Holidays with the Symphony

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 Holidays are a time for family, friends and music. On this special evening we gather many of our friends to perform for you, and we hope you will bring your family and friends to celebrate with us. Expect selections from the great music we associate with the season, including collaborations with other arts groups and a carol sing-along.

It’s a special time of year!

Due to 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!

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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.