SUITE TRIBUTES

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2023 | 3:00 PM

CENTURY II CONCERT HALL

Holly Mulcahy
Violin

Daniel Hege
Music Director & Conductor

PROGRAM NOTES
AARON COPLAND
Born November 14, 1900 in Brooklyn, New York
Died December 2, 1990 in Peekskill, New York

Fanfare for the Common Man

Last performed by the Wichita Symphony on March 13 and 14, 2010 with Andrew Sewell conducting.

The genesis of Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man began in 1942, shortly after Pearl Harbor and the
United States’ entry into the Second World War. The conductor Eugene Goosens, then Music Director of the
Cincinnati Symphony, determined that a series of newly commissioned fanfares would serve as a rallying cry for
the Symphony’s 1942-1943 season. Goosens had supported a similar project with English composers during
World War One, stating, “It is my idea to make these fanfares stirring and significant contributions to the war
effort.” Goosens invited composers working in the United States, among them Aaron Copland, Howard
Hanson, Walter Piston, and fifteen others, to compose brief fanfares between two- and three-minutes using brass
and percussion that he would program to start each concert of the Symphony’s season. Ten composers
eventually submitted new works, most meeting the standard expectations for a fanfare and dedicated to a
military unit or American ally. Only Copland’s proved to have lasting value and became identifiable as an
iconic example of American music.

Copland dabbled with several titles for his piece, including Fanfare of the Spirit of Democracy and Fanfare for
the Rebirth of Lidice (a Czech town destroyed by the Nazis). Eventually, he settled on Fanfare for the Common
Man because, as he wrote, “it was the common man who was doing all of the dirty work in the war.” After
receiving the music, conductor Goosens wrote to Copland, “Its title is as original as its music, and I think it is so
telling that it deserves a special occasion for its performance. If it is agreeable to you, we will premiere it March
12, 1943, at income tax time.” Copland responded that he was all in favor of honoring the common man at
income tax time.

Copland’s Fanfare became, and remains, one of his most popular pieces. Besides its frequent use at Symphony
concerts, it exists in arrangements for Woody Herman’s Band in “boogaloo style” and in a free-form ten-minute
improvisation by the rock band Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. It has also been arranged for performance by one
hundred Notre Dame Marching Band clarinetists! Copland returned to the music for the fourth movement of his
Third Symphony (1944 – 1946), quoting it in its entirety and then using it as the basis for the last movement,
which provides a “noble finale that reflects upon the war’s victorious struggle.” The Wichita Symphony
audience heard this Symphony in April 2013.

Fanfare for the Common Man lasts just under three minutes and is scored for four horns, three trumpets, three
trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, and tam-tam (gong). It is worth noting that this concert is the debut of one
of the Wichita Symphony’s newest acquisitions, a 40-inch Chinese-made tam-tam. Its purchase was made
possible by a generous gift from Kelly and Kurt Harper and others who contributed to the “Gong Fund” during a
Giving Tuesday campaign before the pandemic.
Fanfare for the Common Man
continued

Here are several versions of Fanfare for the Common Man to listen to before you attend the concert.

The original version with Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic for an Aaron
Copland birthday celebration in 1985 and seen by millions on PBS’ “Live from Lincoln Center.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK1N46dRPVg

A performance by the Woody Herman New Thundering Herd:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAFC1cIszTc

A performance by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2zurZig4L8

And last, but not least, a performance by the entire Notre Dame Marching Band, but with lots of
clarinets, too.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=329608430917995

© Don Reinhold, 2023

JAMES STEPHENSON
Born 1969 in the Chicago, Illinois area

“Tributes” - A Violin Concerto in Three Movements (27')

1. Allegretto deciso (7')
2. Andante (7')
3. Allegro Agitato (13')

This is the Wichita Symphony premiere performance of this concerto.

James Stephenson is a prolific and sought-after Chicago-based composer. Winning a position as Principal
Trumpet with the Naples (FL) Philharmonic upon graduating from the New England Conservatory, Stephenson
performed with that orchestra for seventeen seasons. It was only in 2007 that he decided to become a full-time
composer and arranger. His compositions include concertos and sonatas for nearly every instrument, with many
works commissioned by principal players of orchestras such as Boston, Chicago, Minnesota, New York,
Philadelphia, and many others.

Stephenson’s website lists over 800 compositions, many of which exist in multiple formats for orchestra,
chamber orchestra, wind ensemble, or concert band. Many works have been recorded, and his music is
represented on over thirty CDs. The United States Marine Band premiered his Fanfare for Democracy (2021) at
the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. This Fanfare was performed by the
WSO Brass and Percussion Ensemble at the first Symphony in the Gardens at Botanica in May 2021.

