager of the Sousa Band. He composed the march in his head and committed the notes to paper on arrival in the United States. Sousa also wrote lyrics to the piece. The last section being.:

Hurrah for the flag of the free.
May it wave as our standard forever
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavour
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray,
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.

Head Rush
Jay Bocook

This masterful work by Jay Bocook was composed for fellow South Carolinian and highly regarded educator Scott Rush, known for his accomplishments with the nationally acclaimed Wando High School band program. Employing a minimalistic approach, this dynamic piece uses layers of constantly evolving textures and rhythmic devices, while propelled throughout by an energetic underlying pulse. Sprinkled with surprises and dramatic effects, and culminating with the full force of the entire ensemble.

Incantation and Dance
John Barnes Chance

This composition, which was the first published piece of John Barnes Chance, has become one of his most popular works. He wrote it while serving in the North Carolina public schools under a grant from the Ford Foundation's Young Composers Project. It consists of two contrasting sections. The Incantation is a short, mournful melody, full of mystery, which gradually builds to a ferocious conclusion. The Dance also begins quietly, moving to a complex rhythmic pattern in the percussion, and culminating in a frenzied dance.
A native of Texas, Chance played timpani with the Austin Symphony and taught at the University of Kentucky before he was accidentally electrocuted while working in the backyard of his home in Lexington, Kentucky in 1972 at the age of 39.