Clinton Symphony Orchestra

Saturday, December 14, 2024
– 7:30pm –
Zion Lutheran Church

The concert will go on as planned tonight, please use caution and your discretion when venturing out. The current weather forecasts suggest it will be warmer by concert time.

– The holiday season is a festive time, and Clinton Symphony’s Holiday Concert is a wonderful occasion to invite family, friends, and business associates for an evening of music.

Due to ongoing construction of the new Durgin Performing Arts Center at Clinton High School, this concert will be at Zion Lutheran Church.

We will enjoy a guest conductor for this concert, please meet Silas Huff!

Silas Nathanial Huff is the Director of Orchestras at Northern Illinois University, Director of Maestri Series Workshops and Co-Director of the International Conducting Institute (organizations dedicated to training the world’s next generation of conductors). He has conducted ensembles across America, and around the world.
Maestro Huff’s past positions include Director of Orchestras at Washburn University (KS); Music Director of the Astoria Symphony Orchestra (NYC), U.S. Army Orchestra (DC), 562nd Air Force Band (CA), 44th Army Band (Albuquerque, NM), Topeka Youth Symphony (KS), Round Rock Symphony Orchestra (TX), and the critically acclaimed Lost Dog New Music Ensemble (NYC).
In 2011, Maestro Huff won a coveted job as a U.S. Army Music Officer. As such, Major Huff has conducted concerts at the White House, U.S. Capitol, Arlington National Cemetery, Pentagon, and other important monuments and landmarks in Washington, D.C., on tour for audiences numbering in the thousands, and in recordings and broadcasts that were seen by millions of viewers. For twelve years, Major Huff served the Army honorably in Washington D.C., Virginia, the Middle East, and New Mexico before transferring to the Air Force in 2022 to command the 562nd Air Force Band (Air Guard Band of the West Coast).
Maestro Huff holds degrees from Texas State University, UCLA, and University of Colorado Boulder, and also studied at the Trossingen Hochschule für Musik (Germany), L’Institut Musical Provence-Aubagne (France), California State University-Long Beach. In 2011, the Texas House of Representatives signed a resolution recognizing Maestro Huff’s distinguished musical service; the U.S. Army and Air Force have conferred upon him
three Meritorious Service Medals, four Commendation Medals, and a Humanitarian Service Medal, among others; in 2020, the Boulder Concert Band won The American Prize for Band/Wind Ensemble Performance under Maestro Huff’s baton.

Please enjoy the following Program Notes by Karin Anderson-Sweet. The notes here are more comprehensive than in the printed program.

A Canadian Brass Christmas
Arr. Custer
Founded in 1970, the Canadian Brass is one of the world’s most renowned brass
quintets, celebrated for its virtuosity, innovative performances, and diverse repertoire.
Over the decades, its founding members expanded and evolved, welcoming various
musicians who contributed to its distinctive sound. They have performed worldwide,
popularizing brass music.
The ensemble is particularly famous for its annual Christmas concerts with their fusion
of classical carols with jazz and popular tunes. In their own words, “Our Christmas
concerts are a celebration of the season’s joy and magic. We strive to bring an element
of surprise and delight, making each performance a special experience for our
audience”.

March of the Toys
By Victor Herbert
March of the Toys is from the operetta Babes in Toyland, which wove together
characters from Mother Goose nursery rhymes into a Christmas-themed extravaganza.
The original production opened at the Chicago Grand Opera house in 1903. Its creators
hoped to cash in on the extraordinary success of The Wizard of Oz, which had been
produced in New York earlier that same year. Toys was so popular it spawned other
fairy-tale shows over the next decade, and has enjoyed many successful tours and
revivals.
Victor Herbert (1859-1924) was an Irish- born American composer, conductor, and
cellist, whose works include operas, musicals, compositions for orchestras, bands and
solo instruments. He was also a founder of ASCAP, the American Society of
Composers, Authors and Publishers.

Carol of the Bells
Arr. Richard Hayman
Carol of the Bells has its roots in old Ukrainian folk songs, a way of blessing one’s
neighbors or worshipping ancient gods before the advent of Christianity. The simple
four-note melody called Shchedryk became a Ukrainian choir’s signature piece for their
first international tour. The driving, dancing energy of Mykolaiv Leontovych’s 1899
arrangement found its way to the United States, eventually making its way to a
performance at Carnegie Hall.
Peter Wilhousky, a popular American composer among Ukrainian ethnicities, wrote
English lyrics for the song in 1936, renaming it Carol of the Bells, and it quickly became
associated with Christmas in widespread performances in the 1940s. A year ago,
Carnegie Hall hosted a holiday celebration to benefit Ukraine as choral groups from
Europe and North America honored its 100th anniversary.

