Program Notes

The Minnesota March

Minnesota football coach Clarence Spears requested John Philip Sousa to write a marching band piece for the university band in 1926. Sousa agreed, and drew inspiration from the state's Native American history and legendry when composing the march. The piece premiered in September in 1927, and lyrics ("March on, march on to victory!") written by U of M band director Michael Jalma were added later that year. 

This brass band transcription of “The Minnesota March” was written by Twin Cities Brass Band’s own “March King,” Kelby Stine.

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The Music of George Gershwin

George Gershwin was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants who was born and raised in New York City. He began working in Tin Pan Alley at the age of 15 and published the first of his over 500 compositions at age 17. Gershwin's works span multiple genres and are influenced by blues, ragtime, European romanticism and impressionism, and the popular American music of his time. The Music of George Gershwin features some of the composer's most beloved tunes, including "Strike Up the Band,"  "Embraceable You," "The Man I Love," "Someone to Watch Over Me," "They Can't Take That Away from Me," "'S Wonderful," and Rhapsody in Blue.

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Adoration

Florence Price was the first African-American female composer to gain national recognition and to have a work performed by a major symphonic orchestra. While she gained some fame during her life, her music was largely forgotten after her death, until the discovery of a large number of unpublished manuscripts in her summer home in 2009. Adoration is one such piece, which was written in 1951 for organ. An arrangement for solo violin and orchestra, on which this solo cornet and brass band arrangement is based, has since become popular and led to a new understanding of and appreciation for Price’s legacy as a musician and a trailblazer.

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When You Wish Upon A Star

American songwriters Leigh Harline and Ned Washington wrote "When You Wish Upon a Star" for Disney's 1940 animated film Pinocchio. The song was delivered to the studio in 1938, and the story crew, recognizing the song's potential, decided to make it the spotlight song of the film and expand the role of Jiminy Cricket, the song's in-universe performer. The song became the first Disney song to win an Oscar  in 1940, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and has since become the signature ​song of the Walt Disney Company, accompanying the Disney logo in television and film productions, appearing in live shows at Disney theme parks, and providing the tune for the horn signals of the Disney cruise line ships.

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An American Tale

​"An American Tale" was written by Dan Price in 2008 for the Cory Band as a musical tribute to the American Civil War.  The work is a medley of 19th-century American folk music, each arranged in the style of a different American composer, including John Philip Sousa, Aaron Copland, Charles Ives and Leonard Bernstein. The piece explores the complexity of the conflict, weaving together marching songs of the Union Army soldiers fighting to preserve the nation ("Yankee Doodle Dandy," "The Girl I Left Behind,"); songs with roots in minstrel shows, highlighting the racial tensions of the era which continue to this day ("Kingdom Coming," Turkey in the Straw,") and concluding with "Amazing Grace," a hymn written by a reformed slave trader, as a reminder of the war's ultimate purpose. 

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Fanfare for the Common Man

In 1942, Aaron Copland was commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to write a concert-opening fanfare. He was inspired by the words of Vice President Henry Wallace in a famous speech earlier that year: "Some have spoken of the American Century...I say that the century on which we are entering, the century which will come out of this war, can be and must be the century of the common man." While the piece was intended to premiere in the season-opening concert that fall, it was delayed and instead was first performed on March 12, 1943​, at a time in which honoring the common man was of vital importance - tax season.

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Variations on "America"

Composer, organist, and actuary Charles Ives was written in 1891 when Ives was 17. The piece was originally written for organ and based on the tune "America" ("My Country, 'Tis of Thee"). It features five variations with two short interludes and showcases many of the at the time experimental musical techniques for which Ives would become famous, including his first use of polytonality (the use of more than one key signature simultaneously). While modern scholars doubt that the piece was intended to be a satire, it is hard to ignore the humor inherent in the work - Ives himself claimed that his father forbade him from performing it in church, stating it  "upset the elderly ladies and made the little boys laugh and get noisy!” This arrangement for brass band was written by TCBB euphonist Justin Shoenherr.

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Caravan

Duke Ellington is widely regarded as one of the most significant American composers, both for elevating and expanding jazz as an art form and breaking down racial barriers in the American music industry. Ellington began his musical career as a pianist in the Washington, DC area before moving to Harlem, where he worked as a bandleader and songwriter, becoming a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. "Caravan" was written in 1936 by Ellington and his trombonist Juan Tizol and quickly became a jazz standard - today, it is believed to be one of the most covered and sampled songs in history. 

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Sing, Sing, Sing

Louis Prima was an American bandleader, trumpeter, and singer who helped popularize swing and big band music in the 1930s and 1940s. His work is notable for combining the jazz and dixieland music popular in his hometown of New Orleans with the Italian folk music of his Sicilian heritage.  "Sing, Sing, Sing" is one of Prima's most famous songs, made famous by a 1937 recording by Benny Goodman.

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The Melody Shop

"The Melody Shop" was published in 1910, when composer Karl King was only 19 years old and was touring as a musician for circus company Robinson's Famous Shows, It is an example of a circus march, or “screamer,” designed to hype up an audience before a show as the animals entered the ring. The piece is best known for its complex, virtuosic baritone part (King himself was a baritone player), and is frequently used as an audition piece for baritone and euphonium players auditioning for military or marching bands.