San Francisco Wind Ensemble
In addition to its annual concert series at SF State, the ensemble strives to offer a variety of community engagement activities, arts education services and collaborations, at little to no cost to student musicians. Further goals include collaborations with composers to support their ambitious, innovative musical visions.
Program
- Holst (1874–1934): Suite No. 1 in E-flat (1909)
- Bach (1685–1750): Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582
- Maslanka (1943–): Symphony No. 4 (1993)
Program notes
Gustav Holst (1874–1934): Suite No. 1 in E-flat, Op. 28, No. 1 (1909)
Little can Gustav Holst have known that, some 100 years after he wrote his two suites for military band, they would become amongst the most frequently performed pieces throughout the world, admired and studied by students and professionals alike, and the cornerstone of the wind ensemble repertoire.
From a compositional viewpoint it is a highly organized work that Imogen Holst, his daughter, describes as “an experiment in form, each movement being founded on a fragment of the opening Chaconne.”[1] Because of this unifying element, Holst, at the top of the original score, requests that “the Suite shall be played right through without a break.”
The first movement is made up of a continuous set of 15 variations over the ever-present ground bass of the chaconne. Holst sustains the listener’s interest through constantly evolving textures and harmonies, inversion and pedal points.
By contrast, the Intermezzo is a lively scherzo in ternary form with an energetic lightly articulated opening. The third movement, March, is in the true British tradition—grandiose in its outer sections and overtly lyrical in the trio. The economic use of material from the Chaconne, the selective use of instrumentation and attention to detail underlines Holst’s skill as a composer for wind instruments.
J.S. Bach (1685–1750): Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582
Donald Hunsberger writes about his transcription:
Bach composed the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor sometime during his second residence in Weimar, between 1708 and 1717. Albert Schweitzer writes: “The Passacaglia and Fugue was written in the first place for cembalo (harpsichord) with pedal and was later transcribed for organ.”
The theme, which is presented in 20 variations and the fugue, consists of two parts: the first half, which Bach borrowed from a Trio en Passacaille by Andre Raison and the answering second half which is original material.
Bach was fairly consistent in closing each statement of the theme with an authentic cadence (C minor: V-i); despite these brief attempts at finality there remains a flow of continuity provided by a frequent rhythmic acceleration during the closing measures of the variation, anticipating the rhythmic pattern of the following variation. An additional feeling of continuity is supplied through the contrapuntal treatment of the inner voices, seldom allowing these voices to become stagnant. The Fugue uses the first half of the Passacaglia theme as its subject. This subject is introduced 12 times, each time accompanied by its propelling eighth-note countersubject.
This setting of the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor has been created for the expanded orchestra wind section instrumentation by Hunsberger, the former wind ensemble director at the Eastman School of Music. He followed the philosophy that each of the 20 variations and 12 statements of the fugue subject shall constitute an identifiable coloring—each different enough from its neighbor to ensure individualism, but not so differentiated as to cause disjointedness.
David Maslanka (1943–): Symphony No. 4 (1993)
Born in New Bedford, Mass., David Maslanka is a highly acclaimed composer and is well-known for his wind ensemble repertoire. Maslanka’s compositions tend to be very rhythmically complex and technically challenging, yet they possess a quality of serene beauty. Symphony No. 4 is no exception to Maslanka’s characteristic work. The core of the piece revolves around the use of various hymnal tunes, such as Old Hundred, Bach chorales (Only Trust in God to Guide You and Christ Who Makes Us Holy), as well as several original melodies that are hymn-like in nature.
The composer writes:
“The roots of Symphony No. 4 are many. The central driving force is the spontaneous rise of the impulse to shout for the joy of life. I feel it is the powerful voice of the Earth that comes to me from my adopted home in western Montana, and the high plains and mountains of central Idaho. My personal experience of the voice is one of being helpless and torn open by the power of the thing that wants to be expressed—the welling-up shout that cannot be denied. I am set aquiver and am forced to shout and sing. The response in the voice of the Earth is the answering shout of Thanksgiving, and the shout of praise.”
Endnote
1. Holst, Imogen, The Music of Gustav Holst; and, Holst’s Music Reconsidered, Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 27.