Out of the Depths - Adolphus Hailstork 

 

Born in 1941, Adolphus Hailstork has written numerous works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, various chamber ensembles, band, orchestra, and opera. He is Professor of Music and Eminent Scholar at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. 

 

While Out of the Depths is no longer in print, Matthew Marsit (Artistic Director of CRWE) has worked with the composer to bring together copies of each instrumental part and re-create the complete score for this concert. 

 

Liner note for the 2002 recording by the Keystone Wind Ensemble (Jack Stamp, Conductor), written by Myron Moss: 

Hailstork's program note for Out of the Depths explains that the piece traces a life cycle, from its spark of inception through a long ascent to a powerful climax and then a decline into peaceful resolution and silence. The actual sound of the music suggests (as does the title) something rather darker. The opening dwells on barely audible sounds, including slowly built-up clusters of sustained pitches and brief flashes of percussion. The piece gains momentum gradually in a series of slow rises and falls, culminating in music of considerable ferocity. 

 

Compositionally, Out of the Depths is largely based on just two melodic ideas. The first, played by the piccolo at the beginning of the piece, consists of an ascending motif of three notes. This rising figure is reprised powerfully at the music's climax. The second idea appears about 3:20 into the piece, when low woodwinds introduce a longer, downward-contoured melody, repeated in the bass and then played by clarinets and saxophones. This melody reappears several times, often as the bass line within a progression of dark chords. The richly dissonant harmonies and the massive effects created by overlapping blocks of instruments create a sense of glacially slow but inexorable movement. 

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HayWire - Katahj Copley 

 

Katahj Copley was born in Carrollton, GA in 1998. HayWire was completed in 2018 while he was an undergraduate student at the University of West Georgia, studying Music Education and Music Composition. It was premiered by the University of West Georgia Wind Ensemble, conducted by Dr. Josh Byrd. 

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Composer’s note: hay·wire [adj} erratic: out of control 

 

This piece is based off the idea of imagination gone out of control. How much chaos can be fit into one piece? From chaos comes beauty and from beauty comes madness again. Throughout the piece there is this motiff played by the marimba that serves as a small sense of stability through the piece: this leads to erratic entrances and sudden dynamic changes. Finally the piece's melody is played by the first trumpet. 

 

From trills to glisses this piece is what happens when your imagination goes a little out of control. 

 

This is HayWire.

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Nebula - Wataru Hokoyama 

 

Born in 1974, Wataru Hokoyama is a Japanese composer, conductor, and orchestrator based in Hollywood, California.

 

Composer’s note: 

In astronomy, ''Nebula" is a cloud of gas or dust in outer space, visible in the night sky as an indistinct bright patch or a dark silhouette against other luminous matter. This stellar formation inspired me to convey what I call "inner nebula", a sense of darkness and void within our hearts that is shrouded from view other than to ourselves. This solitary anguish that dampens our soul is oblivious to those around us for they only see our seemingly bright and uncomplicated surface. We keep our secrets and desires hidden but yearn for deliverance from this torment. As nebulae in space is only visible by contrast to its radiant surroundings, we long to be "seen" by others in such a sense. 

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Stillwater - Kelijah Dunton 

 

Kelijah Dunton (b. 1999) is a New York-based composer who has enjoyed a short but prolific musical background starting in his high school years. He studied alto saxophone through school and continues to be an active performer with NYC’s own Metropolitan Music Community. Without formal composition training, Kelijah has only recently embarked on his composition career, persevering as he learns from his musical peers and experiences. Stillwater was published in 2019. 

 

Composer’s note: 

Inspired by the beauty of a small town, Stillwater Minnesota. This town has a big lake in its center, and out of everyone’s backyard it could be seen. During the winter, the very top of the lake freezes and creates this tranquil effect that could not be seen, but heard. When stepping out into your backyard, you’d see this frozen mass, stuck into place and completely unmovable, but if you listened closely, you could hear that the water underneath continued to flow. 

 

Why is this important? 

 

We as people forget sometimes that we are so much more deep and vast beneath our hard surfaces. We work, we go to school, we take care of our families, we deal with the struggles of the day-to-day routine militantly. But if we just take a moment to listen within ourselves; we discover our passions, our longings, and our sense of belongings. 

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Memorias de un Hombre de Ciudad - Luis Serrano Alarcón 

 

Born in Valencia in 1972, Luis Serrano Alarcón is a Spanish composer and conductor. His works have been performed in more than 30 countries, he has been invited to conduct his own music in Spain, Italy, Singapore, USA, Colombia, and Hong Kong, and has received commissions from important national and international organizations and groups. He is currently principal conductor of the UMSC Symphonic Band of Villar del Arzobispo (Valencia) and professor at the Conservatorio Superior de Música of Valencia. 

 

Composer’s note: 

Memories of a city man is a descriptive work which criticizes the current depersonalization, the routine, the work, the timetables, the speed and the machines dominating us ... It tells a person's life during a common day. 

 

The seven movements composing this work follow in a continuous way. The first, Sunrise in the city, tells the mysterious sunrise with a sadness framework of a common working day. This movement presents the three notes group (B-G-F#) which will be the work main motive. 

 

Machines (and people) is a movement of violent rhythm. Two opposed themes attempt to understand each other on an evolving and obsessive cell of triplets which reg­ulates the frenzied rhythm of the current life: people's theme is an expressive melody which uses the former three notes group as a starting point and machines' theme is a repetitive pentatonic melody. 

 

10:30, Intermezzo. In this movement appears a new motive: it is an eight-measure section of homophonic texture and a succession of minor chords without tonal context. After a new irruption of Machines where are developed the second move­ment elements, appears a short moment in which, in the nightfall, our story character wishes for a better life but rarely reachable (Dreams). The expressive people's melody appears combined with Intermezzo elements. 

 

Music is shaken again in Nocturnal Flights, the movement which evokes the vertigo which produces occasionally the nocturnal life. It is a development section where are combined and superimposed the different elements appearing in this work. After the climax of Grandioso the rhythm progressively dissolves until Sunrise in the city returns: This ends a cycle. 

 

This work encloses a clear message: Current life isn't a succession of days, but is one lonely day endlessly repeated.