Stephenson’s arrangements for Pops concerts include over seventy-five commissions from the Cincinnati Pops
and others, such as the Boston Pops and New York Pops. Children in Wichita attending the Symphony’s Young
People’s Concerts later this fall will experience Stephenson’s arrangements for Classical Kids Music Education’s
new production of St. Georges’ Sword and Bow, for which he served as music supervisor and editor.
The Minnesota Orchestra and its then Music Director, Osmo Vänskä, with violinist Jennifer Frautschi,
commissioned the Violin Concerto heard at this concert. They premiered the work on April 11, 2012. The work
itself was composed in 2009.

Wichita Symphony Concertmaster Holly Mulcahy performed the Concerto three times with orchestras in Illinois,
Iowa, and Tennessee. This work will be new for everybody else in the audience, and at nearly a half-hour in
length could be daunting. The title of the work, “Tributes,” does not offer us a lot of help. In his preface to the
score, the composer writes, “Tributes” is a conscious nod to all of the people who have contributed to the
creation of this work: Composers and soloists – past and present – who have written/performed timeless and
inspiring violin concertos.”

The first movement bolts from the beginning with three important elements in the opening bars, starting with
rapidly repeated chords (a) in the brass and xylophone, the violin follows with a syncopated rhythmic pattern
(b) before ascending into a high lyrical passage (c) soaring over the exclamations of the rhythmic motives (a
and b) that leap around the instruments of the orchestra.

A harp glissando and a brief solo “lick” for the tuba marks a whimsical second theme that the solo violin picks
up. The music moves forward relentlessly, driven by splashes of color in the percussion section and a
kaleidoscopic treatment for the rest of the orchestra.
“Tributes” - A Violin Concerto in Three Movements (27')
continued

The music becomes even faster with a driving bass beat, while the violin solo alternates between technically
challenging virtuosic writing and melodic lyricism. For some, the motoric drive of the music may be reminiscent
of a Danny Elfman score depicting Gotham City.

The orchestration of the concerto is noteworthy. Scored for a large orchestra with a bustling percussion section,
Stephenson skillfully limits his orchestral forces when the soloist performs, never overwhelming the soloist. When
the soloist is silent, he allows the whole orchestra to burst out during interludes. The percussion section is
extensive for a concerto and calls for a xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, chimes, glockenspiel, suspended
cymbal, two snare drums, bass drum, triangle, cabasa,1 wood block, crotales, slap-sticks, tam-tam, bongo,
tambourine, two small polished stones, and four tom-toms. Instructions for playing the percussion instruments
abound throughout the score. You may hear wire brushes on a snare, striking it with a rim shot, hitting the
cabasa with a wire brush, or using rute2 drumsticks on the bass drum shell. These percussion instruments and
performance techniques add a palette of colors and often contribute jazz-like elements to the music.

After expending its energy, the first movement transitions via a brief adagio into the second movement without
pause. In his preface to the score, Stephenson writes that this movement is inspired and based entirely on Louis
Armstrong’s spontaneous skat-singing solo from a 1920s recording of “Hotter Than That.” Here’s a side-by-side
sample on YouTube of Louis Armstrong and Stephenson’s violin writing “in the style.”

It’s okay if you don’t hear a direct connection. The mood that Stephenson achieves in this movement is far more
important than whether you detect the Louis Armstrong quote. The music is sultry and evocative of a late-night
jazz club. Repeating dark-colored minor chords establish a backdrop against which the solo violin sings,
sometimes in conversation with a horn or a muted trombone. A bass drum and piano chords provide a
background pulse. The music’s pace quickens, leading to an outburst from the entire orchestra. Arpeggiated
passages for the soloist mimic scat-singing. The movement quietly ends as it began.

The third movement begins with an extended orchestral introduction, the longest passage (but still brief) for
orchestra alone in the entire concerto. The high woodwinds carry the flourishes against a quarter-note marching
rhythm in the clarinets and bassoons with punctuations by the brass. The soloist enters with perpetual motion
energy against the driving rhythm in the bass. A quieter section of contrast occurs, but the steady quarter-note
rhythm remains like a vamp to drive the music forward in a machine-like fashion. At the same time, the soloist
takes us on a rollercoaster of scales and arpeggios. A slow section (lento) interrupts the momentum. A chorale-
like passage in the low brass leads directly into an extended cadenza for the soloist. The cadenza reflects the
moods and elements of the concerto, including the scat-singing evocation. A string of arpeggio signals the
orchestra’s return, and the momentum drives the music to its final cadence.

