This past Thursday, Nov. 3 was a great night of music from Longwood’s Wind Symphony. The program showed a great variety of music, from traditional marches to intriguing “new” pieces. The auditorium was filled with energy from the audience’s anticipation.
The concert began with a march from Edaordo Boccalari, which had a gallant mood from the very beginning with a beautiful trumpet fanfare. Then the symphony began Persichetti’s Diverimento for Band, which had six movements, each having their own unique mood and style.
The second movement “Song” was calming and somber while the fourth movement named “Burlesque” was a bumbling, jolly piece that had a main theme throughout the piece led by the tubas. “Soliloquy” was a beautiful, lullaby-like piece, which was based around the solo from first trumpeter, senior Cory Anderson. Lastly, “March” finished the piece with true march character; a loud piece with a lot of percussion and energetic rhythms.
The next piece, “Hymn to a Blue Hour” had the entire audience in awe. A magnificent piece on its own, but when combined with the backstory that director Gordon Ring gave just before, it had an interesting dynamic. He explained that John Mackey was a popular band composer and was known to write a lot of “aggressive” music, and was given a suggestion to write a slower piece. Dr. Ring then read aloud a quote from Mackey from the score:
“The Blue Hour is an oft-poeticized moment of the day – a lingering twilight that halos the sky after sundown but before complete darkness sets in. It is a time of day known for its romantic, spiritual and ethereal connotations, and this magical moment has frequently inspired artists to attempt to capture its remarkable essence.”
This description of the Blue Hour gave beautiful imagery to Mackey’s piece, which did a fabulous job in creating that scene of the glorious sky, and in addition Longwood’s Wind Symphony successfully delivering Mackey’s vision.
When Emily Turner, a French horn player from the symphony, was asked what her favorite piece to play from the program was she said, “Hymn to a Blue Hour; there was a lot of really cool high horn parts that were just really fun to play and just had a ton of fun playing it.”
But when asked what she thought the most well-received piece by the audience was, Emily said:
“I feel like the audience really liked the ‘There once was a composer of genius…’ (piece) because it’s fun and the limericks in between each movement were just entertaining and had everybody laughing.”
This piece had four movements, each resembling a notable composer/musician; Bernstein, Ives, Ellington, and Sousa. But before each piece were short, witty narratives given by members of the ensemble. The audience laughed and laughed throughout the narratives and music, recognizing snippets of tunes from these famous people of music.
Finally, what's better way to end a Wind Symphony concert than with a march?
Dr. Ring gave us an endnote as he said, “Thank you for coming out tonight, we’ll end with some real Sousa.”
The audience roared with laughter and enjoyed the finale of the concert. Another job well done from Longwood’s Wind Symphony.
