Program Notes

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Vaclav Nelhybel: 1916-1996

A native of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Nehlybel had a natural musical ear from an early age. He developed his innate talent and cacophonous compositional style in Prague, both at Prague University and the prestigious Prague Conservatory, beginning in 1938. His education continued after his move to Switzerland at the University of Fribourg. He became drawn to music of a non-functional nature, resisting the concepts of classic theory or romantic melody. Instead, Nehlybel was interested in ideas based on linear modal scales, and motor motifs that cascaded around each other, reemphasizing the gradual break from traditional musical interplay that would highlight much of the wind music created through the 20th century. This meditation on the interplay of autonomous melody and unyielding rhythm leads to bombastic compositions, frequented by unexpected dissonance swirling around almost buried tonal centers.

Nehlybel held substantial influence as conductor, composer and teacher. After completing his education, he became composer and conductor for the Swiss National Radio, a position he held in tandem with a post as a lecturer at his Swiss Alma Mater. In 1950 he made a move to Munich, holding a seven-year tenure as the first Musical Director of Radio Free Europe. His transition to the United States in 1957 led him away from the baton and into the classroom full-time, with University of Scranton in Pennsylvania being his most notable position. Upon his death the Department of Music Performance created a permanent collection of Nehlybel’s compositions. His awards ranged from Denmark’s International Music and Dance Festival in 1947, to the Academy of Wind and Percussion Arts in 1978, through the Ravitch Foundation in New York in 1954. He also held four honorary American doctoral degrees. Nehlybel’s compositional body was extensive, including over 400 works published over his lifelong career and over 200 published posthumously. Many of his works were intended for stellar students at the schools he inhabited or visited, for whom he held a deep devotion.

The Three Intradas we introduce tonite are a succinct example of Nehlybel’s compositional priorities. The ear can discern a sonic core reaching out from the beginning and end of distinct musical phrases, but the layered and laced interplay of the different sections of instruments serves to obscure this core through the length of these phrases. The listener will detect cascading canons, powerful rounds, delicate rhythmic passoffs, and despite all odds, a strong sense of musical footing that has made Nehlybel’s music so gravitational to performers of all ages and genres. 

*Program notes developed from the University of Scranton website biography

Edvard Grieg: 1843-1907

Even if they aren’t familiar with his name, many music lovers, casual and active, have heard works by Edvard Grieg. His rich harmonic enhancements and desire to incorporate folk music ideas into his works led Grieg to become a compositional ambassador for his native Norway. Like many prominent composers, Grieg was born into a musical community, including a piano playing mother who acted as his first teacher, and an uncle who was a well-reputed violinist, who was also responsible for his enrollment in the Leipzig Conservatory and connection with piano teacher Ignaz Moscheles. His academic concentration was on the piano and developing a skill on the organ, and most of his time was spent either in practice, or in the concert hall absorbing the performances of his peers, teachers, and traveling musical virtuosos. 

Upon graduation, Grieg traveled to Copenhagen in 1863, where he began to connect with respected composers of the day such as JPE Hartmann, Niels Gade, and Rikard Nordraak, with whom he shared an especially close friendship. These meetings further spurred Grieg’s interest in composition, which drew the attention of piano rock star Franz Liszt. Liszt was so impressed that he testified in favor of a travel grant which brought Grieg to Rome in 1870, where they compared notes on orchestration and collaborated on concerts of premier works. 

Grieg would continue to encounter highly regarded thinkers and creators over his career, including poet and Norwegian politicist Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, playwright Henrik Ibsen, composer Percy Grainger, Queen Victoria, and the world famous Petyr Tchaikovsky. He also held esteem with prominent organizations, including honorary doctorates from University of Cambridge and University of Oxford, as well as a short tenure as conductor of the Bergen Harmonien. Compositions that one might recognize include Peer Gynt, the Holberg Suite, Morning Mood, the A Minor Piano Concerto, and In The Hall Of The Mountain King.

