Music Education Resources
Bloomington/Normal Area 7th & 8th Grade Honor Band
Saturday, April 6, 2019
Bloomington Jr. High
Saturday, April 6, 2019
Bloomington Jr. High
Program
March: Military Escort
by Harold Bennett (AKA Henry Fillmore)
arr. James Swearingen
The introduction of Military Escort (called "the best easy march ever composed") came from a march by Will Nicholson of Vallonia, Indiana. Fillmore bought the work for $35, revised the melody and harmony, added an additional 96 bars of his own material, and copyrighted the march in 1923 for both band and orchestra, using his Harold Bennett pseudonym.
Designed for young bands, Fillmore was amazed when the manuscript was read by his Shrine Band, and the members proclaimed it one of his very best marches. The composer apparently did not realize that the open-tone cornet fanfares and low brass melodies, as well as the repetitive "shave-and-a-haircut" rhythms, had been familiar to instrumentalists for centuries. Using these basic patterns, Fillmore produced an uncomplicated masterpiece which rises and falls in the band popularity polls but never disappears. According to Paul Bierley, Military Escort even outsold The Stars and Stripes Forever march for a period of about four years. A few years later, Sousa told Fillmore, "I wish that march had my name on it!"
- Program Note by Program Notes for Band
REFERENCE RECORDING - MILITARY ESCORT
by Harold Bennett (AKA Henry Fillmore)
arr. James Swearingen
The introduction of Military Escort (called "the best easy march ever composed") came from a march by Will Nicholson of Vallonia, Indiana. Fillmore bought the work for $35, revised the melody and harmony, added an additional 96 bars of his own material, and copyrighted the march in 1923 for both band and orchestra, using his Harold Bennett pseudonym.
Designed for young bands, Fillmore was amazed when the manuscript was read by his Shrine Band, and the members proclaimed it one of his very best marches. The composer apparently did not realize that the open-tone cornet fanfares and low brass melodies, as well as the repetitive "shave-and-a-haircut" rhythms, had been familiar to instrumentalists for centuries. Using these basic patterns, Fillmore produced an uncomplicated masterpiece which rises and falls in the band popularity polls but never disappears. According to Paul Bierley, Military Escort even outsold The Stars and Stripes Forever march for a period of about four years. A few years later, Sousa told Fillmore, "I wish that march had my name on it!"
- Program Note by Program Notes for Band
REFERENCE RECORDING - MILITARY ESCORT
Seeking Solace
By Nicole Piunno
Seeking Solace (2016) is an adaptation of Solace Dance (grade 4). Nicole Piunno (b. 1985) is a composer who views music as a vehicle for seeing and experiencing the realities of life. Her music often reflects the paradoxes in life and how these seemingly opposites are connected as they often weave together. Her harmonic language and use of counterpoint mirrors the complexity of our world by acknowledging lightness and darkness, past and present, beauty and brokenness, confinement and freedom, chaos and order, spiritual and physical, life and death.
Nicole holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition and a Master of Music degree in theory pedagogy from Michigan State University. Her composition teachers were Ricardo Lorenz and Charles Ruggiero. She earned a Master of Music degree in composition at Central Michigan University, studying with David Gillingham. She has also worked with Jason Bahr, David Ludwig, and Tony Zilincik. Nicole earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education and her emphasis was on trumpet. Her music has been performed by the Principal Brass Quintet of the New York Philharmonic, Athena Brass Band, Columbia University Wind Ensemble, the Michigan State University Symphony Band, and at many other universities and conservatories around the country. Her chamber music has also been performed at the Orvieto Musica TrumpetFest in Orvieto, Italy, the International Trombone Festival, and multiple International Trumpet Guild Conferences.
REFERENCE RECORDING - SEEKING SOLACE
By Nicole Piunno
Seeking Solace (2016) is an adaptation of Solace Dance (grade 4). Nicole Piunno (b. 1985) is a composer who views music as a vehicle for seeing and experiencing the realities of life. Her music often reflects the paradoxes in life and how these seemingly opposites are connected as they often weave together. Her harmonic language and use of counterpoint mirrors the complexity of our world by acknowledging lightness and darkness, past and present, beauty and brokenness, confinement and freedom, chaos and order, spiritual and physical, life and death.
Nicole holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition and a Master of Music degree in theory pedagogy from Michigan State University. Her composition teachers were Ricardo Lorenz and Charles Ruggiero. She earned a Master of Music degree in composition at Central Michigan University, studying with David Gillingham. She has also worked with Jason Bahr, David Ludwig, and Tony Zilincik. Nicole earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education and her emphasis was on trumpet. Her music has been performed by the Principal Brass Quintet of the New York Philharmonic, Athena Brass Band, Columbia University Wind Ensemble, the Michigan State University Symphony Band, and at many other universities and conservatories around the country. Her chamber music has also been performed at the Orvieto Musica TrumpetFest in Orvieto, Italy, the International Trombone Festival, and multiple International Trumpet Guild Conferences.