Holly Mulcahy writes about the Violin Concerto, “Tributes encompasses every quality I seek in a violin concerto,
from the gripping opening to the seductive melodies in the second movement to the blazing ending. It leaves the
audience and performers satisfied and happy! What a pleasure to perform!’

1. The cabasa is a percussion instrument that is constructed with loops of steel ball chain wrapped around a wooden cylinder.
The cylinder is fixed to a long, wooden or plastic handle.
2. Rutes are usually made of a bundle of thin birch dowels, thin canes, or even twigs attached to a drum stick handle.
“Tributes” - A Violin Concerto in Three Movements (27')
continued

Stephenson scores his “Tributes” Concerto for solo violin, piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, E-flat
Clarinet, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four French horns, three trumpets in C,
two trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, four or five percussionists, harp, a keyboard player on piano and
celesta, and strings. A reduced orchestration is available.

If you wish to listen to the Concerto before you attend the concert, you will find it here on
Stephenson’s website: https://composerjim.com/works/violin-concerto-tributes/

© Don Reinhold, 2023

ARAM KHACHATURIAN
Born June 6, 1903 in Tbilisi, Georgia (Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire)
Died May 1, 1978 in Moscow, Russia

Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from Spartacus Suite No. 2

Last performed by the Wichita Symphony on January 30 and 31, 2009 with Andrew Sewell conducting.

You likely know this music even if you are unfamiliar with the composer’s name. The Adagio appears in figure
skating routines, popular songs, and movies. More about these connections are below.

Khachaturian was an Armenian composer and conductor who was a member of the circle of noted Soviet
composers that included Kabalevsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich. His music became popular with American
audiences primarily through performances of his Piano Concerto (1936), championed by the American pianist
William Kapell during the 1940s, and the 1942 ballet Gayane, from which the Sabre Dance became another
work that entered popular mass culture.

Along with many of his colleagues, including the three mentioned above, Khachaturian was denounced and
censored in 1948 by Tikhon Khrennikov, the head of the Soviet Composers Union, for composing music that
was “anti-people,” a viewpoint that might cause more head-scratching to listeners today. The Composers Union
restored Khachaturian’s reputation after his “confession” and apology before the Composers Union.

In 1957, he was appointed Secretary of the Composers Union and served until his death. During those years,
he was a spokesperson for Soviet cultural policy. In 1968, Khachaturian visited the United States in a cultural
exchange. He conducted concerts of his music in seven cities, including the National Symphony in Washington,
DC.

The ballet Spartacus was composed in 1954 and loosely based on a slave uprising against the Roman Empire
in 73 BC known as the Third Servile War, or the Gladiator’s War. In Act 1 of the ballet, the Thracian King
Spartacus, his wife Phrygia, and other followers are taken captive by the Roman consul Crassus. Phrygia is
hauled off to join Crassus’ harem of concubines. Spartacus is sent to the gladiator’s ring and forced to fight a
close friend, who he kills. Filled with remorse, Spartacus incites his followers to rebel. They escape and rescue
Phrygia from the harem.

The Adagio heard at this concert occurs at the end of Act II, where Spartacus and Phrygia celebrate their
reunion. [In Act III, Crassus’ army discovers Spartacus’s hideout. The legionnaires surround the camp and kill
Spartacus, impaling him on their spears. Phrygia is left to grieve her loss.]

The music of the Spartacus Adagio is typical of much of Khachaturian’s style: lush orchestration, a romantic
melody, and exotic infusions of color, marking the influence of Armenian folk music and the blending of cultures
at the crossroads between East and West in the Caucasus Mountains region. After a brief introduction, the
famous melody enters in the solo oboe.
Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from Spartacus Suite No. 2
continued

For listening pleasure, explore the YouTube links below.

Here’s the full Adagio performed by the Armenian Philharmonic:

https://youtu.be/LZLMKkEGFRo?si=SxLB9sAvjM60MyuB

Here, the Adagio theme appears in a popular song, “Journey’s End,” sung by the popular 20th-
century crooner Andy Williams:
https://youtu.be/MwyrrG_PMXM?si=I4QxHiwsWeoCo2a0

Figure skating enthusiasts will surely remember this skate by champion figure skater Michelle Kwan
to the Adagio edited for competition:
https://youtu.be/ldskgB44eIM?si=Bdgx6_cgNSP60072

The Mexican rock band Caifanes, from the late 80s to mid-90s, adapted Khachaturian’s Adagio for
their song, “Antes de Que Nos Olviden” (“Before We’re Forgotten”):
https://youtu.be/OMDxJS5wBTI?si=6ykeFasWDXJiFMci

In John Powell’s score for the animated film Ice Age: Meltdown, listen to this moment from Scrat’s
Heavenly Vision of the Pearly Gates:
https://youtu.be/Pw1ipuuti6A?si=k0ypTVfBRHDxCfB1

© Don Reinhold, 2023

RICHARD STRAUSS
Born June 11, 1864 in Munich, Germany
Died September 8, 1949 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

Rosenkavalier Suite, Op. 59

This is the first known performance by the Wichita Symphony.

