Austin Symphonic Band

“Destinations” Concert
October 27, 2024

 PROGRAM NOTES

Homeward Bound March (1891-1892)
John Philip Sousa (1854-1932)

Program note from Paul Bierley:

The only clue to the existence of this unpublished march was a mention in the list of compositions given in Sousa’s autobiography, Marching Along, until manuscripts turned up in a trunk in the basement archives of his Sands Point home in 1965. Several copyists’ manuscripts for band bearing the names of U.S. Marine Band musicians were found. Marine Corps enlistment records of these men are incomplete, so establishing an exact date for the composition is improbable unless other manuscripts are someday discovered. Inasmuch as it was written while Sousa was leader of the Marine Band, it would seem that it would have been written during the homeward leg of one of the Marine Band tours (1891 and 1892) or perhaps on the return from the engagement in Fayetteville, North Carolina (1889).

One of a number of hitherto lost or misplaced Sousa marches, Homeward Bound was reconstructed and brought back to life in 2014 by Loras Schissel, who manages the Sousa archives at the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress collection contained all but the work’s last page. Schissel was able to alternately connect the score’s lone missing page to an isolated page found at the Sousa Collection at the University of Illinois. From these reconnected materials, he has created this new edition for modern bands. It is not known if the march’s musical themes were all those of Sousa, or if the score combines other tunes of the day into a typical “medley march.”

Listen for:

  • An Introduction hinting at The Stars and Stripes Forever, which would come four years later

  • Cheery themes in the first and second strains

  • Beautiful euphonium writing in the Trio

  • A happy nod to the piccolo and flute section after the “dogfight”


Occident and Orient, Grand March - Op. 25 (1869)
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
ed. Loras Schissel

Program note by Roy Stahle:

In the style of a “grand concert march,” Occident and Orient encompasses the musical stereotypes of the East and West as known by Europeans of the time. It was the first of four original works that Saint-Saëns composed for band. His last such composition, Hail California, was premiered by the Sousa Band in 1915 at the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. The premiere of Occident and Orient took place at a gala celebration of the relationship between arts and industry and was featured at an exhibition of oriental art. The composition is dedicated to Theodore Blais, a close friend of Saint-Saëns and the manufacturer of church ornaments. Forty-seven years after completing the version for band, Saint-Saëns transcribed the work for orchestra.

This composition begins with the strong march rhythms characteristic of the West. The brass and clarinets are prominent and progress into a processional legato. The central section is dedicated to the Orient, which we recognize as North Africa and the Near and Middle East. Saint-Saëns employs the oboe, clarinet, and flute with Moorish rhythms over light percussive accents from drums, cymbals, and triangles to convey the metaphor of Eastern musical style. The styles of the East and West meld together for the grand finale that reasserts the introductory theme of the West.

Listen for:

  • Lighthearted themes with soloists soaring above the band

  • Fugal writing in the third section leading to a tour-de-force ending


Los Bailes Calientes (2023)
William Owens (b. 1963)

Program Note by the composer:

As I've often said, composing music to honor the memory of a loved one is never an easy task. And to the family and friends of Mr. Jim Melhart, this piece comes with sincere condolences and a heavy heart. As music written for a departed loved one is generally solemn and introspective, I was quite elated to be afforded the opportunity to compose a work of a festive nature. While being granted complete artistic freedom, my one caveat was for the piece to be quite reflective of the gentleman it honors.

As Jim was a man who truly embodied vitality, generosity and joy, the idea of Latin dances immediately came to mind, the ultimate result being Los Bailes Calientes (The Sultry Dances). The work consists of three distinct sections/dances: From the outset, the Flamenco Salvaje (wild flamenco) exudes high spirit and a wonderful exuberance. Driving rhythms and a mariachi-style trumpet duet are at the forefront of this rather spicy phase. Slow and introspective in nature, the Rumba Lenta (slow rumba) portrays the profound void felt by family and friends. While the music is a celebration of life, the anguish that comes with the loss of a loved one simply cannot be dismissed. By way of the melancholy oboe melody, the music transitions into a beautiful haunting melody by way of the saxophone, gradually blossoming into a song of "gleeful lament" by the full ensemble. Offering a vivid depiction of a carefree spirit, the upbeat Samba Divertida (fun samba) is quite literally a celebratory "happy dance"!

While the man himself is no longer among us, the beautiful memories and strong legacy he leaves will most certainly endure. Driving rhythms and memorable melodic statements, including that of an intrepid trombone duet, quite aptly define this riveting final statement.

Los Bailes Calientes was commissioned by the band directors of the Rio Grande Valley and lovingly dedicated to the memory, family, and friends of Jim Melhart.

Listen for:

  • Multi-tasking percussionists playing the following instruments: bongos, timbales, snare drum, bass drum, triangle, cymbals, mark tree, hi-hat, agogo bells, tambourine, castanets, maracas, cowbell, claves, samba whistle, and timpani

  • Ripping horn lines

  • Diverse pairings of solo instruments as if they were dancing partners


Paris Sketches (1994)
Martin Ellerby (b. 1957)

English born and bred, Martin Ellerby studied composition with Joseph Horovitz at the Royal College of Music and later privately with Wilfred Josephs. He has written in most forms, including five symphonies, twelve concertos, and a large-scale Requiem for choir and orchestra. He has also written test pieces for all the key brass band contests and much repertoire for concert band. He holds a DMA from the University of Salford and is External Examiner to the Royal Air Force Music Services. Ellerby resides in Altrincham, Cheshire. He describes his compositional style: “Basically, I use straightforward triads, major or minor, and I dress them up with added notes. I use them [triads] in unusual progressions so that they are not necessarily associated with a particular key. They are quite tonal. I might use triads that are opposed at the same time, but they are still based on tonal principles.”

