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David Maslanka on the music:
In recent years I have developed an abiding interest in the Bach Chorales, singing and playing them daily as warm-up for my composing time, and making my own four-part settings in the old style. The chorales now regularly find their way into my music, and have become a significant “leaping off” point for me.
The first movement of Quintet No. 3 (1999) opens with the chorale “Ihr Gestirn ihr hohlen Lufte” (“Your stars, your cavernous sky”). The movement is a “continuous play” kind of piece. After the chorale there is a sharply contrasting first theme, which works its way over time into a second theme, and this becomes the subject of a short and very pushy set of variations. There is a restatement of the first theme, and the movement ends with a blunt presentation of a new chorale: “Christe, der du bist Tag und Licht” (“Christ, you are day and light”).
In the second movement, the chorale “Ermuntre dich, mein schwacher Geist” (“Take courage, my weak spirit”) serves as a backdrop for an impassioned flute soliloquy. This is an intimate and personal music. The movement closes with a simple and uninterrupted statement of the chorale.
The third movement is exceptionally demanding for the performers because of its speed and length. It is something of a sonata form. However, the second theme, which sounds like a chorale melody, becomes the subject of a set of variations. The movement finishes with a partial recapitulation and an extended coda.
Quintet for Winds No. 3 was commissioned by the Missouri Quintet with a grant from the University of Missouri Research Board. The premiere performance was given on March 14, 2000, in Columbia, Missouri.
Music for Dr. Who (1979) is a whimsical little piece which takes its title from the British science fiction TV series of the 1970s. The music has no official connection to the TV show, but came about as a result of my watching one particular episode. In it, Dr. Who is being held captive by some aliens. In order to open a locked door and escape he must allow a powerful jolt of electricity to pass through his body. After considering the possible consequences, he goes for it, and is knocked to the floor, seemingly dead. After the commercial, a closeup shows Dr. Who's face, eyes closed, nothing moving. Suddenly one eye pops open. He grins! He's alive! He's free! Music for Dr. Who was commissioned by Barney Childs for bassoonist John Steinmetz, and they gave it its first performances.
Little Symphony (1989) was written as part of a birthday offering to composer Barney Childs. Over the years Barney had been friend and mentor to dozens of younger composers. On the occasion of his 64th birthday his performing colleague, clarinetist Phillip Rehfeldt, asked many of us to compose brief pieces for solo clarinet. This collection of more than 50 pieces now exists as “Etudes for the 21st Century Clarinetist.” “Little Symphony” is in four brief movements, each using as pitch material only the “musical” letters from Barney's name: BArnEy CHilDs.
Sonata for Oboe and Piano was written in 1992. Its inspiration was a poem of ecstatic vision written by an Eskimo woman:
The great sea has set me in motion
Moving me as a weed moves in the river.
The arch of the sky and mightiness of storms
Have moved the spirit within me,
Each of the three movements is a meditation on these images.
David Maslanka was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1943. He studied clarinet, music theory, and composition, receiving degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory (BM 1965) and Michigan State University (MM 1968, PhD 1971).
David Maslanka's compositions have been performed throughout the United States, in Canada, Japan, Australia, and numerous European countries. He has received three National Endowment for the Arts Composer Awards, and five residence fellowships at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, NH. In addition he has received grants from the State University of New York Research Foundation, the University of Connecticut Research Foundation, the American Music Center, the New York State Arts Council, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music, and ASCAP. His works for winds and percussion have become especially well-known. Several, including A Child's Garden of Dreams for wind ensemble, Symphony No. 2 for band, and the works for marimba including Variations on "Lost Love," My Lady White, and Arcadia II: Concerto for Marimba and Percussion Ensemble, have become standards in their fields. He is a frequent guest composer and conductor at colleges, universities, and festivals.
Maslanka's works are published by Carl Fischer, Inc., Kjos Music Co., the North American Saxophone Alliance, and Marimba Productions, Inc., and have been recorded on Albany, CRI, Crest, Mark, UMass., Cambria, and Klavier labels. He is listed in the International Who's Who in Music, and Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. He served on the faculties of the State University of New York at Geneseo, Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, and Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York. He lives in Missoula, Montana.