By the time the 19th century ended, Richard Strauss had gained fame through large-scale symphonic poems and
numerous songs. Among these orchestral works, all of which remain in the repertoire, were Don Juan (1888),
Till Eulenspiegel (1895), Also Sprach Zarathustra (1896), and Ein Heldenleben (1898). They furthered the
program music models that Berlioz and Liszt began earlier in the century and the massive orchestrations and
harmonic language of Richard Wagner.

In his music, Strauss proved that he could describe nearly anything from the mundane activities of home life
(Sinfonia Domestica, 1903) to jousting with windmills (Don Quixote, 1897) to the bickering of his music critics
(Ein Heldenleben, 1898). He demonstrated a natural affinity for the voice and its lyrical possibilities through his
songs, especially when composing for women’s voices. (He married a soprano.)

The direction of Strauss’s musical activities changed in the 20th century. Upon viewing a German translation of
Oscar Wilde’s play, Salome (1891), in 1902, Strauss turned his focus to opera, composing in succession
Salome (1905) and Elektra (1909). These operas won Strauss acclaim and fortune, but their choice of subject
and the depiction of bloodthirsty lust, revenge, and even necrophilia also received censorship and
condemnation. It was as if the operas captured the Freudian angst of the day and the dissolution of the 19th
century as the new century plummeted toward the cataclysm of the Great War.

Musically, Salome and Elektra shook and thrilled the audiences with their gargantuan orchestras in excess of
one hundred musicians and post-Wagnerian harmonies that took music to the precipice of atonality. For Strauss
and his librettist for Elektra, Hugo von Hoffmannstahl, this was a little too much like playing with fire. If the duo
were to have another success, they would need to retreat and recapture some of the past in story and musical
style. This situation brought the two men to their next collaboration, Der Rosenkavalier, or the “The Knight of the
Rose.”

Work on Rosenkavalier began shortly after the premiere of Elektra. In seeking something completely different,
Strauss and Hoffmanstahl looked back to the 18th century, deciding to create a comic opera in a Mozartean
style, even to the point of borrowing a Cherabino-like character, assigning the part of the young man, Octavian,
to a mezzo-soprano for what’s known as a “pants role” in opera. Capturing the flavor of Vienna, Strauss turned
to the popular, late-19th-century waltz, treating it both as an anachronism in an 18th-century setting and as
music recognizable to everyone for its conventional harmonic tonality.

The opera premiered on January 26, 1911, in Dresden. Critics were initially cool to the comedic and farcical
elements, but audiences loved it. Strauss and Hoffmanstahl had a blockbuster on their hands. Strauss
subsequently made two orchestral arrangements of the waltzes and other dance music in the opera and even
allowed some of the music to be used in a 1920s movie, even though Strauss had no interest in becoming a film
score composer. While the opera is in three acts, with a run time of about three-and-a-half hours, the Suite is a
composite of the “best” highlights and runs about twenty-two minutes.
Rosenkavalier Suite, Op. 59
continued
Conductor and then Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, Artur Rodzinski, was the likely arranger of
the Suite and premiered it with the Philharmonic on October 5, 1944. After WWII, Strauss, who needed cash,
approved the Suite, and Boosey & Hawkes published the work in 1945. The opera, a popular vehicle for
leading singers of the day, and the orchestral Suite remain in the regular repertoire of opera houses and
symphony orchestras and are beloved by audiences.

The Suite has five main sections that flow from one to the next. The music, which doesn’t entirely follow the
sequence of events in the opera, can be enjoyed independently of any knowledge of the story, but a little
background can help. First, we’re introduced to the Marschallin, a 32-year-old woman trapped in a loveless
marriage with an absent Field Marshall and her 17-year-old lover, Count Octavian Rofrano. (No one said it
would be scandal-free!)

The opera’s introduction and the Suite begin with rambunctious music featuring whooping horns and straining
strings that depict a night of lovemaking and the haze of the morning’s afterglow between the Marschallin and
Octavian.