The friendship Grieg shared with Rikard Nordraak was especially profound, and Nordraak’s death in 1866 at age 23 had a substantial impact on Grieg, leading to the Funeral March presented tonite. Nordraak was also of Norwegian origin, and was responsible for the composition of the Norwegian National Anthem. His friendship with Grieg inspired a culturally based national devotion, which Grieg held fiercely throughout his life and creative career. Upon losing such a close colleague and inspiration at such an early age, Grieg composed one of his most personally beloved works, which he considered so dear to himself that not only did he regularly travel with a manuscript, but requested that the music be performed upon his own death, as a final tribute to a friend lost far too soon. This Funeral March features a broad form, with three distinct sections in an ABA format. The opening and closing sections begin plaintively, murmuring with emotion and quiet despair, before rising to a high pitch, positively exploding with grief and indignation at the unfairness of such an early loss. The music then settles, changing from a minor to a major quality and transitioning from sorrow to a melancholy hope, in an attempt to assuage the overflow of pain by using hymnlike ideas to soothe the heart and soul.

*Program notes developed from Britannica online, Ebsco online, and Robert King Music Co. 

Usko Meriläinen: 1930-2004

Usko Meriläinen is a prime example of a composer with absolute determination to connect compositional techniques from across both genres and time. Hailing from Finland, his early studies sent him to the Sibelius Academy, his summer courses in Darmstadt, and extensive time in Switzerland. Meriläinen established for himself a firm dedication to rhythmic diversity and interplay, as well as a strong intrigue with the concepts of neoclassicism. 

Meriläinen developed a concept that he referred to as ‘character technique,’ which references his desire for independent interlocking melodies and motifs to work both with and against each other to gradually emulate certain character styles. He always made sure that his developments remained within his distinct control. Intuition and faithfulness to concept was the highest priority for Meriläinen’s artistic sensibilities, and this dedication to principle and self would create an easy shifting between orchestration that few other composers could emulate.

Meriläinen was a profound voice for pushing 20th century boundaries and expectations. His chamber and solo works were especially impactful and inspiring. Music of note includes Whispers and Visions for Flute and Orchestra, Chamber Concerto for Violin, 2 Percussionists and Double String Orchestra, Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, Aspects of the Ballet ‘Psyche’ for Tape and Instrumental Ensemble, Simultus for Flute, Alto Sax, Guitar, and Percussion, and Summer Sounds for Flute and Grasshoppers, though this is only a small intriguing sample of Meriläinen’s unique ideas on instrumentation.

The Partitas for Brass, written in 1954, are a quintessential example of Meriläinen’s preoccupation with rhythm and neoclassical concepts. Each of the four movements have a distinct flavor. One might represent a prim French chamber setting, another might be reminiscent of bird calls, while yet another would evoke a jaunty cakewalk. The orchestration is also unique, with the part setting being inspired by orchestral tradition rather than conventional brass band expectation.

*Program notes developed from fennicagehrman.fi, musicalics.com, and encyclopedia.com

Dimitri Shostakovich: 1906-1975

In an era rife with groundbreaking compositional techniques and pillars of musical craftsmanship, Dmitri Shostakovich stands out as a composer of true fearless prominence. Indeed the majority of his musical career was spent as a composer and teacher, not a performer. His early studies came from the teachers at the Petrograd Conservatory in his native St. Petersburg, most notably Maksimilian Steinberg, Leonid Nikolayev, and Aleksandr Glazunov. His studies focused on composition and piano, however after 1927 there is minimal recording of Shostakovich attempting any major performances as a pianist, with the exception of his own original works. Indeed, by that time he had already carved a substantial foothold in the musical lexicon with his Symphony No. 1, premiered when he was only 19.

Shostakovich was an active student, going out of his way to absorb and digest all the most powerful compositional voices of the day. The list of discernible influences is extensive; it includes the likes of Petyr Tchaikovsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Paul Hindemith, Alban Berg, Béla Bartok, Gustav Mahler, and the inimitable Igor Stravinsky. His mediums for performance were as widely spread as his compositional influences. Shostakovich would become well known for complex and harmonically challenging symphonies, satirical operas, emotionally resonant chamber works, and finely crafted pianistic pieces.

