Meng Concert Hall

Sten Källman - Berusa Er! CSUF Concert Choir Dr. Christopher Peterson, Director March 24, 2019 Meng Concert Hall - Cal State Fullerton...Continue reading

Ingolf Dahl - Sinfonietta II. Pastoral Nocturne CSUF Wind Symphony Dr. Dustin Barr, Director April 21, 2018... Meng Concert Hall - Cal State Fullerton Ingolf Dahl is an example of a European-born composer who entered completely into the musical life of his adoptive country. After studying music in Germany and Switzerland, Dahl worked as a conductor of the Zurich Opera before immigrating to the U.S. in 1938. Settling in Los Angeles, he found work as a composer and conductor for radio and film. He also became close friends with Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky. Dahl became a naturalized citizen in 1943 and joined the faculty of the University of Southern California in 1945. In addition to his work at USC, where he remained until his death, Dahl served on the faculty of the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood (195255). The composer received many awards and commissions throughout his lifetime. The Sinfonietta was commissioned by the Northwestern and Western Divisions of the College Band Directors National Association and premiered in 1961 by the University of Southern California Wind Orchestra, conducted by William Schaefer. The piece is in three movements, with the outer movements unified by a set of six notes that serve as the primary melodic material. In composing the Sinfonietta, Dahl used the instruments of the band in a chamber music fashion by consistently avoiding writing for the full ensemble. Regarding the SInfonietta's second movement, Dahl wrote: "The second movement, a 'Notturno Pastorale,' consists of alternations and superimpositions of several musical forms in a single movement. These forms are: a fugue, a waltz, and a gavotte. The fugue subject is first presented in a lyrical saxophone solo. Superimposed upon the fugue is the waltz, which alternately recedes into the distance and returns to the foreground. By contrast, the middle sectionGavotte is of a much simpler fabric: a lightly accompanied oboe tune." #CSUFMusic #CSUF #music #musicmajorlife #CSUFWindSymphony

Saunder Choi - "Leron, Leron sinta CSUF Concert Choir Dr. Christopher Peterson, Director October 20, 2019 Meng Concert Hall - Cal State Fullerton... California State University, Fullerton This Filipino folk song is often sung in the Tagalog region of the Philippines. It is a work song and represents the people who are harvesting fruits in the fields though its origin is unclear. The tune is catchy and often mistaken for a children’s song, however, the text indicates otherwise, and some have thought it a courting song. This fast, animated arrangement includes frequent time signature changes as well as shifting tonalities that help to make it easy for the listener to enjoy. Saunder Choi was born in Manila, Philippines and he studied composition and conducting at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, receiving the Leroy Southers Award from the composition department. For his age, he is one of the more accomplished choral writers from his country. His works are being performed internationally in festivals and competitions and he is quickly getting recognition from around the world. Leron, leron sinta Buko ng papaya, Dala-dala’y buslo, Sisidlan ng sinta, Pagdating sa dulo’y Nabali ang sanga Kapos kapalaran, Humanap ng iba. Gumising ka, Neneng, Tayo’y manampalok, Dalhin mo ang buslong Sisidlan ng hinog. Pagdating sa dulo’y Lalamba-lambayog, Kumapit ka, neneng, Baka ka mahulog. Ang ibigin ko’y Lalaking matapang, baril niya ay pito, sundang niya ay siyam Ang sundang nya’y siyam Ang lalakarin nya’y Parte ng dinulang Isang pinggang pansit Ang kanyang kalaban. Leron, Leron my dear, Blossoms of the papaya tree, With a bamboo basket, he’d gather some fruits. But when he reached the top (of the tree), the branch broke. Oh, what a trick of fate, he had to search for another. Wake up, neneng*; let’s pick some tamarind fruits. Take the bamboo baskets, to put the ripe ones in. Upon reaching the top (of the tree), the branches swayed heavily. Hold on tight, neneng, as you might fall. The one I will love is a fearless man. He has seven guns and nine knives. The journey he will take is the distance of a table A plate of noodles is his foe! *neneng is a colloquial term referring to a girl and does not have an adequate English translation. #CSUFMusic #CSUF #music #musicmajorlife #CSUFConcertChoir

