John Stafford Smith:
Star Spangled Banner
Please stand for this rousing arrangement of the American national anthem.
MORTON GOULD (1913-1996)
American Salute (1942)
Born in New York City, Morton Gould became one of the most versatile American composers of the twentieth century. He was a child prodigy, publishing his first composition by the age of six. Later, during the Great Depression, he worked in vaudeville and as a pianist in movie theaters, eventually serving as the first staff pianist for Radio City Music Hall. Throughout his long and prolific career, Gould composed and conducted for the concert hall, Broadway, radio, film, and television. Despite being blacklisted during the 1950s for refusing to appear in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, Gould nevertheless went on to win a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, among other honors.
American Salute, one of Gould’s most popular orchestral works, showcases his signature fusion of traditional classical forms with the distinctly American influences found in jazz, folk, and popular songs. Composed during World War II, it is a spirited set of variations on the familiar tune When Johnny Comes Marching Home. Through a succession of changing colors, rhythms, and instrumental combinations, Gould transforms this well-known melody into a vibrant orchestral showpiece, building toward a festive and patriotic finale.
AMY BEACH (1867-1944)
Bal Masque (1894)
Amy Beach is remembered today for firmly establishing a place for American women in classical music. Like Morton Gould, Beach was a child prodigy, composing her own waltzes by the age of four. At 18, Beach had performed as a solo pianist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and was on the verge of a successful professional career when she married a distinguished Boston surgeon. In accordance with contemporary norms that restricted upper-class married women’s public activities, Beach complied with her husband’s request to curtail her performing in favor of composition. Her subsequent Gaelic Symphony (Op. 32), premiered by the Boston Symphony in 1896, was the first large-scale, complex classical work composed by an American woman. Beach resumed her public performances and touring following her husband’s death in 1910, and advocated for the role of women in classical music for the remainder of her career.
Bal Masque (The Masked Ball) is a solo piano composition that Beach later arranged for a full orchestra. Showcasing the Late Romantic style that influenced her earlier works, the piece is filled with lush harmonies and soaring lyricism that evoke the elegance and excitement of a grand ballroom. While the strings carry most of the melodic material, the winds provide a lively and brilliant counterpoint. Together, the swirling waltz rhythms and sparkling orchestral colors create the impression of dancers gliding gracefully through a festive crowd.
AARON COPLAND (1900-1990)
Selections from Rodeo (1942)
Aaron Copland has long been regarded as one of the giants of American classical music. Born and raised in Brooklyn as the youngest of five children, Copland studied with Rubin Goldmark in New York and later with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Upon returning to the United States, he began incorporating folk and jazz themes into much of his music. In his later years, he turned from composing to conducting, serving as a frequent guest conductor throughout the US and Europe.
Rodeo, a ballet in five sections, was choreographed by Agnes de Mille for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, with de Mille herself dancing the lead role. Set in the American West, it tells the story of a Cowgirl seeking acceptance and romance on a ranch. Copland filled the score with folk-inspired melodies and authentic cowboy tunes, often incorporating them wholesale. The first section, Buckaroo Holiday, was performed at last year’s concert. This year, we hear the three remaining movements. “Corral Nocturne” captures the Cowgirl’s quiet reflection at sunset, the woodwinds giving voice to her melancholy yearning over lush support from the strings. “Saturday Night Waltz”conveys the rustic warmth of a barn dance, beginning with the familiar sound of the strings section tuning their instruments before unfolding into a slow waltz. The traditional American folk tune “I Ride an Old Paint" passes between the winds and strings as the cowboys and their dates pair off to dance, with the unaccompanied Cowgirl looking on wistfully. The suite concludes with the jubilant “Hoe-Down,” which many fellow concert goers might recognize from the “Beef: It’s What’s for Dinner” television ad campaign of the 1990s.
FLORENCE PRICE (1887-1953)
Adoration (1951)
Few, if any, classical composers have experienced a resurgence as remarkable as Florence Price’s. Born in Arkansas, Price had learned to play the piano at an early age and was composing her own music by the age of 11. After graduating from the New England Conservatory of Music at 19 with honors, she eventually became a central figure in Chicago’s thriving Black artistic community during the Great Migration. In 1932, the Chicago Symphony debuted Price’s Symphony in E minor, making her the first African American woman to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra–an achievement rendered even more extraordinary by her circumstances as a financially struggling single mother of two. Price created hundreds of compositions over the course of her career, including symphonies, concerti, chamber music, and choral works. Price’s musical legacy faded into obscurity after her death in 1953. Her compositions were rediscovered in an abandoned home in 2009, and since that time her music is once again championed by major orchestras and finding a growing audience around the world.
Adoration, one of Price’s last compositions, aptly showcases the distinctive voice that emerged from her fusion of European classical traditions with the haunting, expressive melodies of African American spirituals and folk songs. Originally written for organ, this orchestral version unfolds as a serene meditation centered on a simple, hymn-like melody. Warm, lyrical strings carry the music with grace and dignity, creating an atmosphere of quiet devotion and introspection that stands in gentle contrast to many of the more exuberant works on tonight's program.
GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898-1937)
Porgy and Bess, Suite for Orchestra (1935)
George Gershwin bridged the worlds of popular and classical music more successfully than perhaps any American composer before him. Born in New York City to Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Gershwin was a largely self-taught pianist who began writing popular music in his teens. Working alongside his brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin, George quickly rose to prominence in Tin Pan Alley and became one of the leading songwriters of his generation. Building on this success, Gershwin went on to compose numerous hit Broadway musicals, as well as larger concert works that have endured as staples of the American repertoire. Among his most celebrated compositions are his An American in Paris, Piano Concerto in F, and Rhapsody in Blue, all of which blend classical forms with jazz-inspired rhythms and harmonies.
