Axe ’Em, Jacks!
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Wind Ensemble at Stephen F. Austin State University will present the program “Primaries” for its final concert of the spring semester at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, in the Grand Ballroom of the Baker Pattillo Student Center on the SFA campus. Admission is free.
The concert features pieces that are considered staples in the wind band literature along with the SFA premiere of “Yellow Red Blue” by Paul Dooley, according to Dr. Tamey Anglley, director of bands at SFA and director of the Wind Ensemble.
“Yellow Red Blue” was commissioned for the retirement of Dr. Joseph Missal, director of bands at Oklahoma State University for 35 years. A consortium of institutions and former colleagues and students commissioned this piece for Missal to premiere at his retirement concert on April 17, 2021; it was written for only 19 musicians. Dooley has since written a full wind band ensemble version, which will be used for the SFA premiere.
“This two-movement work explores Missal’s love of chamber music, melody, counterpoint, color and structure,” Anglley said. “Dooley took inspiration from Missal’s favorite visual artist, Gerhard Richter, not only within the music, but also in the title ‘Yellow Red Blue.’”
Also on the program, Richard Strauss’s Serenade for Winds, Op. 7 will be conducted by graduate student Abbigail Ramsey. The piece was composed when Strauss was only 17 years old, and he modeled both the instrumentation and form after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s three wind serenades.
The Wind Ensemble will perform the famous “Overture to Candide” by Leonard Bernstein, which is transcribed for band by Clare Grundman. Based on the music from Bernstein’s opera “Candide” written in 1956, “Overture to Candide” has become a staple in both orchestral and wind band literature.
The final piece on the concert will be Paul Hindemith’s landmark piece, Symphony in B-flat. Written and premiered in 1951, this three-movement work is the only symphony that Hindemith wrote expressly for the wind band. According to Anglley, this masterwork opened doors for future composers to explore the band genre and cemented the validity of the wind ensemble as a medium for serious music.
For additional information, contact the School of Music at (936) 468-4602.