Corsican Litany
Václav Nelhýbel was a prolific Czech composer and conductor who studied composition and conducting at the Prague Conservatory of Music and musicology at Charles University and the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). He was the assistant conductor of the Czech Philharmonic and a composer and conductor of the Swiss National Radio. He co-founded and directed the Radio Free Europe in Munich and conducted the Vienna Philharmonic and Bavarian Symphony. He emigrated from the Czech Republic to the United States in 1957.
Fascinated with the American concert band, Nelhýbel wrote Corsican Litany to explore the possibilities of the ensemble. Corsican laments were split into two categories: laments for deaths from natural causes and voceru, songs of grief and vengeance for victims of murder. The voceru that inspired Nelhýbel’s Corsican Litany was first sung in 1775 at the funeral of a country doctor named Matju who had been murdered by his patient. This piece begins with the sound of tolling chimes to announce the beginning of mourning, weaves sonically through pain and loss, and ends with the chilling reminder that, despite the voceru belief that vengeance can heal, the tolling chime remains.
Note by Patty Saunders
To Old and New Places
Elena Specht is a composer whose work often grows out of compelling stories and a strong sense of place. Her music has been performed by groups such as the U.S. Coast Guard Band and university wind ensembles. She currently works as a librarian with “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band.
To New and Old Places is written in three movements; each tied to a scene in a different young adult novel. In the first, based on Jeanne DuPrau’s The City of Ember, two young characters witness the sun rising for the very first time. The second, based on Caroline B. Cooney’s The Face on the Milk Carton, captures the bittersweet longing of a teenager imagining the life she might have had with her lost family. The final movement, from C.S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, carries the thrill of a voyage into uncharted seas.
Note by Elena Specht and Molly Allman
Into the Sun
Jodie Blackshaw is an Australian composer and conductor who studied composition with Larry Sitsky at the Australian National University. Blackshaw founded the Female Band Composer database in 2017 and the ColourFULL Music website in 2018. She is a composer that takes a student-centered approach in her works, often including storylines, options for student decision-making, and program narratives that connect the piece with a larger story.
Into the Sun is a compilation of stories told about the passage to Australia from the points of view of free settlers in the 1800s, post-World War II immigrants, and refugees seeking asylum. Blackshaw includes real-life stories that correspond to each of the piece’s six sections in her program notes that describe the emotional highs and lows of leaving home to find a new one. The sections include the Arrival; A New Land, a New Life; Camps and Confusion; Acculturation: A Yearning for Home and All That is Familiar; Opportunity: With New-Found Enthusiasm; and Reflection: With a Feeling of Inner Peace of Calmness. Written to raise awareness of the plight of refugees, Blackshaw broadens her programmatic message communicating a desire for all people to love one another. Blackshaw’s Into the Sun emphasizes this importance and the responsibility to help refugees in times of need.
Note by Jodie Blackshaw and Patty Saunders
Viktor’s Tale from The Terminal
John Williams is one of the most celebrated and influential film composers of the modern era. An American composer from New York, Williams was the son of a jazz drummer and studied at UCLA, the Juilliard School, and Eastman. His career has included collaborations with director Steven Spielberg and George Lucas that has produced some of the most recognized music in cinematic history including Schindler’s List, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars. He has won numerous awards including five Academy Awards and twenty-five GRAMMY® awards. Williams remains active as a composer and conductor and continues to broaden his impact on modern film.
Viktor’s Tale is a composition for solo clarinet and orchestra that was developed from Williams’ score for the Steven Spielberg film The Terminal. Part drama and part comedy, the film follows the protagonist, Viktor Navorski, as he finds himself a man without a country, stuck in an airport terminal for days on end. Williams’ score brings to life this unfortunate circumstance and includes a musical portrait of Navorski’s warmth and friendliness through a dance-like piece for clarinet and ensemble.
Note by the United States Marine Band and Patty Saunders
Summit
Kevin Day is a composer, jazz pianist, producer, and conductor who is known to juxtapose diverse musical traditions including contemporary classical, jazz, R&B, and soul with classical composition. His father was a prominent hip-hop producer, and his mother was a popular gospel singer. Day is one of eight founding members of the Nu Black Vanguard, a collective dedicated to the advancement of Black composers, and a graduate of Texas Christian University, the University of Georgia, and the University of Miami Frost School of Music. In 2024, Day joined the faculty at the University of California San Diego as a lecturer in theory and musicianship.
Day composed Summit in 2020 after being commissioned by the Indiana Bandmasters Association. The piece depicts a group of climbers as they journey up the face of a mountain. Along the way, they encounter many obstacles, including cliffs and chilling winds, but the team perseveres and makes their way to the top.
Note by Kevin Day and Jaden Brown
Variations on a Korean Folk Song
A native of Texas, John Barnes Chance was an American composer and arranger who received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Texas, where he studied with Clifton Williams, Kent Kennan, and Paul Pisk. He performed as a percussionist with the Austin Symphony Orchestra and served as an arranger for the 4th Army Band in San Antonio and the 8th Army Band in Seoul, Korea. After leaving the Army, the Ford Foundation selected Chance to participate in the Young Composers Project. From 1960 through 1962, he was composer-in-residence for the Greensboro Ford Foundation Young Composers Project writing for the Greensboro, North Carolina public school system and Greensboro Senior High School, now Grimsley High School. Chance was a prolific composer for wind band with works including Incantation and Dance and Blue Lake Overture.
While stationed overseas in Seoul, Chance heard the popular Korean folk song “Arirang” which inspired Variations on a Korean Folk Song. A song of love and heartbreak, the theme is based on the ujo mode pentatonic scale and can be traced back to the 18th century. The tune was also used as a resistance anthem during the Japanese occupation of Korea when the singing of patriotic songs was criminalized. About the melody, Chance said, “The tune is not as simple as it sounds, and my fascination with it during the intervening years led to its eventual use as the theme for this set of variations.” The theme is followed by five variations that alternate between fast and slow tempos and use multiple time signatures and rhythmic patterns to alter the theme. Variations on A Korean Folk Song is a cornerstone work for band and received the Sousa/Ostwald Award from the American Bandmasters Association in 1966.
Note by Patty Saunders