[The opera continues: A commotion outside the door, and thinking it’s the Field Marshall returning, Octavian
ducks into a closet and emerges dressed as a maid. (Yes, it’s a pants role where a woman plays a young man
who will now play a young girl). Instead of the Field Marshall, it’s only Baron Ochs, a distant cousin of the
Marschallin and a coarse man of minor nobility. He’s come to announce his engagement to Sophie von Faninal,
the daughter of a successful local merchant. He needs the Marschallin’s notary to draw up a marriage contract.
Ochs sought a dowry to his enriching benefit. He also required a young man who could deliver a symbolic
token of commitment – a silver rose – (hence the opera’s title) to his fiancée.

The Marschallin shows Ochs a portrait of Octavian. Ochs indicates that the young man will do for task, even as
he flirts with and marvels at the portrait’s similarity to the maid, who has been introduced as Mariandel. The
Marschallin and Octavian play this ruse for all of its humor, and Ochs is gullible and smitten at the same time.
Other business of the morning proceeds, and after everyone has left, including Octavian, back in his count’s
clothing, the opera and music turn serious as the Marschallin reflects on the inevitable passage of time and how
she will eventually lose Octavian.]

Act 2 opens with the hustle and bustle at the von Faninal house as Sophie and the Faninal household await the
arrival of the Rose Cavalier. The excitement builds, and Octavian appears to present the rose. The Suite
captures this moment in its second section. The music’s magnificent climax and denouement tell us everything we
need to know about love at first sight between two young people, even as they display proper courtesy and
chaperoned conversation on the opera’s stage. Listen to the orchestral color of flutes, harp, celesta, and violins
as they evoke the color of the silver rose in a descending passage of shimmering triads.

[Eventually, Ochs shows up along with his lecherous sidekicks, who proceed to chase the maids of the Faninal
household. Ochs, in boorish fashion after sizing up Sophie like a filly, exits to draw up the marriage contract. In
his absence, Octavian and Sophie agree to stop the marriage. Their duet is interrupted by two spying
characters who call for Ochs to come quickly. Ochs appears. Octavian announces that Sophie will not be
marrying him. Ochs brushes him off, but Octavian challenges him to a duel.
Rosenkavalier Suite, Op. 59
continued
In the process, Ochs gets nicked in the arm and screams bloody murder. Octavian is ordered to leave. Faninal
orders his daughter to her room and threatens her with a convent if she fails to marry the Baron. While Och’s
lackeys administer to him, Ochs receives a note. It is from “Mariandel” inviting him for a tryst at a local inn of ill
repute. The opportunity for a new conquest cures Ochs ails, and he sings the music of the famous waltz, quite
possibly the show’s biggest hit. “With me, no night is too long.”]

Section 3 of the Suite transitions to this waltz music. We hear it first in a chamber orchestra version as it
appears at the beginning of Act 3 as Octavian begins to lay out the plan to turn the table on Ochs at the inn.
As the waltz music expands, it incorporates the rich orchestration that appears at the end of Act II.

[Eventually, Ochs gets his comeuppance at the hands of Octavian in his “Mariandel” portrayal. The
Marschallin, with Faninal and Sofie in tow, appears at the height of the comedic and chaotic sequence. Ochs
learns that his gig is up, and the marriage is called off. He leaves in a huff, chased after by characters playing
the roles of his creditors and illegitimate children.]

Musical magic and transformation occur at this point, captured in the Suite’s fourth section. The Marschallin,
Octavian, and Sophie are left alone on stage, with their thoughts captured by the intertwining weaving of the
musical counterpoint. The Marschallin becomes aware that this is the moment when she loses Octavian, who is
torn in his thoughts between the past (the Marschallin) and the future (Sophie), while poor Sophie remains
uncertain about how all of this turns out. This complex and emotional musical texture begins tentatively, then
builds to an extraordinary climax as the Marschallin relinquishes Octavian to Sofie and departs. The music
resolves into a simple, folk-like duet between Sophie and Octavian as they realize and express their love for
each other.

Finally, the fifth section of the Suite reprises the waltz, bringing this compilation of Rosenkavalier highlights to an
exhilarating conclusion.

The Rosenkavalier Suite is scored for a large orchestra consisting of three flutes including piccolo, three oboes
including English Horn, four clarinets including E-flat and Bass, three bassoons including contrabassoon, four
horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, a large percussion battery that includes bass drum,
cymbals, glockenspiel, ratchet, snare drum, tambourine, and triangle, two harps, celesta, and strings.

For your listening pleasure before attending the Wichita Symphony concert, here’s a YouTube
performance of the Rosenkavalier Suite by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by
Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the 2019 BBC Proms.
https://youtu.be/PkZLhGC53LU?si=M0C8w_CCmJoe147f

© Don Reinhold, 2023