The UCSB Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Paul Bambach (Adrianne Hill, graduate assistant), plays its next concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall in the UCSB Music Building.
The concert bears only the uninformative title “A Celebration,” but the intriguing program will include Mother Earth (2003) by David Maslanka (born in 1943), Caccia and Chorale (1973) by Clifton Williams (1923-76), the Suite (Movements I, II, III, & VI) from Romanian Folk Dances (1917) by Béla Bartók (orchestrated by Carl Simpson; conducted by Adriane Hill), With Heart and Voice (2000) by David Gillingham (born in 1947) and the Symphony No. 3 for Symphonic Band (1958) by Vittorio Giannini (1903-66).
When Bambach sent me the information on this concert, I responded that his programs always sent me to YouTube. I was not complaining either, since I have learned an incalculable amount about modern American music just from tracking down all the composers and works to be played by the UCSB Wind Ensemble.
I have also uncovered treasure after treasure that I would have taken several lifetimes of blind groping to locate. Every work on this program is attractive, with many transcendent passages of beauty worth remembering.
Maslanka and Williams both compose in the jaunty, optimistic American style that started in the 1930s but was often back-seated by the gloomy authoritarians following the Second Viennese School. They have made end runs around the European dominance by devoting a large part of of their oeuvres to band and wind music. Giannini, born and raised in Philadelphia, notwithstanding his parents’ adherence to Old World names, is another who kept the flame of American ebullience burning.
I venture to predict that the music that will resonate longest in the memories of the audience for this concert will be that composed by Gillingham, who styles himself “a modern composer of old-fashined music.” This is accurate so far as it goes, but I doubt that any nineteenth century composer, be he never so romantic, would dare to stay with his beautiful melodies, and repeat them, with such blithe assurance as Gillingham. He’s quite a find.
Tickets to this concert are $10 for general admission, $5 for students, and free for all UCSB students with student ID as well as children age 12 or younger. They can be purchased at the door, by phone at 805.893.2064 or online by clicking here.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are his own.