It is well that Shostakovich found rapid favor in musical circles from an early age. In 1928, Joseph Stalin began his regime in Russia, which developed into a rapid regulation of all aspects of Russian culture, with music being especially tightly controlled. Shostakovich’s satirical work caused his fall into political disfavor, and the attempts made at censorship of his Symphony No. 4 in 1935 caused a profound shift in his compositional style. What once was free-flowing and essentially melodic was supplanted by aggressive ironic rigor and a commitment to concepts of classical musical form. His works that filled through the beginning of his professorship at the Leningrad Conservatory are generally regarded as the genesis of his specific artistic critique of the developing Soviet Union. 

Shostakovich would begin his teaching career in 1937 in Leningrad, then be transplanted to Kuybyshev in 1941 as a result of the developing WWII. He eventually settled in Moscow, where he took an additional post at the Conservatory located there. The compositions he developed after attaining these posts would only serve to further irritate Soviet authority, who were seeking to develop more rigorous cultural control as a result of the freshly spawned Cold War. Shostakovich was forcibly terminated from both of his conservatory positions, but his writing remained undaunted, and both his symphonic work and chamber settings defied the enforced cultural theology guised in the trappings of straightforward compositional form. After the death of Stalin and the rise of Lenin in the Soviet Union, Shostakovich would find himself largely reinstated and revered as the champion of Russian composition, and spent the remainder of his years developing his extensive library of works.

The Prelude No. 14 was a component of a set of Shostakovich’s earlier works, a set of 24 preludes for solo piano written between 1932 and 1933. An Adagio setting, the prelude begins with a somber rumble, and is essentially one massive rise and fall from a terrible musical height, concluding in the same quiet suspense it arose from. The inherent drama in this particular prelude has inspired several orchestrations, with the manner for brass and percussion presented tonite being one of the most forceful and terrifying versions developed. 

*Program notes developed from Britannica online, and the Wind Repertory Project

 

Bruce Broughton: 1945-present

Popular culture has been blessed by the musical vision of American composer Bruce Broughton. A native of Los Angeles, his résumé is thoroughly decorated, including 10 Emmys and 24 nominations, nominations each for a Grammy and an Oscar, a post as Composer in Residence at the University of North Texas, previous governorship for both the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and previous professorships at the Herb Alpert School at UCLA and the Thornton School of Music, among many other prominent accolades. 

Broughton brought himself to esteem by way of prolific television and film scoring. To list only a small number of his contributions, readers might recognize films such as Tombstone, Silverado, Homeward Bound, and Miracle on 34th Street, as well as a version of the 20th Century Fox fanfare. TV viewers would have heard his music on popular shows including JAG, Quincy, Hawaii Five-O, and the Tiny Toon Adventures created by Steven Spielberg. His music is also used in Disney parks around the globe, and he holds the distinction of having the first recorded orchestral score intended for video game publication in the release of Heart of Darkness.

Broughton is also an avid composer of absolute music as well as programmatic. He is the creator of several profound concertos for solo instruments such as the French Horn, Cornet, Oboe, Tuba, Violin, and Piccolo, and holds an affinity for chamber works of varying instrumentation. He makes use of string quartets as well as brass bands, and is as comfortable with solo piano as he is with full wind ensemble or orchestra. 

The bluntly titled Fanfares, Marches, Hymns, and Finale are more complex than their utilitarian title would suggest. Each of these four movements are richly layered, and would be at home accompanying poignant cinematic scenes. The Fanfares are cascading, rolling over and through each other in a contest to win the ear’s favor as most declamatory. The Marches are naturally relentless, striding through startling stylistic changes and sudden flourishes with a pressing confidence that draws one to the edge of their seat. The Hymns are a cleanse, settling into gentle harmonic push and pull through lush textures that build steadily only to give way to a lone prayerful voice. The Finale is dark, dramatic, and imposing, crackling with urgency and daring the listener to look away as the ensemble tumults to a glorious conclusion. 

*Program notes developed from brucebroughton.com

Notes by Dalton Williams, April 2025

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