2009 Fall Concert

Music from Across the Pond

Saturday, October 24, 2009

The Concord Band

James O’Dell, Music Director

Chuck Holleman, Reciter

Program
Hands Across the Sea	John Philip Sousa; ed. Fennell
English Folk Song Suite	Ralph Vaughan Williams
March “Seventeen Come Sunday” Intermezzo “My Bonny Boy” March “Folk Songs fom Slirset”
Three Songs from Façade	William Walton; arr. O’Brien
Chuck Holleman, Reciter
Popular Song Jodelling Song Polka
To a New Dawn	Philip Sparke
Intermission
Mannin Veen “Dear Isle of Man,” A Manx Tone Poem	Haydn Wood
Irish Suite	Leroy Anderson
The Irish Washerwoman The Minstrel Boy The Rakes of Mallow
“The Earle of Oxford’s Marche” from William Byrd Suite	Gordon Jacob
Selections from “Cats”	Andrew Lloyd Webber; arr. Edmondson
Brighton Beach	William P. Latham

Read all notes from this program...

Hands Across the Sea

Hands Across the Sea was written in 1899 and received its premiere later that year on April 21, at the Philadelphia Academy of Music. The title of this wonderful march is believed to refer to the collective ability of the March King and his musicians to affect people in many lands, as a symbol to countrymen and America’s friends overseas. John Philip Sousa and his band made many European tours beginning in 1900 that included concerts in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Hands Across the Sea was the last march that Sousa conducted with the U. S. Marine Band Orchestra before his death in 1932. (JRO)

English Folk Song Suite

English Folk Song Suite is considered a cornerstone composition for band, and remains one of the most frequently performed band works by the composer. Ralph Vaughan Williams devoted his life to folk song research and publication, and was considered England’s leading composer after the death of Sir Edward Elgar in 1934. This suite was written in 1924 for “military band” (a full complement of winds, brass and percussion, as opposed to a brass band), and features the composer’s distinctive style employing modal harmonies and rhythms derived from elements found in traditional folk songs of Norfolk and Somerset. The suite was originally written for band and later transcribed for orchestra, a welcome change from the common practice of writing for orchestra first. (JRO)