Yale Concert Band Season Opener to feature Rossini’s «Semiramide» and Grantham’s «J’ai été au bal»
Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director
Friday, October 9, 2015
7:30 PM
Woolsey Hall (500 College Street), New Haven
Free Admission
Donald Grantham’s «J’ai été au bal» («I went to the dance») celebrates Cajun folk music and the New Orleans street band tradition. To evoke a dance flavor, the piece employs two traditional Cajun dance tunes, “Allonds danser, Colinda” (“Let’s go dancing, Colinda”) and “Les fammes d’enfer” (“The flames of hell”).
The «Overture to Semiramide» opens what is considered to be one of Gioachino Rossini’s masterworks. Sparkling and dynamic, the piece is a dramatic beginning to an opera filled with betrayal and murder. V.F. Safranek created this thrilling transcription for wind band in 1939.
Thomas C. Duffy wrote «Michigan’s Motors» as a tribute to the motor industry that flourishes today in Michigan. The piece’s title also hints at the motor rhythms that serve as the foundation for the music. Over the course of five movements, listeners will hear engines starting, cars racing, and trains roaring.
«His Honor March» is one of Henry Fillmore’s most popular works. Composed especially for Fillmore’s own band of professional musicians, the piece contains unexpected melodic and rhythmic changes that will keep audience members on the edges of their seats.
Additional music:
«Festival of Winds and Percussion» (R. Jager) «Elegy, Prayer, and Hymn» (M. Camphouse), and «Ballo del granduca» (J. Sweelinck)
Public info phone: (203) 432-4111; http://www.yale.edu/yaleband