United States Navy Band March 10, 2008

Enjoy a concert by the United States Navy Band from Washington D.C. Free Admission by ticket. Empty seats filled 15 minutes before the program. Limited tickets available.

2008 Spring Tour, Program B

Strike Up the Band George Gershwin
arr. Thomas Knox

Festive Overture Dmitri Shostakovich
arr. Donald Hunsberger
One of the staples of wind band literature, Donald Hunsberger’s arrangement of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Festive Overture is a tour-de-force showcase for the entire ensemble. The piece was composed in 1954 for a concert held at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the October Revolution. Shostakovich received the composition request just days before the concert, and wrote the work in three days.


A Celebration of Swing arr. MUC Scott A. Silbert
This vibraphone feature includes:
Opus Number 1 by Melvin "Sy" Oliver
In a Mellow Tone by Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington
Flying Home by Lionel Hampton

Vibraphone soloist Chief Musician Juan Vazquez gives a history of the creation of A Celebration of Swing:

For years I had been after Senior Chief Musician (retired) Bryan Kidd to write an arrangement featuring the noted vibraphone players of swing era. If you are familiar with the instrument, you probably know that there aren’t too many! Due to his hectic writing schedule for the band, this project was put on hold. Soon after my request, Bryan reached his 26 year mark with the band and decided to retire. I approached him in a panic and told him that he COULD NOT retire since the arrangement had not been completed!!! He promised me that his successor, Chief Musician Scott Silbert, would write the arrangement and not to worry.

From there, a tribute to vibraphone players evolved into a tribute or celebration of the great music from the swing era. "Opus no. 1" was a hit for the Tommy Dorsey Band and re-done by the Terry Gibbs Dream Band. Terry Gibbs was the premier vibraphonist working with the Woody Herman Band and is still performing today. "In A Mellow Tone" is a wonderful medium tempo swing tune from this era and was written by the great Duke Ellington. It was our opinion that no celebration of this era can be played without some musical homage to the Duke. The final song is the well known, "Flying Home," the theme song for the Lionel Hampton Band -- Lionel Hampton was the most famous player of the vibraphone at the time.

I am very happy to perform this arrangement that combines two themes: honoring two of the great vibraphonists of the era and paying homage to one of the greatest eras of American popular music!


Spirit of the U.S.N. Alton Augustus Adams
ed. Mark Clague
Alton Augustus Adams, Sr., holds the distinction of being the first African-American bandmaster in the U.S. Navy. He was born in 1889 on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas in what was then the Danish West Indies. He had a passion for music from an early age, and joined the local municpal band before forming his own band in 1910 - the Adams Juvenile Band. His band grew rapidly and became an integral part of the social and cultural scene of St. Thomas’ capital city, the port of Charlotte Amalie.

Just prior to America’s entrance into World War I, they purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark. Given the islands’ predominantly black demographic, the U.S. Navy sought a way to build a bridge between the local populace and the American Naval establishment. Thus, in 1917, the Navy inducted Adams and his entire band into the United States Navy, becoming the first African Americans to receive official musical appointments since the War of 1812 and making Adams the Navy’s first black bandmaster. A pioneer in breaking barriers, during World War II he created the first sanctioned, racially integrated band in the Navy at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

His musical compositions and writings attracted the attention of two of the most prominent band directors in the United States - John Philip Sousa and Edwin Franko Goldman - both of whom performed Adams’ works. His compositional style is very much in the vein of Sousa. The Spirit of the U.S.N. (1924) is one of his most famous marches and for obvious reasons, a favorite of the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Navy Band.


A Movement for Rosa Mark D. Camphouse
The work A Movement for Rosa was written by American composer Mark Camphouse in 1992 as a tribute to civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks. Her life is chronicled in the piece’s three sections: first, a picturesque and tranquil opening depicting her life from birth until marriage; second, the struggles of her work for social equality; and lastly, the theme “We Shall Overcome,” which is weaved through all the sections, is the focus as the work begins to return to the thematic material heard earlier. A Movement for Rosa is conducted by enlisted conductor and clarinetist, Chief Musician Russell V. Gross, Jr.


"Summertime" from Porgy and Bess George Gershwin
arr. Richard A. Raven
The stage opera Porgy and Bess was a hugely successful work by George Gershwin, based on a novel by DuBose Heyward and a play by Heyward and his wife, Dorothy. The works centered around African American life in fictional Catfish Row, Charleston, South Carolina, in the 1930s. Music from the opera has been performed by such artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Leontyne Price, Cab Calloway and William Warfield. “Summertime” is the most popular song from the opera, and is being performed by Navy Band principal bassoonist and vocalist, Chief Musician Tia F. Wortham.

The Padstow Lifeboat
Malcolm Arnold
arr. Ray Woodfield
Sir Malcolm Arnold, who died in 2006 at age 84, was a highly respected and widely performed British composer. His works have become concert staples for orchestras and bands alike. In 1965, Arnold and his second wife, Isobel, moved to Padstow, Cornwall, where he began writing locally for the Cornish Gorseth (an organization which exists to maintain the national Celtic spirit of Cornwall, England). One of the many pieces he wrote during this time was The Padstow Lifeboat. Residents of the time in Padstow, Cornwall commented on the “raucous” foghorn, and in Arnold’s comic march he does not try to disguise the annoying noise, but instead accentuates it again and again.



Danza Final from Estancia Alberto Ginastera
arr. David John
The ballet Estancia, from the pen of Argentina’s Alberto Ginastera, is much like an American western except, of course, for the South American setting. Cowboys are called Gauchos and the old homestead is known as the estancia. When gauchos had a difference of opinion, they didn’t settle it with a shoot-out; they held a malambo – a dance competition which incorporated shows of strength, endurance and skills with the lasso. Danza Final from Estancia is the final showdown in one of these competitions.


The Washington Post John Philip Sousa


Shaken, Not Stirred MUCM Gerard J. Ascione

The Wrong Note Rag Leonard Bernstein
arr. Ted Ricketts
When Leonard Bernstein’s musical Wonderful Town premiered on stage in 1953, it was immediately successful. Nominated for six Tony awards that year, it won all six due to its infectious music. “The Wrong Note Rag” appears late in the musical, when it is obvious that all will end well, thus contributing to the unrestrained exuberance of the music.
Four Scottish Dances Malcolm Arnold
arr. John Paynter
Four Scottish Dances (Op.59) is a set of original dances insipired by Scottish country folk tunes and dances. The piece was composed by Malcolm Arnold in 1957 for the BBC Light Music Festival.


The following pieces may be included on
2008 Navy Band tour programs:
Amazing Grace Frank Ticheli
Eternal Father, Strong to Save arr. Claude T. Smith
Hero for Today Derek Floyd arr. MUCS Ralph Martino, USN (Ret.) & MUCS Bryan Kidd
PROGRAM SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE

Official Website: http://www.navyband.navy.mil