Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School

Presents

BBHHS Bands

Spring Concert

Program

Jazz Ensemble

Sweet Georgia Brown……………Bernie, Pinkard, Casey, arr. Nestico

Afterburner………………………………………………..Mark Taylor

The Shadow of Your Smile……………..Johnny Mandel, arr. Phillippe

(Meet) the Flintstones…………...Curtin, Hanna, Barbera, arr. Barduhn

Concert Band

Fire Dance……………………………………………….David Shaffer

Prairie Songs…………………………………………...Pierre LaPlante

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest…………………..Hans Zimmer, arr. Brown

~ Intermission ~

Symphonic Band

Olympic Fanfare and Theme……………………………James Curnow

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers………………...Howard Shore, arr. Brubaker

Cajun Folk Songs………………………………………...Frank Ticheli

Allegro Moderato from the “Arpeggione” Sonata..........Franz Schubert

Jun-Gyu Park, trombone, All-State Band

Wind Ensemble

Montana Fanfare…………………………………………Thomas Doss

Perthshire Majesty………………………………………..Samuel Hazo

The Hounds of Spring……………………………………..Alfred Reed

The Stars and Stripes Forever…………..John Philip Sousa, ed. Revelli

Program Notes

Concert Band

Prairie Songs

Prairie Songs is based on two songs from the Midwest.  “The Pinery Boy,” from the Eau Claire region of Wisconsin, is used in the opening section.  The song tells the story of a young girl who set out in search of her lover, a raftsman working on the river.  Her search ends when she learns from the captain that her lover has perished in the river.  The young lady returns home and dies of a broken heart.  Despite the tragic, and at times, melodramatic nature of the verse, the melody is broad and expansive in scope. 

“Oh, a raftsman’s life is a wearisome one,
It causes many fair maids to weep and mourn.
It causes them to weep and mourn
For the loss of a true love that never can return.”

The second section of the piece quotes “The Turkey Song” which some authorities believe originated in Kentucky and moved west with settlers.  It is found in various collections of childrens’ folksongs. 

“As I came over yonder hill
I spied a mighty turkey.
He flapped his wings, and he spread his tail
And his feet looked awful dirty.”

The two themes are presented concurrently toward the end of the piece.

Symphonic Band

Olympic Fanfare and Theme

This work was commissioned by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Cultural Olympiad in honor of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, and was written to be played by the Olympic Band whenever the Olympic Flag appears.

Cajun Folk Songs

This piece is based on two traditional Cajun songs.  The first, “La Belle et le Capitaine,” tells the story of a young girl who feigns death to avoid being seduced by a captain.  The second, “Belle,” is about a man who goes away to Texas only to receive word of his sweetheart’s illness, forcing him to return to Louisiana.  Finding her unconscious upon his return, he pawns his horse to try to save her, to no avail.

Wind Ensemble

Montana Fanfare

Thomas Doss drew the inspiration for this fanfare from a mountain hike in the Salzkammergut.  A powerful fanfare reveals enthusiasm and triumph.  It is an exciting feeling and gives boundless freedom to look down into the depth from high up, and to have a view of the whole landscape.  The main melodic theme represents this feeling of vastness one can experience by just one glance at the distance.

Perthshire Majesty

Perthshire Majesty, a Scottish ballad for wind band, was written for the composer’s friends in the Tara Winds of Atlanta, Georgia; conducted by Dr. David Gregory, President of the National Band Association.  Dr. Gregory’s ancestry leads back to County Perthshire in Scotland, which accounts for the lush, Scottish feel of the piece.

The Hounds of Spring

This piece is based upon the following poem, which is a recreation in modern English verse of an ancient Greek tragedy.  The poem appeared in print in 1865, and made the poet an overnight success.

 When the hounds of spring are on winter’s traces,
            The mother of month in meadow or plain
Fills the shadows and windy places
                With lisp of leaves and ripple of rain

And soft as lips that laugh and hide
            The laughing leaves of the trees divide,
And screen from seeing and leave in sight
            The god pursuing, the maiden hid.

Algernon Charles Swinburne,
            Atlanta in Calydon

The Stars and Stripes Forever

This is the official march of the United States of America.  Sousa believed that the piece was divinely inspired.  It came to him as he sailed home from vacationing in Europe after learning of his manager’s death.  When he reached shore, he wrote “down the measures that my brain-band had been playing for me, and not a note of it has ever been changed.”