TODAY at 7:30 P.M.

Cal Poly Humboldt Wind Ensemble

Fulkerson Recital Hall

The Cal Poly Humboldt Department of Dance, Music, and Theatre Presents the Cal Poly Humboldt “WInd Ensemble”. The Wind Ensemble’s performance is inspired by hope and the importance of living life to the fullest. Join us for this performance December 7th at 7:30 pm at the Fulkerson Recital Hall. Tickets are $15 General, $5 for Children, and free for Humboldt Students with ID. Tickets can be purchased at the door or online at tickets.humboldt.edu/dance-music-and-theatre.
Director Chris Cox breaks down the program for the evening “Alfred Reed’s A Festival Prelude will establish a “bright and brilliant mood.” Sea Songs tells us stories of life and experiences on the sea. Speak to Me gives us a musical example of how people talk to each other.. An American Elegy gives tribute to the fragility of life and the importance of hope. Chorale and Allulia is intended to share joy, triumph, and thanksgiving. Nimrod is a beautiful melody inspired by friendship. Tico Tico will send everyone singing and dancing into the night.”

Read more about the program below:

A Festival Prelude by Alfred Reed was written in 1956. The work was dedicated to and premiered by the Phillips University Band of Enid, Oklahoma as part of the 25th anniversary of the Tri‐State Music Festival. Alfred Reed said, “The work was conceived specifically in terms of its title as an opening kind of piece…the music was to establish a bright and brilliant mood throughout, with no other connotation in mind.”

Sea Songs Ralph Vaughan Williams is a medley of three well-known sea shanties: Princess Royal, Admiral Benbow, and Portsmouth. Sea Songs was originally intended to be the final movement of Vaughan Williams’s Folk Song Suite.

Composer Dana Wilson discusses her piece Speak to Me, “There is a long tradition in jazz of instruments carrying on a conversation—either intricate, soloistic dialogues (often improvised) or the call and response of larger forces. Speak to Me is above all such a conversation, at first among soloists and then among more and more performers as they gradually join in. This piece begins with a simple tune that increasingly overlaps with—and is interrupted by—other ideas, generating enormous energy along the way.”

An American Elegy by Frank Ticheli is, according to the composer, “above all, an expression of hope. It was composed in memory of those who lost their lives at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, and to honor the survivors. It is offered as a tribute to their great strength and courage in the face of a terrible tragedy. I hope the work can also serve as one reminder of how fragile and precious life is and how intimately connected we all are as human beings.

Chorale and Alleluia was composed by Dr. Howard Hanson’s and was his first work for symphonic band. It was given its premiere on February 26th at the convention of the American Bandmasters Association at West Point with Colonel William Santelmann, leader of the U.S. Marine Band, conducting. The composition opens with a flowing chorale followed by the Alleluia theme

Sir. Edgar Elgar wrote the Enigma Variations in 1899 and dedicated them “to my friends pictured within.” The theme and 14 variations belong to the period in which Elgar developed the style that placed him in the front rank of English composers. In all, fourteen people and a dog are featured in the Variations. The beautifully lyrical Nimrod (Variation IX, the one the ensemble is performing) is dedicated to the publisher A.J. Jaeger. (Nimrod is the great hunter of the bible; Jaeger is the German word for hunter.)

Where Never Lark or Eagle Flew is by composer James Curnow. This composition is based on an inspiring poem written by an American pilot in World War II. The dazzling brass sonorities and sweeping woodwind lines reflect the young man’s love for flying and its release from the troubles of the world. Curnow composed “Where Never Lark or Eagle Flew” with the subtitle, “Based on a poem by John Gillespie Magee, Jr”.

Tico-Tico no Fubá was composed by José Gomes Abreu in 1917, and was made popular in the states when Carmen Miranda performed and recorded it in the U.S. in the 1940s. It was originally titled “Tico Tico no Farelo”. Choro (literally translated meaning lament) is also popularly known as chorinho in the affectionate diminutive form of Brazilian Portuguese. “Fubá” is a type of maize flour, and “tico-tico” is the name of a bird, the rufous-collared sparrow (Zonotrichia capensis). Hence, “tico-tico no fubá” means “sparrow in the cornmeal”. The arrangement was written by Japanese composer Naohiro Iwai. Most of Iwai’s career was spent as a jazz and pop performer and composer.

DATES/TIMES

• Today : 7:30 p.m.

WHERE

• Fulkerson Recital Hall

PRICE

• $15
• $5 Children
• Free Cal Poly Students with ID