Banda Sinfónica Galega

Este concierto reproduce un programa con pretensiones pedagógicas tanto para los músicos cómo para el público, con obras originales para banda compuestas en este siglo XXI, siendo la mayoría de ellas estrenos en Galicia.

Todas las obras se basan en músicas clásicas o folclóricas más antiguas pero con una visión renovada con la sonoridad y el lenguaje moderno que las bandas populares y profesionales interpretan actualmente. El programa se divide en dos partes simétricas, siendo la segunda parte es un paralelismo de la primera.

PARTE I

Echoes of San Marco es una obra basada en las canzons de Gabrieli, quien se inspiró en la arquitectura de la Basílica de Sano Marco (Venecia) para crear pequeños grupos de cámara que se colocaban en distintos palcos de la catedral para producir la famosa policolaridade típica de la época. Esta obra es una recreación con banda moderna.

La siguiente obra, del americano Steven Bryant, se titula Suite Dreams tras hacer un juego de palabras entre «sweet dreams» (dulces sueños), y «suite» como término musical. Sobre la Primera Suite de Holst, una de las obras más importantes del repertorio de banda, el compositor hace una ensoñación con ideas recurrentes y aparentemente desordenadas, y se va creando una atmósfera que nos lleva a pensar de forma compulsiva en la obra de Holst.

A continuación, el piano comienza a tocar «Para Elisa» de Beethoven y acto seguido enlazan con la obra Wer ist Elise? (Donde está Elisa?) que, siguiendo el estilo de la ópera , trata de recrear distintos ambientes modernos de cómo entender la música que Beethoven escribió.

PARTE II

Echo-System es una experiencia sonora y un himno a la naturaleza donde los instrumentistas imitan el nacimiento y la evolución de un ecosistema. Los motivos cortos surgen y desencadenan patrones orgánicos, resonando alrededor del público a través de diferentes grupos de músicos. Las líneas independientes avanzan hasta conseguir un punto de sincronización donde se encuentra una sensación de equilibrio, aunque rápidamente aparece un elemento perturbador (el ser humano) que rompe este equilibrio y destruye el ecosistema entero. Entonces, el movimiento lento describe el vacío de este mundo extinguido. Al final, a pesar de todo, los motivos cortos reaparecen y comienza a nacer un nuevo ecosistema, honrando la increíble capacidad de la naturaleza de renacer y de rehacer vida, pase lo que pase.

A continuación está presente la composición asiática para banda, tan importante en este siglo XXI, a través de una fantasía del «Cascanueces» de Chaikovski, con la composición The nutcracker fantasy de Yo Goto.

Para finalizar, al piano se interpretará la Marcha turca de Mozart, que irá enlazada con Muiñozart, muiñeira del compositor gallego Ángel Montes inspirada en esta famosa obra.

This concert contains a program with pedagogical aims for both the musicians and the public, with original works for band composed in the 21st century, most of which are premieres in Galicia.

All the works are based on older classical or folk music but with a renewed vision with the sonority and modern language of today’s times that is used in the bands. The program is divided into two symmetrical parts, where the second part is a parallel of the first.

PART I

Echoes of San Marco was composed as homage to Italian composer Giovanni Gabrieli (1554–1612), the Renaissance maestro who was well known for his use of double wind ensembles, mirroring each other sonically in the awe-inspiring San Marco Cathedral in Venice, Italy. Majestic brass fanfares from two different locations in the back of the concert hall mark the opening of the work: we hear fragments from Giovanni Gabrieli’s majestic Canzon Septimi Toni a 8 from the Sacrae Symphoniae (1597), originally written for two four-part brass choirs. Several groups within the ensemble, such as a double-reed choir, a saxophone quartet, a horn quartet, euphonium/tuba quartet and two sets of tubular bells mimic the brass choirs, while the clarinet choir and a flute quartet prolong the echoes with mysterious cluster chords. The work reaches a triumphant conclusion with a grand hymn.

Next piece is Suite Dreams, the fourth work in Bryant’s Parody Suite, a collection of loving tributes to wind band classics. Bryant uses the word “parody” without irony. He did not seek to belittle or ridicule the original piece; rather he sought to “remix” the original pieces “as filtered through (his) hazy memory of playing these works when (he) was a student.” The source material of Suite Dreams is Gustav Holst’s First Suite for Military Band, specifically Holst’s inverted chaconne theme of the first movement. Suite Dreams takes the form of a fantasia, where rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic elements of Hoist’s theme float through Bryant’s compositional textures.

The unique texture of Suite Dream‘ stems from the post-modern techniques Bryant utilizes throughout the piece. One such technique is the frequent use of aleatoric figures throughout piece. Bryant provides the musicians with guidelines for each aleatoric section: a set of pitches to perform (or in many cases hum!), a dynamic range to perform a note, and a time period in which the musicians must perform these actions. He, though, allows the musicians to choose how and when each musical event occurs. Interspersing aleatoric sections throughout the more traditionally composed piece creates a mood of controlled chaos, allowing elements of the Holst and of Bryant’s own invention to come in and out of focus throughout the piece.

A piano start playing Beethoven’s Für Elise (For Elise) and suddenly we link to the work Wer ist Elise? (Where is Elisa?) which, like the opera in stages and theatres, tries to recreate different modern environments of how to understand the music that Beethoven wrote.

PART II

Echo-System is a sonic experience and a hymn to nature, as its title implied. The instrumentalists mimic the birth and the evolution of an ecosystem. Short motives emerge and trigger organic patterns, echoing around the audience by different groups of musicians. Independent lines move along until reaching a point of synchronization where a sensation of balance is found. Quickly, a disturbing element (humans…) appears, breaks this balance and destroys the entire ecosystem. Then, the slow movement describes the emptiness of this extinguished world. At the end however, the short motifs come back and a new ecosystem starts to birth, honoring the incredible nature’s faculty to rebirth, to respread life, no matter what.

The Nutcracker Fantasy intends to make fantastic, beautiful and boisterous music from its namesake. (Mr. Tanaka, the Neagari JHS Band Director says “this piece is like turning over a toy box”). Accordingly, many scenes come one after another (or by bits and pieces sometimes) and various sound effects (pistols, clocks, whips, ratchets, etc.) are used a lot. Each section has a feature, like a soli, but the brass parts are not too strenuous. Some difficult passages have been simplified and are not strictly faithful to the original.

As closing piece, pianist starts playin Mozart’s Alla Turca (Turkish March) and then the band will link it with Muiñozart, a muiñeira by galician composer Ángel Montes inpired on the famous piano sonata.