Symphony
bands perform last concert of the year
By
Lauren Williams
Online Forty-Niner
Assiant Opinion Editor
In their last performance of the year, Cal State Long Beach’s Wind Symphony
and Symphonic Band gave an outstanding performance, incorporating music from
different genres and ending the school year with a bang Thursday in the Gerald
R. Daniel Recital Hall. The pieces performed were from many different genres
of the classical music spectrum including Baroque, English and Irish folk songs,
program music and even Western-themed songs.
While the diversity of the two performing band’s repertoire was impressive,
the lack of a central theme and the huge disparity in the tone of the pieces
performed created an uncomfortable and at times schizophrenic air to the performance.
The piece, “The Little English Girl” by D. Delle Cese, was whimsical
and light, perfectly suiting its name and evoking images of a beautiful spring
rich with fields of flowers and sunshine, and well executed by the CSULB Symphonic
Band, conducted by Joan deAlbuquerque.
Immediately following Cese was a much more serious and somber piece by Baroque
composer Johann Sebastian Bach called “Sheep May Safely Graze,” which
completely altered the setting and tone of the concert from free-spirited and
capricious to reverent and laudatory.
According to the performance program, “Sheep May Safely Graze” is
a song written for Duke Christian of Sachesen-Weissenfels in honor of his birthday
in 1713. The piece praises Christian’s skill as a leader and, while the
lyrics to the song were omitted, the Symphonic Band was able to skillfully
convey this tone.
After the piece by Bach, the concert hall was filled with a combination of
upbeat and dark music as the band played a piece of program music by Leonard
Bernstein called “Candide Suite.”
The story, a slight variation of Voltaire’s “Candide,” follows
the life of factitious philosopher Pangloss, a character created by Voltaire
to mock famous philosopher Gottfreid von Leibnitz. The story begins with a
teacher praising an optimistic lifestyle and ends with one of his pupils marrying
optimism with practical application.
Following the “Candide Suite” was “Ride,” a fast-paced
piece by Sam Hazo, which was a perfect introduction to the Western and Spanish-themed
music played by the Symphony.
The Symphony, conducted by John Carnahan, began its performance playing the
theme from the famous Western film “Silverado,” and followed with
a Spanish-style piece called “La Fiesta Mexicana” by H. Owen Reed,
which covered many of the most prominent aspects of Mexican culture. “La
Fiesta” stirred images of a Catholic Mass, an Aztec ceremony, mariachis
and celebration by utilizing instruments often foregone, like church bells
and melodies that effectively convey the creator’s vision.
Listeners were then instantly transported to Ireland as the band played the
Irish Tune, “Shepard’s Hey” by Percy Grainger and the night
ended with “There’s No Business Like Show Business” by Irving
Berlin.
Throughout the second half of the performance the conductor prefaced each performance
with a small fact about the meaning of the piece to the performers, sharing
a sliver of the special meaning between the musicians and the music they played.
Despite the disjointed arrangement of the music, both the Band and Symphony
displayed their musical talents as they took listeners on a journey visiting
foreign times and places and covering a wide range of emotions. The bands both
clearly displayed their talents as musicians.
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