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DePaul University Wind Ensemble
Concerto for Wind Orchestra
Suite from "Comedy on the Bridge"
Concerto for Clarinet/Soprano Saxophone
The twentieth century has seen the role of the American wind band expand from being primarily ceremonial or functional, to one including both indoor and outdoor entertainment, utilizing a wide variety of music from light to serious. Bands conducted by such "superstars" as Sousa and the Goldmans performed serious music through transcriptions and some original band compositions, but it was Frederick Fennell who really defined the notion of original concert music for winds. By encouraging the finest composers to write for winds, and by giving those composers the freedom to define the instrumentation of the groups for which they wrote, he paved the way for composers to take wind groups seriously as a medium for concert performance. Following closely on the heels of Fennell's "invention" of the Wind Ensemble, Robert Austin Boudreau developed the American Wind Symphony Orchestra (now the American Waterways Wind Orchestra) which boasts an astonishing project of over 300 commissioned original works for winds.
Since 1952, when Fennell's vision began to take shape, thousands of new pieces have been composed for winds. In that time, those of us who conduct wind groups have frantically sought to perform the latest new works in hopes of developing a new repertoire. To paraphrase the outstanding wind conductor Frank Battistie, we hoped to find an audience that would listen to our music rather than just to our players. While we play a good deal of new music, I don't believe we are doing as well at finding and preserving that body of music that will, or should, find its way into the permanent repertoire.
It is with this repertoire building function in mind that I assembled the works for this recording. I hope some of them will be new to you and that you will enjoy conducting, playing and listening to them in the future.
French composer Eugene Bozza was born in Nice in 1905. After attending the Paris Conservatoire and winning the Prix de Rome in composition, Bozza went on to conduct the Opera Comique (1939-48). He subsequently moved to Valenciennes where he became Head of the conservatoire, and lived out his life, dying in 1991. He is perhaps best known for his chamber music, much of which was written for wind instruments.
The inspiration for Bozza's Children's Overture comes from the opening movement of Respighi's The Pines of Rome. The notes to Respighi's work say in part, "Children are at play in the pine groves of the Villa Borghese, dancing the Italian equivalent of 'Ring Around a-rosy'; mimicking marching soldiers and battles; twittering and shrieking like swallows at evening; and then disappearing." Bozza wrote the Children's Overture for the American Wind Symphony Orchestra in 1964.
Concerto for Wind Orchestra
Nikolai Lopatnikoff was born in Estonia in 1903 and died in Pittsburgh in 1976. He studied music and composition at the St. Petersburg and Helsinki conservatories, and in Germany with Ernst Toch among others. In 1939 he moved to Pittsburgh where he taught composition at Carnegie-Mellon University. His output includes four symphonies, piano concertos, chamber music and piano music in the Russian Romantic style.
The Concerto for Wind Orchestra was written for the American Wind Symphony Orchestra (AWSO) in 1963. While given the title "Concerto" because of the wide variety of textural color that features the various instrumental sections, it is in the form of a symphony.
Mozart Camargo Guarnieri was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1907. He studied composition in Paris with Koechlin and Boulanger (1938-39), was conductor of the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, and in 1960 became director of that City's Conservatory. The leading Brazilian composer of his time, he has written a wide variety of music in a nationalistic and technically refined style.
The Homenagen a Villa-Lobos, as the title suggests is a tribute to Hector Villa-Lobos. Written for the AWSO in 1966, it consists of three Brazilian dances played without pause. The first is tempo de côco (coconut), the second tempo de toada (the sound of rain), and the third is in the tempo of the northern Brazilian baiao.
Darius Milhaud was born in Aix-en-Provence, France in 1892, and died in 1974. He was a member of the famous group of composers known as Les Six. Milhaud's over 400 compositions cover a wide range of types including opera, symphony, ballet, chamber music, theater music and film scores. His work possesses an equally wide range of styles from conservative to modern.
Symphony No. 5, sometimes called Dixtour, was the last of five small symphonies written between 1917 and 1922. The instruments chosen for this "experiment" consist of a double woodwind quintet, but by including piccolo, bass clarinet and English horn, Milhaud greatly enhances the range of color and expressiveness available to his work. Thus the possibilities
for being "rude," "violent" and mysterious make for a very interesting work.
