Program Notes

Esprit de Corps (1984)

Esprit de Corps is a kind of fantasy-march, as well as a tribute to the United States Marine Band and the Marine Corps in general. Full of energy and drama, the composition has its solemn moments and its lighter moments (for example, the quasi-waltz in the middle of the piece). It displays the fervor and virtuosity of the Marine Band and the musical spirit and integrity of their past conductor, Col. John R. Bourgeois.

Robert Jager (b. 1939) was born in Binghamton, New York and educated at the University of Michigan. For four years he served as the staff arranger at the Armed Forces School of Music while a member of the US Navy. He has received commissions from some of the finest musical organizations in the world, including all five of the Washington-based military bands and all four of the military academies. Jager is a Professor Emeritus of Music at Tennessee Technological University. He has over 140 published compositions for band, orchestra, chorus, and various chamber combinations. He lives in Tennessee.

 

The Thunderer (1889)

Three years after Sousa was inducted into the Knights Templar of Washington, D.C., he dedicated this march to that organization. The Thunderer was Mrs. Sousa's favorite march, and was chosen by Sousa as one of five to be featured by his Great Lakes Naval Training Station Band on their tour on behalf of the American Red Cross during World War I. The second section includes an adaptation of Here's to Your Health, Sir!, which Sousa had written for his 1886 collection Trumpet and Drum.

At the time this march was written, Sousa was 35 years of age. He had led the Marine Band for nine years and was considered an outstanding conductor and composer. However, he was still naive in many business matters. Before he changed publishers in 1892 and began to make his own business arrangements, he sold many of his most popular marches, including The Thunderer, for $35 each.

 

After the Thunderer (1991)

The symphony is dedicated to Lt. Col. Lowell E. Graham. Stirred and fascinated by the music of John Philip Sousa since childhood, I still get a chill upon hearing the piccolo obligato in the trio of The Stars and Stripes Forever. While the thought of transforming popular march music into a legitimate piece for concert stage had a lot of intellectual appeal, I figured that any attempt I made to pay homage to Sousa would be misunderstood. But artistic challenge won out and I started working on what was to become the second movement of the symphony in the winter of 1990-1991. I began this piece by taking the "trio" theme of the march The Thunderer, slowing it down to a tempo of 48 beats per minute and casting it in the style of the Finale of Mahler's Third Symphony. From the audience reaction to the first performance of (after) The Thunderer, I knew I was involved with something unusual in the realm of band music. The weight of the piece and its eight-minute time performance meant that the idea of a light concert suite of four to six movements as originally commissioned was out of the question. It was at this time I realized that I had the beginning of a full-scale symphony in both length and depth.

 

Everyday Hero (2004)

Everyday Hero celebrates the diligent efforts and unsung accomplishments of the everyday hero. The composition praises those who make it all work, whether it be a single parent holding a family together or a teacher giving countless hours of outside time to students' concerns. It might be the neighbor who looks after others on the block, the local cop who stands ready at great personal risk to keep things safe for the rest of us, the church volunteer who extends care to those in need, or an innocent child doing what seems right without understanding what the term "hero" even means. It's my dad taking the most gristled portion of meat from the serving platter while telling his five sons that he liked that part the best, or my mom doing without things she desired so that the boys could have a few things they wanted bur really did not need. Given any thought, this list easily broadens. We all have heroes and most of them aren't the kind who have statues erected in their honor or have been given great media attention. They are people who have touched our lives in meaningful ways, most of the time without realizing it until after the fact.

Since the splash of his Fantasia in G 35 years ago, Timothy Mahr's compositions have been performed worldwide, recorded, and broadcast. The first recipient of a commission from the American Bandmasters Association Commissioning Project, Mahr has composed works for the National Association for Music Education, the United States Air Force Band, the American School Band Directors Association, and the Kappa Kappa Psi/Tau Beta Sigma National Intercollegiate Band.  He received the 1991 ABA/Ostwald Award for his work The Soaring Hawk. A professor of music at St. Olaf College, Dr. Timothy Mahr conducts the St. Olaf Band, and has taught courses in composition, music education, and conducting. More info at www.timothymahr.com.

 

Let Me Be Frank With You (2022)

In the summer of 2020, in the midst of COVID, I desperately felt like I needed to write something joyful. So, I started writing, and after about 24 measures, I had this terrible feeling – not uncommon for composers – that maybe the piece I was writing had already been written. And in this case, I feared that I had just plagiarized Frank Ticheli. I sent the opening to Frank, who was incredibly gracious in his response. He said that he had NOT written this tune – although it’s clear that he could have. This is a Ticheli-esque tune if ever I had written one!

It turns out that if I think “let’s just write 3 minutes of joyful fun,” my brain jumps to “you mean Ticheli with an excessive amount of snare drum and a few extra wrong notes.”

Thank you to Frank Ticheli – to whom the piece is dedicated – for his inspiration.

 

Give Us This Day (2005)

The words "give us this day" are, of course, from the Lord's Prayer, but the inspiration for this music is Buddhist. I have recently read a book by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh (pronounced "Tick Not Hahn") entitled For a Future to be Possible. His premise is that a future for the planet is only possible if individuals become deeply mindful of themselves, deeply connected to who they really are. While this is not a new idea, and something that is an ongoing struggle for everyone, in my estimation it is *the* issue for world peace. For me, writing music, and working with people to perform music, are two of those points of deep mindfulness. Music allows us to be immediately present, awake, and aware. "Give Us This Day"...Give us this very moment of aware aliveness so that we can build a future in the face of a most dangerous and difficult time. I chose the subtitle "Short Symphony for Wind Ensemble" because the music really isn't programmatic in nature. It has a full-blown symphonic character, even though there are only two movements. The music of the slower first movement is deeply searching, while that of the highly energized second movement is at times both joyful and sternly sober. The piece ends with a modal setting of the chorale melody Vater Unser in Himmelreich" ("Our Father in Heaven"), #110 from the 371 Four-Part Chorales by J.S. Bach.

David Maslanka’s music for winds has become especially well known. Among his more than 150 works are over 50 pieces for wind ensemble, including eight symphonies, seventeen concertos, a Mass, and many concert pieces. His chamber music includes four wind quintets, five saxophone quartets, and many works for solo instrument and piano. In addition, he has written a variety of orchestral and choral pieces.