Ridge High Spring Band Concert

The Ridge High Music Department presents its 2011 Spring Concert on Tuesday, June 7  featuring three separate ensembles.  The concert takes place at 7 pm at the Ridge High Performing Arts Center in Basking Ridge.

The Percussion Ensemble, comprised of various percussion instruments, opens the program with two works:

 (1) “Dystopia” by Jim Casella;

(2) “La Villa Strangiato” by Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart, arranged by Chris Swarych.

The Concert Band will perform four works:

 (1) “Undertow” by John Mackey:

 The New York Times has hailed John Mackey’s music as “Electrifying: A terse, powerful explosion of transformative energy,” and Newsday wrote, “A high‐energy style and a sharp theatrical sense … simply sensational.” Undertow is an exhilarating flash of musical lightning with an infectious rhythmic force

 (2) “On a Hymnsong of Philip Bliss” by David Holsinger:

 Holsinger based this composition on the hymn, It is Well with my Soul.  This hymn was written by Horatio Spafford following the death of his four daughters at sea on a voyage to England. Hymn writer Philip Bliss was so impressed with the experience and expression of Spafford's text that he set the text to music. 

(3) “Chorale and Shaker Dance II” by John Zdechlik:

The composition combines a simple chorale theme, introduced by the woodwinds, with variations of the well-known Shaker Hymn “The Gift to be Simple.” There is a progression of instrumental timbres and chord textures as the themes alternate and commingle. Sustained brass sections play the chorale with woodwinds performing a fiery obbligato based on the Shaker hymn as the development peaks.

(4) “The Washington Post March” by John Phillip Sousa:

During the 1880’s, several Washington, DC, newspapers competed vigorously for public favor. One of those, the Washington Post, organized what was known as the Washington Post Amateur Authors’ Association and sponsored an essay contest for school children. The Owners of the newspaper asked Sousa, then leader of the Marine Band, to compose a march for the award ceremony. The ceremony was held on the Smithsonian grounds on June 15, 1889. President Harrison and other dignitaries were among the huge crowd. When the new march was played by Sousa and the Marine Band, it was enthusiastically received.  The march happened to be admirably suited to the two-step dance, which was just being introduced.  Sousa’s march became identified with the two-step, and it was as famous abroad as it was in The United States. In some European countries, all two-steps were called “Washington Posts.”

The Wind Ensemble, with students selected through audition, will also perform four works:

(1) “Commando March” by Samuel Barber:

 Barber wrote his Commando March shortly after being enlisted in the United States Army during the Second World War. The work was completed in February 1943 and was premiered on May 23 of that year by the Army Air Force Tactical Training Command Band in Convention Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey, most likely with the composer conducting. The critic Fredric V. Grunfeld writing in High Fidelity magazine described the march as "an old-fashioned quickstep sporting a crew cut," and the work received many performances in the final years of the war.

(2) “Incantation and Dance” by John Barnes Chance:

This work consists of two sections, highly contrasted in both length and nature. The Incantation is a short, mournful legato melody. It is full of mystery and expectation, wandering, unstable, and without tonality. The Dance also begins quietly, but percussion instruments quickly enter, one by one, building a rhythmic pattern of incredible complexity and drive. The entrance of the brass and winds creates an increase in the rhythmic tension, as the dance grows wilder and more frenzied. After a short variation of material from the Incantation, the beginning of the Dance section is once again represented by the percussion. The piece gathers force as the entire ensemble draws together for a dramatic and exciting conclusion.

 (3) “Sun Dance” by Frank Ticheli:

 While composing Sun Dance, Ticheli was consciously attempting to evoke the feeling of “bright joy.” After he wrote the piece, he realized that the music evoked the image of  “a town festival on a warm, sun washed day”.  The dance like qualities are enhanced by a short syncopated motive that forms the basis for much of the melodic supportive material.

 (4) “The Chimes of Liberty” by Edwin Franko Goldman:

 Composer Edwin Franko Goldman is best known for the band he founded to “help raise the standards of bands and of band music,” the Goldman Band of New York. The Chimes of Liberty was written in 1922 to commemorate the Washington Conference for the Limitation of Armaments.  The Chimes of Liberty has delightfully singable melody in the trio which uniquely features the chimes as the prominent melodic voice.  Also of note is the challenging piccolo obbligato.