Suite from "Comedy on the Bridge"
The neo-classic Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959) studied violin and composition at the conservatory in Prague before moving to Paris. In Paris he studied with Roussel and developed his compositional style, sometimes incorporating jazz styles. During the 1930's he began to devote himself to Czech subjects, and in 1935, while in Paris, he wrote music for the short opera, Comedy On the Bridge. The music was first performed as a radio broadcast in Prague on March 18, 1937. The world stage premiere was given in New York in May of 1951. While the score for this short opera is not often performed, the little suite Martinu extracted is often used in concert. The original is for a chamber orchestra and was ideal for rearrangement for winds.
Concerto for Clarinet/Soprano Saxophone
Jeff Beal's Concerto was written for Larry Combs and the DePaul Wind Ensemble on commission from THE Commission Project. THE Commission Project was founded in 1994 to commission new works for the educational benefit of student and community groups. The project seeks to bring outstanding composers and performers into schools for residencies and performances.
The young composer/trumpet player, Jeff Beal, is a member of the new generation of composers who freely access the wide palette of jazz, classical, contemporary and world music. Downbeat magazine noted, "he may even develop into the kind of iconoclast who can blast the trumpet into the 21st century with some futuristic new style of jazz." The Concerto for Clarinet/Soprano Saxophone and Wind Ensemble contains much of his eclectic style as it takes the listener on a ride that is jazzy, humorous, reflective and charming. Mr. Beal makes the most of Larry Combs' abilities as clarinetist, saxophonist and improviser to bring us a fresh and interesting addition to the repertoire.
Donald DeRoche is the director of bands and chairman of the Performance Studies department at the DePaul University School of Music in Chicago. He earned degrees in music education and performance at the University of Illinois, and a Ph.D. in music education at Northwestern University. Before going to DePaul, he spent three years as clarinetist with the U.S. Army Band in Washington, D.C.; two years as principal clarinetist with the Victoria (Canada) Symphony Orchestra; and six years as director of bands at Willowbrook High School in Villa Park, Illinois. In 1972 he was the guest principal clarinetist with the Alaska Festival of Music and has appeared as soloist with the Czech, Arcturus and Vancouver string quartets. In 1979 he became conductor of the DePaul Wind Ensemble, which has performed under his direction in Austria, Russia, Estonia, Poland, Ireland, and Hungary. In addition, the DePaul Wind Ensemble has been invited to perform for meetings of the College Band Director's National Association (1984 & 1992), the Music Educator's National Conference (1984), and the Illinois Music Educator's Association (1988 & 1992).
Larry Combs has been Principal Clarinet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1978 and has been on the DePaul School of Music Faculty since 1981. He is a founding member of the Chicago Chamber Musicians and served as Artistic Co-Director of that organization from 1987 to 1995. He has recorded virtually the entire orchestral repertoire with the Chicago Symphony under such conductors as Solti, Barneboim, Levine, Abbado, Tilson Thomas, Boulez and others. Recent solo and chamber recordings include releases on the Cedille, Summit, and Erato labels. he was awarded the Grammy in 1994 by the National academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for his participation in a recording of chamber music of Beethoven and Mozart with Daniel Barenboim and members of the Berlin Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony. Combs has appeared as soloist numerous times with the Chicago Symphony and with orchestras nationwide, and was a member of the World Orchestra for Peace in Geneva commemorating the fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations in 1995.
Recorded and edited by Steven Lewis.
Recorded at the DePaul University Concert Hall between 1995 and 1998.
Donald DeRoche photo by Mary Claire.
Children's Overture, Homenagen a Villa-Lobos, and Concerto for Wind Orchestra are published by C.F. Peters. Symphony No. 5 is published by Universal Editions. Suite from "Comedy on the Bridge" is published by Boosey & Hawkes. Concerto for Clarinet/Soprano Saxophone is published by Post Meridian Music, BMI.
DePaul University Wind Ensemble
Donald DeRoche, conductor
Larry Combs, clarinet & saxophone
Children's Overture (5:05)
Concerto for Wind Orchestra
Homenagen a Villa-Lobos 7:43)
Suite from "Comedy on the Bridge" (5:30)
Concerto for Clarinet/Soprano Saxophone
Famines to Feasts (10:12)
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