This performance includes the first three movements in 1-3-2 order. Ellerby describes his views of Paris:

  • Saint Germain-des-Prés is on the left bank (of the Seine) and has always been regarded as the artistic part of the city. This is where I usually stay when in Paris—you can walk down to a special place by the Pont Neuf where Berlioz, as a student, ate his sandwiches and dreamed of being a composer!

  • Père Lachaise is French, and indeed Parisian. Cemeteries are often cast as parks or social areas. Here you can have the special experience of visiting one of Rossini’s two graves! He died in Paris, was buried in Père Lachaise, but later returned to Florence, Italy. The French, not wishing to lose his tourist attraction status, didn’t let on to the public and left the empty tomb intact for publicity purposes.

  • Pigalle is rather risqué, shall we say—I stayed in this area by accident having booked an unnamed hotel in what was advertised as the Opera area. Pigalle is some way from that, but it was very colorful, and without that experience, my scherzo would not have been born!

Listen for:

Each movement pays homage to a composer associated with the region.

  • Saint-Germain-des-Prés - The Latin Quarter is famous for artistic associations and bohemian lifestyle. This is a dawn prelude haunted by the shade of Ravel: the city awakens with the ever-present sound of morning bells.

  • Père Lachaise - The spirit of Satie’s Gymnopédies—themselves a tribute to a still more distant past—is affectionately evoked before the movement concludes with a ‘hidden’ quotation of the Dies Irae. This is the work’s slow movement; the mood is one of softness and delicacy, which I have attempted to match with more transparent orchestration. The bells are gentle, nostalgic, wistful.

  • Pigalle - The Soho of Paris. This is a ‘burlesque with scenes’ cast in the mold of a balletic scherzo—humorous in a kind of ‘Stravinsky-meets-Prokofiev’ way. It is episodic but everything is based on the harmonic figuration of the opening. The bells here are car horns and police sirens!


Mannin Veen, “Dear Isle of Man” (A Manx Tone Poem) (1933)
Haydn Wood (1882-1959)

Program Note by the composer:

Mannin Veen is a classic of the post-Holst, pre-Hindemith era of band works; it draws on the composer’s experiences of Manx culture, when his family lived on the Isle of Man, an autonomous island “Crown Dependency” situated between Ireland and the English mainland in the Irish Sea.

This work, based on Manx folksongs, is founded on four of those tunes. The first, The Good Old Way, is an old and typical air written mostly in the Dorian mode. The second, which introduces the lively section of the work, is a reel – The Manx Fiddler. The third tune, Sweet Water in the Common, relates to the practice of summoning a jury to decide questions concerning water rights, boundaries, etc. The fourth and last is a fine old hymn, The Harvest of the Sea, sung by the fishermen as a song of thanksgiving after their safe return from the fishing grounds.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

On the occasion of the first BBC broadcast of Mannin Veen, Haydn Wood was quoted as saying to The Isle of Man Times: “The critics were struck by the beauty of the national airs. I feel very proud and gratified that our tunes are so appreciated … It was my original intention to call the work Mannin Veg Veen (Dear Little Isle of Man) but I found that people would insist on pronouncing ‘veg’ as a waiter does in a cheap restaurant when he bawls down the lift for ‘meat and a couple of veg.’ I decided to abandon the ‘potatoes and peas’ portion of the title.”

Listen for:

  • Staid English harmonies and rhythms in the style of Holst and Vaughan Williams

  • A world-class clarinet part, with plenty of notes for every finger

  • Nimble, on-your-toes solos for the flute, oboe, clarinet, and trumpet

To appreciate the brilliance of our clarinet section, here are the first and last pages from the 1st Clarinet part:


Galop from Geneviève de Brabant (1867)
Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)
arr. John Bourgeois

Program Note from U.S. Marine Band:

German-born French composer and impresario Jacques Offenbach made his name as the creator of nearly 100 operettas. Although today he is considered a master of the comic opera, he could not find lasting favor with the management of the famous Opéra comique in Paris. In 1855 he opened a small theater of his own along the Champs-Elysées that he called the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens. The room barely seated 300 people, but his timing was impeccable, as the opening of the theater coincided with the Paris Exposition of that year when thousands of international visitors flocked to the city. Offenbach composed a series of rapidly produced works including his first full-length operetta, Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld), which continues to be one of his most often performed. The breakneck process of keeping the productions fresh and audiences entertained necessitated efficient writing; the works often featured formulaic but provocative plot elements including military satire and risqué humor, as well as the obligatory inclusion of popular dance numbers like the waltz, can-can, polka, and galop.

The year following the tremendous success of Orpheus in the Underworld, Offenbach’s Geneviève de Brabant was first staged at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in 1859 but received only a luke-warm reception. In 1867, Offenbach once more used this title to produce a new version of the work, now expanded to three acts with an updated libretto and new music. This time the production was a hit, due in part to the addition of two military characters that appear at a key moment during the second act and sing a comic duet. The lively galop became well-known in its own right, both throughout France and beyond, and the melody embedded in the middle of the duet is believed to be the musical source of the oldest U.S. service song, The Marines’ Hymn.

Listen for:

  • Light French articulations and melodic buoyance

  • Hints of “The Halls of Montezuma” in the middle section

  • An accelerated ending

Return to “Destinations” page.