Around the World at Christmas Time
By Bruce Chase
An American composer in our own backyard, Muscatine, Iowa, Bruce Chase was
born into a family of musicians and was performing by his early teens. He was eventually
hired by NBC radio as a staff arranger and conductor for many popular radio shows.
After playing violin for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, he was recognized for his
talent in arranging, and frequently conducted the orchestra until well into his seventies.
Included in Around the World at Christmas Time are carols from Germany, Poland,
England, Sicily, France, Jewish tradition, and American spirituals.

Stille Nacht
Arr. Chip Davis
Stille Nacht, or Silent Night is a classic Christmas Carol composed by Franz Gruber
in 1818, with lyrics by Joseph Mohr, first performed on guitar Christmas Eve in
Oberndorf, Austria, as the church organ was broken. The carol is simple, yet deeply
moving, with a gentle melody that evokes peace and serenity. It’s lyrics describe the
calm and holy night of Jesus’ birth, with themes of divine peace and light. Stille Nacht
has since been translated into many languages and remains one of the most beloved
Christmas hymns worldwide, often associated with candlelight services and moments of
quiet devotion.
Chip Davis is the number one Christmas music artist in history with over 41 million
records sold, and this year marks the 40th anniversary of his Mannheim Steamroller
Christmas tour, the longest-running tour in entertainment history. His first album
released in 1984 revolutionized the sounds of Christmas blending traditional carols with
a unique synthesized sound, dubbed “18th Century Classical Rock”, the Mannheim
sound established a whole new music genre. Awarded 19 gold, 8 multi-platinum and 4
platinum records, Mannheim Steamroller ranks among the top 50 music recording
groups.

Let It Snow
Arr. Sayre
Let It Snow is a swing tune written by lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne
in July 1945. Written in Hollywood, Cahn and Styne tried to imagine cooler conditions
during a California heat wave. Although the lyrics make no mention of Christmas, the
song has come to be regarded as a Christmas song due to its winter theme, and has
often been covered by various artists on Christmas-themed albums.

Thunder and Lightning Polka
By Johann Strauss II
The most famous and enduringly successful of 19th century light music composers,
Johan Strauss II built on the musical foundations of his father, Johan I, to capture Vienna
and the whole of Europe with his tuneful waltzes, polkas, quadrilles and marches. The
appeal of his music bridged all social strata, achieving such a high development of the
Viennese waltz that it became as much a feature of the concert hall as of the ballroom.
The “Waltz King” also composed operettas, completing 16 stage works besides more
than 500 orchestral pieces, including his most famous, The Blue Danube. Although
Strauss took his inspiration from a poem by Karl Beck, the Danube has never been
considered blue and at the time, the river didn’t even flow through Vienna. Regardless,
The Blue Danube has become Vienna’s second national anthem and the guaranteed
conclusion to their New Year’s Day concert.
Really 5 melodies and a coda, The Blue Danube evokes the calm waters at dawn
introduced by shimmering violins followed by a romantic horn call and response by the
winds. The nostalgic lilt of days gone by is characterized by the occasional hesitation or
slowing down before regliding into a swirling waltz.

Christmas Eve Suite: Polonaise
By Nikolai Rimsky- Korsakov
Rimsky-Korsakov was a 19th century composer known for his concert works as well
as 15 operas. A member of a group of composers known as “The Five”, he was a
master of colorful and imaginative orchestration, and believed in a nationalistic style of
Russian music employing folk songs and legends.
He based his Christmas Eve Suite on a short story by Nikolai Gogol featuring a
decidedly un-Christmasy devil, a witch, and other elements of Ukrainian and Slavic
folklore. He created an opera in 5 sections subtitled A Carol Come to Life. Its most
famous excerpt, the Polonaise, centers around a dance in a salon at the imperial palace
in St. Petersburg on Christmas Eve, reflecting the opulence of the setting as courtiers
sing their praises of their Tsarina.

