Program Notes

March 24, 2022

Print | PDF

Shifting Tides

Clarinetist, composer, educator, and new music collaborator, Luke Ellard strives for art that continually reaches out, valuing a relational spirit, informed engagement, and unapologetic authenticity. Ellerd earned his Bachelor of Music degree in music performance from Louisiana Tech University, studying clarinet under Lawrence Gibbs and composition under Dr. Joe L. Alexander. Following Louisiana Tech University, Luke went on to earn the Master of Music degree in composition from the University of Texas at Austin, studying composition under Dan Welcher, Yevgeniy Sharlat, and Donald Grantham, as well as clarinet under Ana Victoria Luperi. Currently, Luke is a freelance performer/composer and private music instructor in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, while pursuing the doctor of musical arts degree in Clarinet Performance with related studies in Contemporary Music and Music Entrepreneurship at the University of North Texas College of Music, studying under Kimberly Cole Luevano.

Ellard is a two-time finalist in the Southeastern Composers’ League Arnold Salops Composition Contest, was a composition fellow at the Wintergreen Performing Arts Summer Festival, and participated in the European American Musical Alliance’s Summer Composition Academy in Paris, France, studying under David Conte. His works have been internationally. His trombone quartet Blue Interjections was a finalist in the 2013 Slide Factory International Composition Contest and is published through the New Trombone Collective.

When Shifting Tides was first commissioned in 2011, I immediately knew the kind of piece I wanted to write. With waves of changes happening in my life, in and out of school, I wanted to convey the joy (and sometimes chaos) of this time in my life through a piece for wind band, a medium that’s very close to my compositional heart. The work consists of two main ideas, one slow and lyrical, the other lively and joyful, that interplay between each other, overlapping and crashing like waves on the shoreline. My hope is that audience and performers are left with the same joy and excitement I had while writing this piece.

-- Luke Ellard

On the Wings of the Dragon

On the Wings of the Dragon is a four-movement piece inspired by the concept of the four elements. The piece is written programmatically to represent a character, the dragon, travelling through environments that represent the four elements. The first being the dragon’s home, a volcano, where it wakes up with a roar and travels through the fire to the exit. The dragon then scales the cliffs where rubble and debris fly around with interludes of gliding between the mountains. The dragon then descends into the sea and finally rises into the sky for a glorious display of acrobatics and grandeur. The dragon’s roar and the whoosh of its wings can be heard at key moments throughout the piece and are displayed each in full at the beginning of the piece.

-- Jakob Robertson

Diamond Concerto

Diamond Concerto was commissioned by Musikverein Mörschied from Germany - Dr. Eric Grandjean, conductor - for a special concert featuring Steven Mead as guest soloist. Together they gave the world premiere on 28th April 2012 in the town theatre of Idar-Oberstein. The commission is a highlight in the 30-year friendship between composer and soloist, which has included many mutual CD projects and concerts and, now, a concerto. Sparke had Steven Mead’s special euphonium sound in his head throughout the composition process and made free use of the variety of styles which the world-renowned virtuoso has made his own during his highly successful solo career.

The village of Mörschied lies to the west of Frankfurt am Main in the area known as the German Road of Precious Stones, which is famous for its thriving gem industry. Because of this it was decided to give the commission a local connection by choosing the title, Diamond Concerto. Each of the three movements is named after a famous diamond:

Earth Star is rather stern in mood, opening with a free fantasy for the soloist over a static chord from the band. This leads to an Allegro Moderato in minor mode where small motives are gradually repeated and developed by both band and soloist.
"Ocean Dream" uses a varied quote from the composer’s Music for Battle Creek, including a melting slow melody that was originally written with Steven Mead in mind.
Blue Heart was written, at Steven Mead’s suggestion, in bebop style and takes the form of a jazz waltz. The quasi-improvisatory central section features a call-and-response passage for the soloist and upper woodwinds.

Black Dog

Scott McAllister (b. 1969) completed his doctorate in composition at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. McAllister has received numerous commissions, performances, and awards throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has also been featured at the Aspen, Chautauqua, and The Prague/American Institute Summer Festivals. McAllister has received awards, performances, and/or commissions from ASCAP, The American Composers Orchestra, The Rascher Quartet, I Musici de Montreal, Charles Neidich, The Verdehr Trio, Jacksonville Symphony, Da Camera, The Ladislav Kubik Competition, The United States New Music Ensemble, The President's Own Marine Band, The Florida Arts Council, and The Florida Bandmaster's Association. Scott McAllister's music is recorded on Summit Records, Naxos, ITunes and Centaur labels and his music can be found at Lydmusic.com. Scott McAllister is Professor of Composition at Baylor University.

