PROGRAM NOTES
EGYPTIAN MARCH, Opus 335
by Johann Strauss II
arr. by Keith Fickel
he formal opening of the Suez Canal – linking Port Said, on the Mediterranean Sea, and the Egyptian port of Suez, on the Red Sea – was celebrated on 16 November 1869 by an inaugural ceremony at Port Said. On the following day sixty-eight vessels of various nationalities began the passage, arriving at Suez four days later.
The opening of this artificial waterway created considerable interest around the world, and in Vienna gave rise to Anton Bittner's burlesque, Nach Ägypten (Into Egypt), presented at the Theater an der Wien on 26 December that year. It was here as a processional march for Egyptian warriors before the final scene, that the Viennese public first became acquainted with the sinuous themes of Johann Strauss's Ägyptischer Marsch. The composer, ever mindful of current affairs, had in fact written the piece for his 1869 summer concert season in Pavlovsk – shared that year with his brother Josef – and had conducted its première at the Vauxhall Pavilion there on 6 July (= 24 June, Russian calendar) at a benefit concert for the two brothers.
Star Wars Trilogy
by John Williams
arr. by Donald Hunsberger
The phenomenal success twenty years ago of Star Wars and its two companion films, Return of the Jedi and The Empire Strikes Back, renewed interest in movies as huge spectacles. Although set in futuristic terms for we earthbound travelers, the three films are in many ways historical in nature. Frequently described as “the morality plays of film,” the stories in The Trilogy share a common theme of the primary struggle between good and evil and the eventual success of love conquering all.
Created originally to be a nine-part series, each film is complete within itself while remaining open-ended for its eventual position in the nine tales. The characters obviously grow older and the production technology develops more and more as each year goes by. The current [again, as of 1997] re-release of the films in the United States has generated massive interest and box-office success for the shows.
Of musical interest, the STAR WARS project brought to international prominence the talents of John Williams, one of the most gifted composers for film and television. Williams worked in a totally different compositional style for the late 1970s in that he did not write short “cue music” for individual scenes, but rather composed large free-standing compositions that accompanied large segments of the film.
The five excerpts gathered in the TRILOGY are each capable of individual contrast, excitement and beauty. The themes for Leia and Yoda have received recognition, and the “Darth Vader Death March” and “The Main Title Music” are some of the best known film music performed today. The hidden gem in this set is the third movement, “The Battle in the Forest,” from RETURN OF THE JEDI, an extremely humorous Prokofiev-esque vivace which supports the little Ewoks in their fight with the huge metallic giants.
SHENANDOAH
Arr. by Omar Thomas
Shenandoah is one of the most well-known and beloved Americana folk songs. Originally a river song detailing the lives and journeys of fur traders canoeing down the Missouri River, the symbolism of this culturally-significant melody has been expanded to include its geographic namesake – an area of the eastern United States that encompasses West Virginia and a good portion of the western part of Virginia – and various parks, rivers, counties, and academic institutions found within.
Back in May of 2018, after hearing a really lovely duo arrangement of Shenandoah while adjudicating a music competition in Minneapolis, I asked myself, after hearing so many versions of this iconic and historic song, how would I set it differently? I thought about it and thought about it and thought about it, and before I realized it, I had composed and assembled just about all of this arrangement in my head by assigning bass notes to the melody and filling in the harmony in my head afterwards. I would intermittently check myself on the piano to make sure what I was imagining worked, and ended up changing almost nothing at all from what I’d heard in my mind’s ear.
This arrangement recalls the beauty of Shenandoah Valley, not bathed in golden sunlight, but blanketed by low-hanging clouds and experiencing intermittent periods of heavy rainfall (created with a combination of percussion textures, generated both on instruments and from the body). There are a few musical moments where the sun attempts to pierce through the clouds, but ultimately the rains win out. This arrangement of Shenandoah is at times mysterious, somewhat ominous, constantly introspective, and deeply soulful.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
John Williams
arr. by Stephen Bulla
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 American science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François Truffaut. It tells the story of Roy Neary, an everyday blue-collar worker in Indiana, whose life changes after an encounter with an unidentified flying object (UFO).
The score for the film was composed, conducted and produced by John Williams, who had previously worked on Spielberg's Jaws. Williams wrote over 300 examples of the iconic five-tone motif for Close Encounters -- the five tones are used by scientists to communicate with the visiting spaceship as a mathematical language -- before Spielberg chose the one incorporated into the film's signature theme. Spielberg called Williams' work "When You Wish upon a Star meets science fiction".
Williams was nominated for two Academy Awards in 1978, one for his score to Star Wars and one for his score to Close Encounters. He won for Star Wars, though he later won two Grammy Awards in 1979 for his Close Encounters score (one for Best Original Film Score and one for Best Instrumental Composition for "Theme from Close Encounters"). Much like his two-note Jaws theme, the "five-tone" motif for Close Encounters has since become ingrained in popular culture.
Jedi Steps and Finale
John Williams
arr. by Paul Lavender
From the blockbuster 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this authentic transcription features the dramatic music used at the climax of the film, followed by the explosive Finale.
Thirty years after the Galactic Civil War, the First Order has risen from the fallen Galactic Empire and seeks to eliminate the New Republic. The Resistance, backed by the Republic and led by General Leia Organa, opposes them while Leia searches for her brother, Luke Skywalker.
