2003 WASBE Conference

The opinions expressed
herein are those of the
authors and not
necessarily the opinions
of WASBE.

Florida State University Wind Orchestra

by Timothy Reynish

The Tuesday night concert by Florida State University Wind Orchestra was always going to be an emotional event. The hall was packed to pay tribute to James Croft—a man with over fifty years conducting and teaching experience in forty-six states, Canada, Europe, Australia, the Middle East and South America, and almost a quarter of a century teaching at FSU. Jim has served on the boards of WASBE, CBDNA and NBA, has undoubtedly introduced more European music to the USA than any other conductor, and through his commissions has enriched our repertoire. It was a real privilege to celebrate his life and work with his wife, Diana, his daughter and grand-daughter in the audience.

This was a sensational programme with dedicated and passionate playing, and superb, unfussy control from Jim and from Patrick Dunnigan, the new Director of Bands at FSU. Order your copy of this concert now from Mark Records.

I remember the concert chiefly for including a great deal of really beautiful, lyrical music (why do our composers so often lapse into sentimentality when they turn to slow music?). No sentimentality here, just simply gorgeous and emotional lines in Donald Grantham's Come Memory…, at the end of Frank Ticheli's as yet unfinished Symphony No. 2 and in David Del Tredici's In Wartime. Add to this Eric Ewazen's substantial Concerto for Bassoon and Wind Orchestra (splendidly played by Jeffrey Keesecker) Patrick Dunnigan's fascinating reworking of tunes from Tielman Susato’s The Danserye that wonderfully evokes the excitement and wild timbres of the Renaissance in a quite unacademic way, and you have an extraordinary programme. There was more, because it ended with Black Dog by Scott McAllister, a tour de force in which Frank Kowalsky exploited every facet of the clarinet, from the ultimate in velocity and virtuosity to pools of almost silent lyricism whose hushed tones out-do even that wonderful opening of the Copland Concerto for Clarinet and Strings.

It was good to have Eric Ewazen at Conference discussing his Bassoon Concerto. Conceived on a large scale, this concerto is scored for a fairly light wind ensemble, so that the soloist is brilliantly balanced most of the time. The first movement is a great vehicle for the instrument, while the slow movement is particularly deeply felt, with a gentle lyricism that contrasts with the preceding scherzo and ebullient finale.

I sometimes find the music of Donald Grantham overpoweringly noisy, but Come Memory… is, for me, the finest piece he has written. The work deals with the aftermath of 9/11, an event which deserves and gets a piece of searing emotion without any trace of sentimentality.

The Ticheli Symphony was commissioned by Jim's doctoral students, conducting students and friends, and so far is nearly thirteen minutes long. A brief first movement, Dancing With Angels, is incredibly energized. The composer writes that he had in mind an ecstatic dance driven by a rapid succession of alternating events. The second movement, Dreams under a New Moon, depicts a kind of journey of the soul as represented by a series of dreams. Serious stuff, but this is superb writing. Blues mingle with canonic devices, and the ending is of such melting beauty that the audience maintained its silence for an age. I look forward to Frank's finale, but however good it is, I might be tempted, if he allowed it, to programme just these two movements as our wind riposte to that other Unfinished Symphony by Schubert.

David Del Tredici is one of America's leading composers, a Pullitzer prizewinner, known internationally for his series of orchestral works created around stories from Alice in Wonderland. There is nothing remotely comic about this music. The composer writes:
"In Wartime, my first (HIS FIRST!..LET'S COMMISSION ANOTHER!) piece for wind symphony, was begun on November 16, 2002, and completed on March 16th (my birthday), 2003—as momentous a four month period in history as I have experienced. In Wartime consists of two connected movements—Hymn and Battle March. The first has the character of a chorale prelude, with fragments of Abide with Me embedded beneath a welter of contrasting and contrapuntal musical material.

Heralded by a long, ominous roll on the snare drum and a steady, measured beat, Battle March announces the start of war..Like the incoming tide, the "waves" encroach inexorably on new harmonic ground; like a gathering storm, the waveforms grow in enormity and frenzy, until their fateful confrontation with Salmati, shah! (the national song of Persia), laced as well with quotes from the opening of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. With East battling West in musical terms, this trio section of the march builds to the movement's climax. As the overwhelming wash of sound subsides, the opening march returns, now battle-weary but growing nevertheless to a full-throttled recapitulation and finale—marked inevitably by a wail of pain.”

I found the work to be utterly compelling—Del Tredici demonstrates masterly handling of many disparate musical styles, including what seems to be somewhat trite opening material in the "chorale prelude", the rather sentimental hymn tune of the first movement and an almost "pop" tune to start the second. Like a masterwork of perhaps the 18th or 19th century, what might be unpromising motifs in less experienced hands are transformed here into a symphonic structure of the greatest tension. After the grand confrontation, a passage in which the big popular tune is accompanied by wisps of scales sinks into the familiar Tristan und Isolde quotation, and then slips back to the popular tune which is subsumed in a final coup de theatre, leaving the audience stunned.

How does the intelligent programme builder follow that? Either with nothing, or with Scott McAllister's Black Dog, a rhapsody for clarinet and ensemble inspired by the rhapsodic style of Led Zeppelin. The programme note describes how the clarinet solo takes the role of the lead singer in a hard rock band with its extreme range and corresponding emotional palette juxtaposed with pyrotechnic solos in true "Jimmy Hendrix" fashion.The middle section is very slow, "stairway to heaven" gesture, while the conclusion is a head-banging ostinato that leads to the final frenzied cadenza.This is a very exciting eleven minute work, and I would love to hear it at a young people's concert, or a BBC Prom, or in fact any venue.

Surely the only thing stopping a concert like this from having musical and emotional impact on a wide range of audiences is ignorance. Ignorance by conductors, soloists, agents, festival organizers and the whole music establishment of what is being achieved in our hallowed academic wind ensemble circles. Thanks to Jim Croft, its time to stand up and be counted. Wow, what a way to end a career, conducting hard rock!