Black Dog is a rhapsody for solo clarinet and wind ensemble. The work is inspired by classic hard rock music, particularly Led Zeppelin’s rhapsodic-style song Black Dog. The clarinet solo takes the role of the lead singer in a hard rock band with its extreme range and emotions juxtaposed with the pyrotechnic solos in true “Hendrix” fashion. The rhapsody begins with a long solo cadenza, which introduces most of the material in the work. The middle section is a very slow, upward, “Stairway to Heaven” gesture. The last section of Black Dog concludes with a “head-banging” ostinato pattern that leads to the final fiery cadenza.

-- Scott McAllister

All Dark Is Now No More:
“passacaglia canonico e granulare”

Dr. James M. David is an internationally recognized composer who currently serves as associate professor of composition and music theory at Colorado State University and is particularly known for his works involving winds and percussion. His symphonic works for winds have been performed by some of the nation’s most prominent professional and university ensembles. His compositions have been presented at more than fifty national and international conferences throughout North and South America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. Among the distinctions David has earned as a composer are an ASCAP Morton Gould Award, the National Band Association Merrill Jones Award, national first-place winner in the MTNA Young Artists Composition Competition, two Global Music Awards, and national first-place winner in the National Association of Composers (USA) Young Composers Competition. Commissions include projects for Joseph Alessi (New York Philharmonic), John Bruce Yeh (Chicago Symphony Orchestra), Zachary Shemon (Prism Quartet), the Oasis Quartet, BlueShift Percussion Quartet, Gerry Pagano (St. Louis Symphony), The International Saxophone Symposium and Competition, The Playground Ensemble, and the Atlantic Coast Conference Band Directors Association.

As a native of southern Georgia, Dr. David began his musical training under his father Joe A. David, III, a renowned high school band director and professor of music education in the region. This lineage can be heard in his music through the strong influence of jazz and other Southern traditional music mixed with contemporary idioms. He graduated with honors from the University of Georgia and completed his doctorate in composition at Florida State University under Guggenheim and Pulitzer recipients Ladislav Kubik and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.

All Dark Is Now No More: Passacaglia canonico e granulare for wind ensemble and electronics is a meditation and exultation on light, darkness, and shadow. The title is taken from James Dickey’s poem “Sleeping out at Easter” which, for me, is an exploration of the metaphysical connection between humans and nature found at the moment of sunrise. The lilting quality of this phrase is imitated in the primary motive first heard in low reeds and euphonium. The Italian subtitle refers to the underlying structures of the work. The first word, passacaglia, refers to the fact that a repeating bass line is used to create numerous contrapuntal variations. “Canonico,” or canonic, implies that many different types of canons are employed against the original bass motive. Finally, “granulare” refers to the consistent use of granular synthesis in the electronics, which breaks apart large sounds into many segments that are then rearranged into algorithmic clouds of digital chaos. My goal was to show a gradual movement from darkness to light in two broad sections (an adagio followed by an asymmetric allegro) culminating in a final explosion of light and shadow.

-- James David

Lights Out

Alex Shapiro aligns note after note with the hope that at least a few of them will actually sound good next to each other. Her persistence at this activity, as well as non-fiction music writing, public speaking, arts advocacy volunteerism, wildlife photography, and the shameless instigation of insufferable puns on Facebook, has led to a happy life. Drawing from a broad musical palette that giddily ignores genre, Alex’s acoustic and electroacoustic works for small chamber groups and large ensembles are published by Activist Music LLC, performed and broadcast daily, and can be found on over thirty commercial releases from record labels around the world. Shapiro is known for her seamless melding of live and recorded sounds that often include striking visual and physical elements, and for her innovative uses of technology throughout the composing, rehearsing, and performance of her music.

Shapiro is the Symphonic & Concert writer member on the Board of Directors of ASCAP, and a board member of the ASCAP Foundation. She also serves as a board member of The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and and is a former board member of U.S. music organizations including The American Music Center, the American Composers Forum of Los Angeles, The MacDowell Colony, and The Society of Composers & Lyricists.

I composed Lights Out with several large goals in mind. I wanted to write a short, fun, high energy piece of music. I wanted it to be something that could be performed “normally,” or— even better— could disorient the audience by suddenly plummeting everyone into uncertainty and darkness, their seats trembling, illuminated only by LEDs, glow-sticks, and the like. Perhaps most significantly, I wanted the whole experience to engage the very musicians tasked with bringing this piece to life.

Before a single note had entered my imagination, much less landed on my score pad, I Skype’d myself into the band rooms of many participating schools across the country, seeking collaboration. The new reality of music performance in a visually oriented, screen-filled 21st century guided my conversations with hundreds of younger musicians. “What would look cool on stage?”. “What could we give an audience that they aren’t expecting?”. “How could we shake up the preconceptions of the way music can be presented?”. These, and many other questions, flooded our chats and, soon after, a web page I designed to host what eventually became a whopping 250 ideas for how to make music a little... differently. Together. With joy, laughter, and endless creativity. All of these ideas now reside in the published score, to inspire bands around the world who in turn, will come up with their own. And the visual media which sparked this concept, will be the very thing that spreads it widely.

-- Alex Shapiro