Morten Lauridsen - "Sure on this Shining Night" from "Nocturnes" CSUF Concert Choir Dr. Christopher Peterson, Director October 20, 2019 Meng Concert Hall - Cal State Fullerton... Morten Lauridsen uses a poem by the Pulitzer-Prize-winning James Agee. The poem, Sure On This Shining Night, has been interpreted by scholars to represent the resolution of sorrow through the kindness and hope for humankind, found in the exquisiteness of both the earth’s natural beauty and heaven’s celestial splendor. Lauridsen’s quiet expression of joy in the opening phrases by the men is accentuated by soaring voices from the women. All voices eventually blend together with the lush harmonies that the composer is well known for and the music transports the listener to a higher musical plane of hushed wonder, where, Sure on this shining night, all is healed, all is health, hearts all whole. Sure on this shining night Of star-made shadows round, Kindness must watch for me This side the ground. The late year lies down the north. All is healed, all is health. High summer holds the earth. Hearts all whole. Sure on this shining night I weep for wonder Wandering far alone Of shadows on the stars. California State University, Fullerton #CSUFMusic #CSUF #music #musicmajorlife #CSUFConcertChoir

Patrick Harlin - Rapture CSUF Wind Symphony Dr. Dustin Barr, Director February 20, 2019 Meng Concert Hall - Cal State Fullerton... In a feat that went largely unnoticed, an expedition of ultra-cavers reached the Mount Everest of caving: the first descent to the deepest point in the deepest known cave on earth. The year was 2007. At the time, two expeditions were in direct competition for this honor, one charting the Krubera Cave in the Republic of Georgia and the other exploring Mexico’s Cheve Cave. In each case, explorers spent weeks at a time underground in deadly and deafening (little known fact: did you know some caves can be really loud?!) environments, often in total darkness. In the book Blind Descent, author James Tabor chronicles this historic accomplishment and touches on an experience all ultra-cavers undergo at some point in their career. After weeks underground and deprived of normal circadian rhythms, climbers experience the near-crippling onset of emotion and a primal need to escape known among cavers as The Rapture. It can happen at any time and is described as exponentially worse than a panic attack; at times bordering on a religious experience. There is nothing the explorers can do but wait out The Rapture as they can be days or even a week’s travel from the surface. Rapture for symphony band is not about creating a terrifying experience, nor is it just about cave exploration; rather I use the concept to tap into a universal human experiencethe onset of extreme emotional states. Music can be a catalyst or conduit to heightened emotional experiences. Building from just a few musical ideas, Rapture begins almost imperceptibly and then is magnified to an extreme. Chaos mounts; the reverberation and soundscapes of the cave are visited including an echoing melody in the middle of the work that travels from the woodwinds to percussion. Rapture closes by stepping back from the abyssresurfacing and revisiting the opening musical ideas, and leaving the resolution (triumph or madness?) up to the listener. -Patrick Harlin #CSUFMusic #CSUF #music #musicmajorlife #CSUFWindSymphony

Cal State Fullerton School of Music CSUF Women's Choir Carol Lomakin Aspling, conductor Thursday, December 5th, 2019 Meng Concert Hall - Cal State Fullerton... The Dove and the Maple Tree (from Moravian Duets) Antonín Dvoák Antonín Dvorák was one of the first Czech composers to receive international fame. Many of his works are firmly planted in the nationalist category, often utilizing rhythms and melodies from Czech folk songs. Early in his career, Dvorak made a living through teaching music, including to the Neff family. He began to write various duets with piano accompaniment for this particular family, and eventually published these compositions in a collection titled Moravian Duets. This collection ultimately pushed Dvorak onto the international stage, and in this compilation, we find The Dove and The Maple Tree. The smooth and lyrical vocal lines shift back and forth between major and minor modes, while constantly underlaid by a quick moving piano part. This mirrors the two characters introduced at the beginning; one a flighty and carefree dove, and the other a sad and lonely maiden. The listener will hear two separate yet distinct sections, one dance-like, the other reminiscent of an ardent march. This again reflects our two characters, but brings special attention to our poor maiden, sewing and crying as she reminisces a love lost. Letl holúbek na pole, aby nazobal své vole. Jak své volátko nazobal, pod javorekem posedal. Pod javorekem má milá zelený šátek vyšívá. Vyšívá na nm víneek, že ju opustil syneek. Vyšívá na nm z rže kvt, že ju opustil celý svt. From the sky a small dove flew down, took his meal from the field so brown. When he had pecked his fill at last, under a maple tree he passed. There sat a maiden in the shade. A green babushka She had made. She embroidered very slowly, weeping for love that’s not to be. Roses of red her needles sew, But in the world not one will know. So with her tears embroiders she there, there in the shade this maiden fair. #CSUFMusic #CSUF #music #musicmajorlife #CSUFWomensChoir #CSUFTitanVoices