Porgy and Bess, based on DuBose Heyward’s novel Porgy, remains one of the most significant works in American musical theater and opera. Set in an impoverished Black tenement neighborhood in Charleston, South Carolina, it follows the attempts of a disabled street dweller to save a woman from both her abusive lover and her drug dealer. Gershwin described it as a “folk opera,” combining operatic techniques with influences from jazz, blues, spirituals, and popular songs. First performed in 1935, the show had a classically trained, all African-American cast, an unprecedented achievement for its era. However, it drew criticism in some circles for its portrayal of African Americans from a white point of view.
This orchestral suite showcases many of the work’s most beloved melodies, including "Summertime," “It Ain't Necessarily So,” and “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin,” revealing both the emotional depth and musical richness that have secured Porgy and Bess’s reputation as the first truly American opera.
–INTERMISSION–
CALVIN CUSTER (1939-1998)
Americana (Bicentennial) Medley (1976)
Calvin Custer attended Carnegie Mellon University and Syracuse University. Throughout most of his career, he was closely associated with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, performing in the keyboard, horn and string bass sections, serving in a variety of conducting roles, and working as the orchestra’s staff arranger. He also helped establish the orchestra’s chamber music program, which continues to bring live classical music to schools and libraries throughout the Syracuse area. Custer was a prolific arranger whose works have been performed by orchestras across the United States, including the Boston Pops Orchestra.
Composed for our country’s bicentennial anniversary in 1976, Custer’s Americana Medley is a lively reimagining of several American folk standards, centered around “America the Beautiful.” Through soaring strings, bold brass fanfares, and driving percussion, Custer takes us on a musical journey through triumphant and turbulent chapters in our nation’s history. Listen in particular for Custer’s discordant treatment of the “Dixie” melody, evoking the searing and painful divisions of the Civil War. Jazz and contemporary 1970s popular influences give this work its distinctive energy, culminating in a colorful, exuberant celebration of how far we’ve come from our revolutionary beginnings.
Central Coach Special opens with a flurry of double stops in the strings, bringing to mind the sound of an orchestra tuning their instruments a playful gesture reminiscent of Copland’s “Saturday Night Waltz” earlier in tonight’s program. The double stops soon give way to a rousing tune in the style of traditional Old-Time fiddle music. While the violins introduce the primary theme, the cellos soon join in, offering a rich, earthy contrast in color. Beneath the strings melody, the percussion evokes the rhythmic clickety-clack of a train racing down the tracks, capturing the energy and excitement encapsulated in the title.
ROBERT RUSSELL BENNETT (1894-1981)
The King and I, Selections (1951)
Robert Russell Bennett was a preeminent American composer, arranger, and conductor who was widely considered to be the architect of the classic Broadway sound. Born into a musical family, Bennett received his earliest training from his mother, whose reverence for classical music and disdain for popular music instilled a tension in him that would shape his artistic voice and career.Bennett later studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, whose students included Aaron Copland, Philip Glass, and Quincy Jones.
Bennett orchestrated nearly 300 theatrical productions during his career, including Show Boat, Oklahoma!, South Pacific, My Fair Lady, and The Sound of Music. Among his artistic collaborators were George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Lerner and Loewe, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. His symphonic arrangement of The King and I on tonight’s program features many of the show’s best-loved tunes, including “Getting to Know You,” “I Whistle a Happy Tune,” and “Shall We Dance
MAX STEINER (1888-1971)
Theme from A Summer Place (1959)
Max Steiner was born in Austria. He studied music at the Imperial Academy of music, then travelled throughout Europe composing and conducting. He moved to the United States in 1914 near the start of World War I. He worked for 15 years composing for Broadway, before moving to Hollywood to spend the rest of his career writing music for film. Steiner has been called “The Man Who Invented Modern Film Music”, though he himself gave credit to Richard Wagner for inspiring the Hollywood sound..
A Summer Place was a 1959 film based on a novel by Sloan Wilson. The theme, composed by Steiner, has become a familiar favorite, spending more than two months on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960. It has been recorded by many other musicians, and has been sampled or referenced in many subsequent movies.
ALAN MENKEN (b. 1949)
Beauty and the Beast: “How Does a Moment Last Forever” (2017)
Alan Menken is an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) -winning composer, arranger, and conductor who has worked extensively on Broadway and in Hollywood. He studied classical music, but also had ambitions of a career as a rock musician. He achieved his first success with Little Shop of Horrors. He is best known for collaborations with Walt Disney Animation Studios on such films as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and Beauty and the Beast.
“How Does a Moment Last Forever”is an original song added to the 2017 live-action film adaptation of the Disney film Beauty and the Beast. It features Maurice, Belle’s father, reflecting on his late wife. It is later reprised by Belle herself, reflecting as she learns of her mother’s past.
STEPHEN SCHWARTZ (b. 1948
Highlights from Wicked (musical 2003, film 2024)
Stephen Schwartz was born on Long Island. He studied drama at Carnegie Mellon University before returning to New York for a storied career in theater and film. He is known for such musicals as Godspell, Pippin, and Wicked, and for his film music, including collaborations with Alan Menken on Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Wicked is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz from the point of view of the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, who had been roommates with Glinda the good witch at school. The musical premiered on Broadway in 2003, and was released as a film in 2024.
John Philip Sousa (1854-1932)
Stars and Stripes Forever, 1896
Everyone will recognize this march, with its hymn-like quality, followed by prominent trombone and piccolo sections in the trio. Interestingly, this march was used as a “disaster march” in circuses in the early 20th century, played only in the event of a fire or other emergency to signal the need for evacuation. It was declared the National March of the United States of America in 1987 by an act of Congress.