The Nutcracker
By Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
In his last years, Tchaikovsky earned his greatest success, only to be matched by his
growing depression. He was to die less than a year after The Nutcracker ballet debuted.
Arguably the best-known Russian composer of all time, among his phenomenal output
he was able to transform ballet into staged musical drama, revolutionizing the genre.
While detractors were busy writing it off, he took ballet very seriously, seeing it as an art
equal to all others.
Nutcracker is famously based on E.T.A. Hoffman’s tale of Clara and the nutcracker
she receives as a Christmas gift. Magically transformed into a handsome Prince, the
nutcracker sweeps her away to the Kingdom of Sweets. Although Tchaikovsky found the
structure difficult and asked to be released from the project, he was able to create a
masterpiece, a worldwide holiday favorite written for children and appreciated by adults.
Tonight’s movements include:
Marche – full of fanfares and swirling strings; the joy of the holidays
Danse Arab – not actually Arabian, but a Georgian lullaby, slow, sinuous, exotic
Danse Mirlitons – dance of the reed flutes; gentle blossoms float on air currents
Danse Russe Trepak – national Russian dance; begins fast, accelerates furiously

Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24
Arr. Phillips
An instrumental piece created for the rock band Savatage and later popularized by
the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Christmas Eve/Sarajevo is a fusion of carols blending
classical music with rock. It features a driving, intense energy combining electric guitars,
orchestral strings and heavy percussion to create a dramatic and powerful atmosphere.
The arrangement contrasts serene, delicate sections with intense, fast-paced rock
segments, symbolizing the juxtaposition of peace and conflict. Inspired by a story of a
cellist who played Christmas carols in the ruins of war-torn Sarajevo during the Bosnian
War, the music haunts with poignant, emotional layers.
Songwriter Paul O’Neill relates hearing about a cellist born in Sarajevo who left to
perform with various symphonies around the world. Decades later, he returned as an
elderly man at the height of the Bosnian War to find his beloved city in ruins. Heading to
the town square, this man climbed onto a pile of rubble that had once been the fountain,
and while people hid in bomb shelters, he took out his cello and played Mozart and
Beethoven while the city was bombed. The old man said it was his way of proving that
despite all evidence to the contrary, the spirit of humanity was still alive in that place.

Sleigh Ride and A Christmas Festival
By Leroy Anderson
Famously beloved as the “voice of the Boston Pops” and composer of light concert
music, Leroy Anderson was one of those young musical geniuses. His first composition
at the age of 12 led to an invitation to study music at the New England Conservatory of
Music, and later, Harvard. Also adept at languages, he became fluent in at least 9,
leading to the practical decision for a regular salary as a language teacher. Conducting
and composing for popular orchestras on the side soon spread his musical reputation
until he was discovered by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops.
Many of his clever, inventive compositions have been used as themes for radio and
TV shows. Deemed an American original, he earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame. He has been widely lauded as the Norman Rockwell of American music for his
ability to capture the familiar and turn it into art.
Composed on a hot summer day in July as Anderson imagined winter relief from the
heat, Sleigh Ride remains one of the most popular of holiday musical scores. With its
cheerful melody, the sound of sleigh bells throughout, horse clops and whinnies
compliments of a trumpet, along with the occasional whip, Sleigh Ride, has been
recorded over 8000 times.
For A Christmas Festival, Anderson chose 8 popular Christmas songs to
represent the spirit of the holidays. Composed for the Boston Pops, it has also
become a Christmas staple for orchestras who often invite the audience to sing
along to familiar melodies.

Saturday, September 21, 2024
– 7:30pm –

Zion Lutheran Church

– “Beethoven and Friends” forms the general outline of this season’s concerts. We begin with his Symphony No. 1, premiered at the turn of the 19th century. During that same decade, Étienne Nicolas Méhul was writing in France. We open with the overture to his opera Joseph. Moving a century ahead, we include a Concerto Grosso by Swiss-born American composer Ernest Bloch for strings with piano obbligato. Due to construction at Clinton High School, this concert will be at Zion Lutheran Church.