David Biedenbender - Dreams in the Dusk CSUF Wind Symphony Dr. Dustin Barr, Director March 2, 2018 Meng Concert Hall - Cal State Fullerton... Damon Zick, Alto Saxophone The initial inspiration for Dreams in the Dusk came while walking on my father-in-law’s farm on a cold, snowy evening. Situated in rural Michigan, miles from the nearest city on the flattest land I have ever seen, I came the closest I have ever been to feeling real silence. The silence, stillness, and peace that I found in the fleeting moments of daylight while walking in the crisp, fresh snow was one of the ways that I dealt with the passing of my sister-in-law, Julia Hope Voelker, a mere 23 years old, who lost her battle with cancer in January of 2013. Those walks at dusk became a kind of ritual for me during the last few weeks of her life, as our family had gathered together to be with her as she lived out her final days in her childhood home. Searching for a voice for the many emotions I was feeling, I turned to one of my favorite poems, Dreams in the Dusk by the American poet Carl Sandburg. For me, this poem captured the essence of that sacred time at the waning of the day in a way that was beautiful and profound. Dreams in the Dusk By Carl Sandburg Dreams in the dusk, Only dreams closing the day And with the day’s close going back To the gray things, the dark things, The far, deep things of dreamland. Dreams, only dreams in the dusk, Only the old remembered pictures Of lost days when the day’s loss Wrote in tears the heart’s loss. Tears and loss and broken dreams May find your heart at dusk. Sandburg, Carl. Chicago Poems. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1916, 1999. There are two primary musical gestures that most often occupy the musical foreground of the piece, including a moaning, groaning, or wailing, which is usually manifest in the form of long, slow portamenti between notes in various melodic structures, and sharp, quick crescendi, which are usually orchestrated into either spacious chords or tight harmonic clusters. The melodic groans are a kind of musical mourning, analogues of sung or spoken lamentations. The quick crescendi are used in a variety of contexts in Dreams in the Dusk, but, for me, they represent the musical icon of reverse tape playback effects, which are nearly ubiquitous in popular and electronic music. More important than a genre or technique reference, they take on a specific personal significance within the context of this piece, signifying a desire to turn back time, to start again, to change the diagnosis, to return to a time when all was well. #CSUFMusic #CSUF #music #musicmajorlife #CSUFWindSymphony

Divertimento III. Scherzo - Allegretto grazioso Igor Stravinsky Ernest Salem, Violin Alison Edwards, Piano October 2, 2016... Meng Concert Hall - Cal State Fullerton #CSUFMusic #CSUF #music #CSUFFaculty

CSUF Wind Symphony 2019-2020 Highlights Video from Cal State Fullerton School of Music's 2020 Award Convocation Video by Dr. Dustin Barr!... #CSUFMusic #CSUF #music #musicmajorlife #CSUFWindSymphony

CSUF Symphonic Winds 2019-2020 Highlights Video from Cal State Fullerton School of Music's 2020 Award Convocation Video by Dr. Dustin Barr!... #CSUFMusic #CSUF #music #musicmajorlife #CSUFSymphonicWinds

