Alegria - Carol Brittin Chambers (notes written by the composer)
The word Alegria, with varied spellings, exists in several languages, such as Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. The word means joy, happiness, cheerfulness. When I set out to write this piece, overall I wanted to create something fun and upbeat, with many definite moments of high energy. However, "fun" music to me is based on much more that one tempo marking or one tonality (i.e. allegro, major scale). "Fun" music takes me on some type of journey, in which I feel a range of emotions throughout. Perhaps at some point I feel engaged and captivated, curious as to what will happen next; at another moment, I find myself grinning because of a humorous, quirky quiet; at other times, I completely savour a unique-sounding mode, a beautiful melody, or an energetic groove that makes me want to get up and dance.
I hope you experience a variety of emotions as you interact with this piece, but especially that of great joy! "Que Alegria!"
Flute Concerto - Stephen McNeff
Lambeth Wind Orchestra is thrilled to perform Stephen McNeff’s Concerto for Flute and Wind Orchestra for you tonight. Stephen has composed extensively for wind orchestras and is the patron of Lambeth Wind Orchestra, though he is perhaps best known for his operas and songs, which have been performed at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and by the BBC Singers, amongst many others. Stephen studied at the Royal Academy of Music, has been Composer in Residence with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and at the Banff Centre in Canada, and is currently on the composition staff of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Lambeth Wind Orchestra has performed a number of his works including The Winged Lion, Image in Stone, Ghosts, Moving Parts, his Clarinet Concerto, and the premiere of his Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Wind Orchestra in 2023.
Stephen McNeff’s flute concerto, written in 2014 and premiered by Lambeth Wind Orchestra with soloist Hannah Furey, is an engaging and capricious work. Tunes and rhythms are passed around all sections of the orchestra, and the work explores many different moods. It is written as a traditional three movement concerto. You will hear 3 members of the flute section as soloists this evening. Sophie, performing the 1st movement, recommends particularly listening out for the catchy and playful main theme which echoes around various sections of the orchestra. Christina, performing the 2nd movement, recommends listening out for three themes of increasing complexity. We start with the opening ‘gracefully walking’ theme, before a lyrical melody which passes around the orchestra and solo line. At the centre of the movement is a passage with more rhythmic and staccato interplay between orchestra and soloist, The movement then finishes by coming full circle, returning to the opening idea. And Charlotte, performing the 3rd movement, encourages you to listen out for an exciting rollercoaster of shifting moods and personalities, and emphatic rhythmic patterns
Danzon No. 2 - Arturo Márquez
Arturo Márquez is a Mexican composer whose father and grandfather were both performers of Mexican folk and traditional music. Naturally, this greatly influenced the young Arturo, although he was the only one of nine siblings to become a musician. He attended the Mexican Music Conservatory, studying piano, music theory and composition and later went on to study in California. As a result, his music brilliantly fuses Mexican nationalistic styles with classical composition techniques.
The Danzón is a dance form which originated in Cuba but became popular in the Mexican state of Veracruz. Márquez became inspired while visiting a local ballroom and, to date, has composed nine Danzóns. The most famous of these is Danzón No. 2, written in 1994. It is a hugely popular and frequently performed piece which has become a modern Mexican classic. It has even been called Mexico's second national anthem! Brimming with tuneful inventiveness, dynamic rhythms, and ever-changing tempi, the work sizzles with life and energy.
Danza de los Duendes - Nancy Galbraith (notes written by the composer)
Danza de los Duendes begins with an introductory section that makes use of high woodwind textures and percussion. The introduction closes with falling runs into a quiet pulse in the clarinets. The main theme is then stated in the four trumpets. It is answered by various instruments and eventually is stated by the whole ensemble in an explosive climax, which evolves into a repeated quarter note octave in the upper winds and large fortissimo chords in the brass.
The development sections makes use of the percussion and piano as background texture over which lyrical melodies are stated in the woodwinds. The section closes with the loud repeated quarter note octave, which decrescendos into a single quarter note pulse in the bass clarinet. The piano enters very quietly as an accompaniment for soft and lush brass chords. The bass clarinet again enters with a pulsating rhythm. Ideas are gradually layered on top leading to a rousing, dramatic re-statement of the main theme, which closes the piece.
Queen’s Park Melody – Jacob de Haan
de Haan is a Dutch composer, starting his career at the Music Academy Leeuwarden, and subsequently composing many works for wind band. Each of de Haan’s compositions begin with him improvising at his 100-year old Steinway piano and evolving from there, to the music that you hear today in Queen’s Park Melody.
de Haan draws inspiration from a wide variety of sources: travels abroad, everyday experiences, and the atmosphere in a busy town park in the spring to write this composition. During his years at the Music Academy Leeuwarden, he played in a Ska band noting, ‘I wrote a piece specifically for this band. That melody stuck with me. Many years later, during a walk in the park, it occurred to me that the piece would also be thematically interesting for a wind band arrangement.’ Queen's Park Melody can be described as light music with baroque influences which point directly to the richly ornamental statues, which can be found in the park.
Children's March - Percy Grainger
When Percy Grainger left England for the United States shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, he set in motion a series of events which led to the composition of Children's March: "Over the hills and far away", surely one of the most original works in the repertory of the wind band. In April of 2017, the United States declared war on Germany. Grainger soon realised that one way or another he would be involved in some fashion with the Allied war effort. On June 9th he embarked on one of the most unusual courses of action ever pursued by a musician of world class stuature: he quietly purchased a soprano saxophone, walked to Fort Totten, Long Island, and enlisted as a bandsman. As the war continued, Grainger set out to fashion an original work for his appearances with the band.
Children's March: "Over the hills and far away" was the happy result. In this piece, he intended to display to the fullest extent all of the tonal resources of the Fort Hamilton ensemble. Surely no tonal other work of its day exploited to better account the vast variety of tone colour within the band. The highly innovative use of low woodwinds, saxophones, and "tuneful" percussion shows Grainger to have been far ahead of his contemporaries. The composer's desire to leave no tonal resource unused even led him to call upon the members of the band to accompany their fellows by singing a chordal background in four parts.
3 January, 2011 - Matthew Brown (notes written by the composer)
In 2017, I discovered a collection of iPad drawings by David Hockney at the 1853 Hockney Gallery in Saltaire - a collection which he called The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven). These were different impressions of East Yorkshire between January and June in 2011. Hockney since created another collection in 2020, but before this I immediately began to write individual works for different types and sizes of ensemble - including viola ensemble, strong orchestra, wind ensemble - all with a link to each of Hockney's drawings, and to each other.
3 January, 2011 - one of the coldest and darkest in the cycle - is based on David Hockney's drawing by that name. This is the premiere of this work.
Montmartre (from Paris Suite) - Haydn Wood
Although probably second only to Eric Coates in the pantheon of British Light Music composers, Haydn Wood (1882-1959) is mainly remembered today only for the song 'Roses of Picardy'. Like Coates, he wrote many three-movement suites of orchestral music, numbering fifteen in all. One of the most popular of these is the 'Paris Suite' of 1935, which ends with a lively concert march called 'Montmartre', evoking the spirit of that (then) lively bohemian district of the city.