Join us for an Overture to the Season dinner before the concert at 5:00 at the Curtis Mansion. Reservations are due September 17th to Karl Wolf @ 563-212-6075

We are also accepting advance reservations for the bus to Sterling for the November 2nd concert – contact Kathy and Dan @ 563-503-4886

Please enjoy the following Program Notes regarding this concert:

Etienne-Nicolas Mehul, 1763-1817

Born June 22, 1763 in Givet, France, Etienne-Nicolas Mehul was a composer who influenced
the development of French opera and became one of the principal composers under revolution
and empire and a favorite of Napoleon. Although largely unknown to modern audiences, he was
lauded by composers such as Berlioz and Wagner as a mentor and innovator and is considered
by some to be as important as Beethoven in moving music into the Romantic Age.
Between 1787 and 1822, he composed more than 40 operas, produced mainly by the
Opera-Comique in Paris. His first opera to be performed, Euphrosine, premiered in 1790 as an
immense success and garnered him renown as a new talent to be watched. During the French
Revolution, Mehul composed a number of patriotic songs and propaganda pieces demanding
great choral and orchestral resources, the most famous of which is Chant du depart, a rousing
follow-up to La Marseillaise commissioned by the ruling National Convention. Rewarded by
becoming the first composer named to the Institut de France in 1795, he was also honored as
one of the first Frenchmen awarded Napoleon’s Legion d’honneur.
Mehul’s operatic success was not as great in the first decade of the 1800s, although works
such as Joseph (1807j became famous abroad, particularly in Germany. Despite his close
alliance with Napoleon, his public standing survived the transition to the Bourbon Restoration,
but worsening tuberculosis led to his death in 1817. He is regarded for his bold sense of
harmony and original gifts as a dramatist and orchestrator. His operas emphasized the
orchestra’s role; frequently, he chose a theme that was developed symphonically as the
dramatic action progressed.

Joseph

First performed in Paris in 1807, Joseph en Egypte is an opera-comique in three acts based
on the biblical story of Joseph and his brothers from the book of Genesis.
With librettist Alexandre Duval, he may have been trying to exploit the contemporary vogue for
operas on religious themes and the French fascination for Egypt after Napoleon’s expedition
there in 1798.
Joseph’s simple Old Testament story of betrayal and forgiveness was a critical success and
in 1810 it was awarded a prize for the best piece staged by the Opera-Comique in the previous
decade. Nevertheless, it only ran for a few weeks after the premiere, and later was more
favorably received in Italy, Belgium and Germany. The opera remained a favorite of composers
such as Wagner, Weber, Berlioz and Cherubini who considered Mehul a mentor and pioneer in
the use of thematic transformation.
Opening in Egypt after Joseph has already become a prominent minister, the overture
showcases Mehul’s skillful manipulation of melodic ideas creating an atmosphere of antiquity.
All of the characters in the story are written for male voice, giving the score a robust, dark
sound. Mixing musical numbers with spoken dialogue, it has been catalogued as an opera en
prose. In 1989 there was a new French production of Joseph in Paris to mark the bicentennial of
the French Revolution.

Ernest Bloch, 1880-1959

Ernest Bloch has been regarded as one of the most original composers of the 20th
century. A lesser-known composer from the early 1900s, his music was regularly performed in
his lifetime and reflected Jewish cultural and liturgical themes as well as European post-
Romantic traditions. He is particularly beloved of string players, for whom he wrote numerous
and wonderful pieces.
Born in Geneva in 1880, the son of a clock maker, Bloch spent a good part of his creative life
in America, studied violin and composition in Switzerland, Belgium, France and Germany, then
returned to Geneva where he entered the family business as a bookkeeper. Trying to establish
a conducting career, Bloch visited the United States in 1916 to conduct a tour of the Maud Allan
dance company. When the tour failed and he was stranded, he accepted a position teaching
theory and composition at the newly-formed David Mannes College of Music in New York.
In the following years Bloch established and maintained an important career as an educator,
founding the Cleveland Institute of Music, and then directing the San Francisco Conservatory.
He spent most of the 1930s composing and performing his music in Switzerland, returning to
the US in 1940 to teach at Berkeley until his retirement.
Bloch’s music is at once modern, yet accessible, often reflecting his Jewish heritage. In the
first decades of the 20th century, composers such as Stravinsky and Schoenberg imagined
changes as revolutionary as those occurring in European politics. It became fashionable to
dismiss traditional harmony and classical forms for atonal serialism. Bloch maintained that new
and exciting music could evolve not by throwing out the old, but by combining aspects of various
musical techniques.