Antonio Vivaldi - Concerto for Orchestra in G Major, Op. 51, No. 4, (Alla Rustica), RV 151 III. Allegro CSUF University Symphony Orchestra Kimo Furumoto, Director... February 16, 2020 Meng Concert Hall - Cal State Fullerton With the Talich Quartet and Jan Talich Jr., Guest Conductor #CSUFMusic #CSUF #music #musicmajorlife #CSUFOrchestra

Antonio Vivaldi - Concerto for Orchestra in G Major, Op. 51, No. 4, (Alla Rustica), RV 151 I. Presto CSUF University Symphony Orchestra Kimo Furumoto, Director... February 16, 2020 Meng Concert Hall - Cal State Fullerton With the Talich Quartet and Jan Talich Jr., Guest Conductor #CSUFMusic #CSUF #music #musicmajorlife #CSUFOrchestra

Artie Shaw - Concerto for Clarinet CSUF University Symphony Orchestra Kimo Furumoto, Director March 1, 2020 Meng Concert Hall - Cal State Fullerton... Artie Shaw’s Concerto for Clarinet for clarinet and jazz orchestra is a pastiche thrown together out of some boogie-woogie blues, clarinet-over-tom tom interludes, a commonplace riff build-up towards the end, all encased in opening and closing virtuoso cadenzas for the leader’s clarinet, according to Gunther Schuller. The piece ends with a legendary altissimo C. Before his enlisted service in World War II, Artie Shaw was tasked with providing music for the movie Second Chorus which featured Fred Astaire. The film proved to be a failure, but Shaw extracted one of his works from the soundtrack, the Swing Concerto, and reworked it into his Concerto for Clarinet in 1940. #CSUFMusic #CSUF #music #musicmajorlife

William Bolcom - First Symphony for Band IV. Marches funeraires et dansantes CSUF Wind Symphony Dr. Dustin Barr, Director March 7, 2020 Meng Concert Hall - Cal State Fullerton... Commissioned by the Big Ten Band Directors Association and premiered by the University of Michigan Symphony Band, Michael Haithcock, conductor, my First Symphony for Band (2008) was originally planned to be my Ninth Symphony. I had decided to follow my friend John Corigliano’s example of calling his magnificent Symphony No. 3, "Circus Maximus" for band Symphony No. 3. On reflection I realized that, since Beethoven and Mahier, ninth symphonies have been thought of as a composer’s last will and testament a third symphony doesn’t have that stigma and I’m not ready for that final word yet. Thus, this is a First Symphony for Band. The First Symphony is by far the most ambitious piece in my very small catalogue for band. In form it relates most closely to my fifth and sixth symphonies for orchestras: as with them, it begins with a tight sonata movement followed by a scherzo, a slow movement, and a sort of rondo-finale. Ô tempora ô mores, a tragic and forceful protest, laments our dark time. Scherzo tenebroso is a cousin to the scherzi in my third, fifth and sixth symphonies, especially in the sardonic use of popular material in their trios; in this trio, as we hear the cornet playing a waltz, I envision a clown dancing. Andantino pastorale belies a seemingly simple tunefulness with its dark undercurrent. The image of a New Orleans funeral procession, followed by a joyous dance-like march back from the graveyard, gives the form of Marches funéraires et dansantes, and leaves us at long last with an atmosphere of exuberance and hope. Program Note by composer #CSUFMusic #CSUF #music #musicmajorlife #CSUFWindSymphony