Founded in 1977, the Missouri Woodwind Quintet is an ensemble-in-residence at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Music. The ensemble performs a wide variety of literature, ranging from Baroque transcriptions to cutting-edge contemporary repertoire. The Quintet has toured extensively throughout the United States and abroad, including concerts in Boston, New York, Chicago, and Dallas, and at New England Conservatory, Northwestern University, University of Illinois, Baylor University, and University of North Texas. Highlight performance venues include Carnegie Hall (reviewed favorably in the New York Times), National Public Radio's Performance Today, and the International Festival of Chamber Music in Belém, Brazil. The Quintet has recorded two prior CD's: Quintets Nos. 1 & 2 by David Maslanka, and Romantic Winds, a collection of transcribed works by Grieg, Dvorak, and Rimsky-Korsakov.
Steven Geibel teaches flute and chamber music at MUC and is a founding member of the Missouri Quintet. His primary teacher was Charles Delaney at the University of Illinois and Florida State University, and he has performed in masterclasses for Marcel Moyse and Michel Debost. He also plays traverso and has participated in a masterclass with Robert Willoughby. He has held office and performed for the National Flute Association Convention and he has appeared throughout the Midwest as a recitalist, clinician, and adjudicator.
Dan Willett, oboe, earned bachelors and masters degrees from Michigan State University as a student of Daniel Stolper. Mr. Willett has performed with the St. Louis Symphony, St. Louis Bach Society, Kammerguild Chamber Orchestra, at the Bach Aria Group Festival, New College Music Festival, Mid-West International Band and Orchestra Clinic, and the International Double Reed Society Convention. He has also been active as a composer and arranger, having had woodwind quintet transcriptions favorably reviewed by the New York Times and broadcast nationwide.
Paul Garritson, clarinet, is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and Yale School of Music. He has performed with the New Haven Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of New England, Opera Theater of St. Louis, the New Music Circle (St. Louis), and the St. Louis Symphony. He has given numerous recitals throughout the U.S., including broadcast performances on WQXR in New York City. He has also appeared in recital at the meetings of the International Clarinet Society and the Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium. Mr. Garritson remains active as a freelance player in the St. Louis area.
Marcia Spence, horn, holds degrees from the University of Colorado, American University, and the University of North Texas. A former member of The United States Air Force Band, she also commanded the 531st Air Force Band in Dallas. In 1997 she was a winner of the solo competition sponsored by the International Women's Brass Conference. Her most recent performances have been with the Breckenridge Chamber Orchestra, the Missouri Chamber Orchestra, and the Missouri Brass Consortium. She is an active recitalist throughout the Midwest region and runs her own music publishing company, Wee Hour Productions.
Albie Micklich, bassoon, earned degrees at Michigan State University, The Juilliard School, and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. As a winner of Juilliard's Concerto Competition, he gave his Avery Fisher Hall solo debut in 1995 and performed the New York premiere of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Bassoon Concerto. A founding member of the Trio Sonor, he has given recitals throughout Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Indiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Dr. Micklich has performed with such artists as Kathleen Battle, Pierre Boulez, Kurt Masur, Leonard Slatkin, David Sanborn, the Canadian Brass, The Chieftains, and Sinead O'Connor.
Janice Wenger, piano, holds degrees from Kansas State University, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. She joined the MU faculty in 1978, and teaches studio piano, piano literature, and accompanying, as well as coordinating the keyboard studies area. Dr. Wenger appears frequently as both a solo pianist and professional accompanist, and has served as official accompanist to both regional and national levels of student competitions for the Music Teachers National Association.
This 24-bit all-digital recording was engineered by Jeff Harrison and Nathan Patnode of Harrison Digital Productions, Belchertown, Massachusetts 01007.
Quintet No. 3 was recorded at Dulaney Auditorium at William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri. Other works were recorded in Rogers Whitmore Recital Hall at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Music. The piano used was a Büsendorfer Imperial Grand.
Cover Design: Bates Miyamoto Design
Special thanks to Dr. Jahnae Barnett, President of William Woods University; Joe Potter, Artistic Director of Theatre at WWU; Dr. Melvin Platt, Director of the MU School of Music.
Partial funding for this recording was provided by the University of Missouri-Columbia Research Council.
4 Music for Dr. Who [3:56]
Sonata for Oboe and Piano
7 Very slow and free[9:26]
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