Concerto Grosso No. 1

The Concerto Grosso is scored for string orchestra with a piano obbligato and was
composed in 1925 as Bloch was finishing up his directorship at the Cleveland Institute. Although
much of his music was inspired by Old Testament subjects and traditional Jewish life, Concerto
Grosso is a purely secular expression. Typical of a Baroque concerto, the movements are
structured around a ritonello that recurs throughout. Italian for “little return”, ritonello was first
seen in 14th century madrigals, and is characterized by recurring passages.
The first Allegro movement serves as an Introduction, opening with a robust series of chords
in the Dorian mode, one of Bloch’s favorite keys. Similar to a minor key, the Dorian is less sad
and more triumphant, “darkness with a hint of light”. The chords give way to melodic figures, the
meter constantly alternating between 4 beats and 2.
The second movement, Dirge, is much longer, less sounding like a tragic funeral but with more
of a dark, somber take. The third movement is a fun romp through two rustic dances
interspersed with pastorale sections, breaking away from the traditional Baroque prototype. The
final Fugue is serious and intense as Bloch out-Bachs Bach, presenting a fugue updated for
20th century ears. Solo strings, section strings, and piano take turns sharing musical textures as
a joyous middle section introduces another fugue. The returning theme from the Prelude brings
the piece to a joyously triumphant conclusion.

Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827

Long recognized as one of the greatest composers of Western classical music,
Ludwig van Beethoven fought the early onset of deafness to produce over 700 works,
including 9 symphonies, 35 piano sonatas and 16 string quartets. Popularly, he
personifies the idea of the creative genius struggling against convention and his own
physical limitations to push the boundaries of form and expression.
Born in Bonn, Germany in 1770, his musical talent was recognized early, and by the
age of 9 his teacher proclaimed that Beethoven “ would surely become a second
Wolfgang Mozart”. Beethoven grew up knowing and hearing the symphonies of Haydn
and Mozart, so it was not surprising that his first symphonies bore many of the
hallmarks of their classical style and he was hailed as their successor and the voice of
the future. His nine completed symphonies span the years 1800 to 1824, each one
distinctive in character and all innovative in different ways.

Symphony No. 1 in C Major

Beethoven wrote his First Symphony in the final years of the 18th century and premiered it in
the opening years of the 19th, timing befitting the shift from the Classical to the Romantic era.
The work bears the unmistakable signs of symphonic tradition established by his most influential
predecessors, Mozart and Haydn. Compared to his later revolutionary symphonies, the First
follows the typical classical forms, yet some sudden and unexpected shifts in tonality and
instrumentation point to Beethoven’s later ingenuity.
The Symphony No. 1 premiered on April 2, 1800 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, which the
composer had rented to promote his own music. Ironically, just as he was entering this
successful phase in his career, he was told his hearing problem was incurable and he even
considered suicide. Critics felt it displayed “Great artistry, innovation, and a wealth of ideas”,
although they felt Beethoven’s audacious addition of woodwinds a bit too much like music for
band, not orchestra. Other innovations include the use of timpani and an animated, relentless
pace in a movement traditionally poised, formal and dance-like.
Winds are prominent with opening chords in the first movement with pizzicato
accompaniment from the strings. Proceeding in a classical direction, the lyrical movement still
surprises with more dynamic contrasts and harmonic colorations than usual. The second
movement, Andante cantabile con moto, follows a simple theme as hushed trumpets and drums
add delicate color. Beethoven’s third movement, Menuetto is a far cry from the traditional stately
dance, rushing headlong into a sprightly scherzo, revealing his most prominent, individual voice.
Like the first movement, Beethoven teases his audience with a slow beginning before taking off
in an exciting Allegro molto e vivace. Violins conclude in high spirits starting softly and scaling
the heights into louder dynamics, dramatic and novel for the time. Also present is another
novelty: the General Pause, sudden cessation of all sound and then almost immediate re-entry
into high-octane movement.

Notes compiled by Karin Anderson-Sweet

6:30 p.m. — Sunday, June 2, 2024

Riverview Park Bandshell – Clinton, Iowa

Join us for the annual Sunday Pops in Riverview Park concert! Enjoy a variety of music from light classical, Broadway, film, and television music. It is a free concert, open to the public and you are invited to bring along your whole family, friends and neighbors for this once-a-year festival of music.

Program:

Star Spangled Banner

Overture to “West Side Story”

Broadway Tonight (medley)

Grease!

Movie Spectacular (medley)

Beatles Medley

Lord of the Dance

Themes from 007

George Gershwin in Concert

Stars and Stripes, Forever