William Bolcom - First Symphony for Band II. Scherzo tenebroso CSUF Wind Symphony Dr. Dustin Barr, Director March 7, 2020 Meng Concert Hall - Cal State Fullerton... Solo: David Pittel, Cornet Commissioned by the Big Ten Band Directors Association and premiered by the University of Michigan Symphony Band, Michael Haithcock, conductor, my First Symphony for Band (2008) was originally planned to be my Ninth Symphony. I had decided to follow my friend John Corigliano’s example of calling his magnificent Symphony No. 3, "Circus Maximus" for band Symphony No. 3. On reflection I realized that, since Beethoven and Mahier, ninth symphonies have been thought of as a composer’s last will and testament a third symphony doesn’t have that stigma and I’m not ready for that final word yet. Thus, this is a First Symphony for Band. The First Symphony is by far the most ambitious piece in my very small catalogue for band. In form it relates most closely to my fifth and sixth symphonies for orchestras: as with them, it begins with a tight sonata movement followed by a scherzo, a slow movement, and a sort of rondo-finale. Ô tempora ô mores, a tragic and forceful protest, laments our dark time. Scherzo tenebroso is a cousin to the scherzi in my third, fifth and sixth symphonies, especially in the sardonic use of popular material in their trios; in this trio, as we hear the cornet playing a waltz, I envision a clown dancing. Andantino pastorale belies a seemingly simple tunefulness with its dark undercurrent. The image of a New Orleans funeral procession, followed by a joyous dance-like march back from the graveyard, gives the form of Marches funéraires et dansantes, and leaves us at long last with an atmosphere of exuberance and hope. Program Note by composer #CSUFMusic #CSUF #music #musicmajorlife #CSUFWindSymphony

William Bolcom - First Symphony for Band I. O tempora o mores CSUF Wind Symphony Dr. Dustin Barr, Director March 7, 2020 Meng Concert Hall - Cal State Fullerton... Commissioned by the Big Ten Band Directors Association and premiered by the University of Michigan Symphony Band, Michael Haithcock, conductor, my First Symphony for Band (2008) was originally planned to be my Ninth Symphony. I had decided to follow my friend John Corigliano’s example of calling his magnificent Symphony No. 3, "Circus Maximus" for band Symphony No. 3. On reflection I realized that, since Beethoven and Mahier, ninth symphonies have been thought of as a composer’s last will and testament a third symphony doesn’t have that stigma and I’m not ready for that final word yet. Thus, this is a First Symphony for Band. The First Symphony is by far the most ambitious piece in my very small catalogue for band. In form it relates most closely to my fifth and sixth symphonies for orchestras: as with them, it begins with a tight sonata movement followed by a scherzo, a slow movement, and a sort of rondo-finale. Ô tempora ô mores, a tragic and forceful protest, laments our dark time. Scherzo tenebroso is a cousin to the scherzi in my third, fifth and sixth symphonies, especially in the sardonic use of popular material in their trios; in this trio, as we hear the cornet playing a waltz, I envision a clown dancing. Andantino pastorale belies a seemingly simple tunefulness with its dark undercurrent. The image of a New Orleans funeral procession, followed by a joyous dance-like march back from the graveyard, gives the form of Marches funéraires et dansantes, and leaves us at long last with an atmosphere of exuberance and hope. Program Note by composer #CSUFMusic #CSUF #music #musicmajorlife #CSUFWindSymphony

David Maslanka - "Traveler" CSUF Wind Symphony Dr. Dustin Barr, Director March 7, 2020 Meng Concert Hall - Cal State Fullerton... Traveler was commissioned in 2003 by the University of Texas at Arlington Band Alumni Association, the Delta Sigma Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi and the Gamma Nu Chapter of Tau Beta Sigma, in honor of the career contributions of Ray C. Lichtenwalter, retiring Director of Bands at UT Arlington. Ray has been a close friend and champion of my music for many years, and it was a great pleasure for me to writ this piece for his final concert. The idea for Traveler came from the feeling of a big life movement as I contemplated my friend’s retirement. Traveler begins with an assertive statement of the chorale melody Nicht so traurig, nicht so sehr (Not so sad, not so much). The chorale was not chosen for its title, although in retrospect it seems quite appropriate. The last part of life need not be sad. It is an accumulation of all that has gone before, and a powerful projection into the future the potential for a tremendous gift of life and joy. And so the music begins with energy and movement, depicting an engaged life in full stride. At the halfway point, a meditative quiet settles in. Life’s battles are largely done; the soul is preparing for its next big step. In our hearts, our minds, our souls We travel from life to life to life In time and eternity. Program Note by David Maslanka #CSUFMusic #CSUF #music #musicmajorlife #CSUFWindSymphony