REFERENCE RECORDING - SEEKING SOLACE
Rainbow in the Clouds
by Carol Brittin Chambers
Rainbow in the Clouds was commissioned by the Pflugerville Middle School Wind Ensemble in Pflugerville, TX, directed by Shauna Satrom. The piece premiered in May 2017, in memory and celebration of Luis Ham, who was an Assistant Principal at Pflugerville Middle School.
This piece is based on an old traditional spiritual, possibly an African-American song from the 19th century, entitled God Put a Rainbow in the Clouds. The first time I heard reference to this song was in a Maya Angelou video, in which she sings a portion of it: “When it looked like the sun wouldn’t shine anymore, Oh, God put a rainbow in the clouds.” In the video, Dr. Angelou honors those who have demonstrated kindness to her in the past, and she suggests that we all try to be a blessing to others. The Pflugerville community believed that Mr. Ham, with his positive outlook, was definitely a “Rainbow in the Clouds” for other people.
The piece begins with a full ensemble introduction, followed by a woodwind treatment of the first verse with a fairly reserved tempo and straight eighth-note rhythm. When brass pick up the melody on the second phrase, we start to hear the song more like the original spiritual, with dotted-eighth, sixteenth rhythms. The middle section of the piece at m. 22 begins to move at a slightly quicker tempo, and the mood becomes lighter. This section becomes a call-and-response between a euphonium solo and upper woodwinds. The final section of the piece involves everyone playing together joyously and full, eventually winding down with two more solo statements in flute and euphonium.
REFERENCE RECORDING - RAINBOW IN THE CLOUDS (Original vocal setting)
REFERENCE RECORDING - RAINBOW IN THE CLOUDS (Band setting)
by Carol Brittin Chambers
Rainbow in the Clouds was commissioned by the Pflugerville Middle School Wind Ensemble in Pflugerville, TX, directed by Shauna Satrom. The piece premiered in May 2017, in memory and celebration of Luis Ham, who was an Assistant Principal at Pflugerville Middle School.
This piece is based on an old traditional spiritual, possibly an African-American song from the 19th century, entitled God Put a Rainbow in the Clouds. The first time I heard reference to this song was in a Maya Angelou video, in which she sings a portion of it: “When it looked like the sun wouldn’t shine anymore, Oh, God put a rainbow in the clouds.” In the video, Dr. Angelou honors those who have demonstrated kindness to her in the past, and she suggests that we all try to be a blessing to others. The Pflugerville community believed that Mr. Ham, with his positive outlook, was definitely a “Rainbow in the Clouds” for other people.
The piece begins with a full ensemble introduction, followed by a woodwind treatment of the first verse with a fairly reserved tempo and straight eighth-note rhythm. When brass pick up the melody on the second phrase, we start to hear the song more like the original spiritual, with dotted-eighth, sixteenth rhythms. The middle section of the piece at m. 22 begins to move at a slightly quicker tempo, and the mood becomes lighter. This section becomes a call-and-response between a euphonium solo and upper woodwinds. The final section of the piece involves everyone playing together joyously and full, eventually winding down with two more solo statements in flute and euphonium.
REFERENCE RECORDING - RAINBOW IN THE CLOUDS (Original vocal setting)
REFERENCE RECORDING - RAINBOW IN THE CLOUDS (Band setting)
Music for the Royal Fireworks - Movement II: Rejouissance
by George Frederick Handel
arr. Bruce Pearson & Wendy Barden
Music for the Royal Fireworks is a work in five movements:
- Overture (Adagio – Allegro – Lentement – Allegro)
- Bourrée
- La Paix (Largo alla siciliana)
- La Réjouissance (Allegro)
- Menuets I and II
The work premiered in London on April 27, 1749 at an event celebrating the end of the War of the Austrian Succession and the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in 1748. The fireworks display, for which the composition was intended to accompany, was not as successful as the music itself. The weather was rainy causing many misfires and in the middle of the show, a nearby building caught fire. The honor band will only perform the fourth movement of the work – La Rejouissance.
REFERENCE RECORDING - REJOUISSANCE (band version)
REFERENCE RECORDING - REJOUISSANCE (original orchestral version - click on the video below)
Afterburn
By Randell D. Standridge
When watching a jet in the sky, one imagines the rush the pilot must feel when kicking in the afterburners, that sudden burst of speed. This piece seeks to capture the emotions of flight in a supercharged jet plane: excitement at takeoff, awe at the beauty of the earth, and an adrenaline burst of joy when the afterburners kick in.
REFERENCE RECORDING - AFTERBURN