Musical Images Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra Lou Kosma, Conductor

Les Toreadors from Carmen

Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

Morning from Peer Gynt

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

Verdant Gales

David Morgan. (1993 - ) Trumpets, Jo Anne Edwards and Phyllis Kadlub French Horn, Thea Calitri Trombone, Frank Mehaffey, Jr. Tuba, Jim Diette

Overture Storm Scene from William Tell The Elephant from Carnival of the Animals

Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)

On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring

Frederick Delius (1862-1934)

Pink Panther

Henry Mancini (1924-1994)

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Paul Dukas (1865-1935)

Green  Mountain  Youth  Symphony   Robert  Blais,  Music  Director 1812 Festival Overture in E Flat major

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Vermont  Philharmonic  and  Green  Mountain  Youth  Symphony

2012 VPO Family Concert Program Notes Les Toreadors from Carmen

Georges Bizet

The opening run of Bizet’s opera Carmen in Paris in March 1875 wasn’terribly successful. Bizet died three months later never knowing that a much-acclaimed October 1875 production in Vienna, would foretell long-lasting, world-wide success. The Toreador (bullfighter’s) Song is first heard in the opera’s Prelude, then briefly in Act Two, and finally in Act Four. It has become one of the most highly recognized pieces of operatic music.

Morning from Peer Gynt

Edvard Grieg

Grieg’s music for fellow Norwegian Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, was first heard in February 1876 in Norway’s capital of Christiania – now Oslo. Morning, aso known as Morning Mood, depicts the rising of the sun over the desert during Act IV, Scene 4 of the play. It is the first of four movements in Grieg’s standalone Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46. Morning is one of Grieg’s best known works and has been used in many popular cartoons and advertisements including Beavis and Butthead, The Simpsons, and a TV commercial for Hardee’s.

Verdant Gales

David Morgan

Comments from the Composer The title refers to a storm that occurred this past spring. Heavy winds and rain shook vast quantities of pollen and other green particles from the trees and whirled them through the air, creating strange green gusts in the open air. This piece was inspired by that storm and its changing patterns of color. The two contrasting sections represent the two main elements of the storm. The first section highlights the power of such a storm, with rain drenching and wind blasting any who dared venture outside. Dynamics change suddenly in this section, and alternating notes between instruments signify the quick and sudden movement of wind while large chords emphasize the occasional downpour. This theme returns at the end of the piece. The second section is slower and more flowing. This is meant to show the hidden beauty within the storm. Like waves on the seashore, green patterns flow on the wind, making all of nature move in the constant flowing pulse.

Overture Storm Scene from William Tell

Gioachino Rossini

Rossini’s Overture to William Tell was described by Berlioz as a “symphony in four parts” though, unlike the separate movements of a classical symphony, there are no breaks in the Overture. The Storm scene - the second of the four movements – is played by the full orchestra and portrays the build-up and ebb of a storm. It begins softly with the high strings, punctuated by high winds, gradually incremented by the entire wind and

string sections before the storm breaks out in full with the addition of the brass and percussion. The storm then subsides before leading into the next section of the Overture.

The Elephant from Carnival of the Animals

Camille Saint-Saëns

Le carnaval was composed in 1886 as an amusement for friends. Concerned that its light nature might harm his reputation as a composer of serious music, Saint-Saëns forbade its publication or public performance while he was alive. The sole exception to this ban was the now-famous cello solo The Swan (Le cygne). The whole suite was preformed two months after the composer’s death in 1922 and has become one of his most popular works. The Elephant is a musical joke with its themes taken from airy melodies of Berlioz and Mendelssohn originally played by light, high instruments (strings and woodwinds). Saint-Saëns transposed the tunes for the lowest instrument – double bass – to create a cariature of a ponderous elephant.

On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring

Frederick Delius

Delius was born in England to German parents and lived and worked all over the world. Like many composers through the years, Delius was enchanted by nature’s musicians. In this tone poem, written in 1912, he used the sound of the cuckoo coupled with a Norwegian folk song to evoke the image of an English spring morning. The piece, written in France, was performed for the first time in Leipzig, Germany.

Pink Panther

Henry Mancini

There are few people who have attended American movies since the second half of the twentieth century who are not familiar with the music of Henry Mancini. In addition to the Pink Panther theme, composed in 1963 and one of his most popular, he wrote the music for Peter Gunn, the Days of Wine and Roses, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Victor, Victoria to name just a few. In the 1966 cartoon Pink, Plunk, Plink the panther conducts an orchestra playing the PP theme. At the end there is a live action shot with Mancini, the composer, sitting alone in the audience applauding.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Paul Dukas

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is, by far, the most well-known music by Frenchman Paul Dukas and was completed in 1897. It was based on an a 14-stanza ballad of the same name written by famed German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe a hundred years earlier. The story with Dukas’ music relating the havoc caused by a sorceror’s helper who casts a spell he doesn’t know how to undo, was popularized in this country by its inclusion in the 1940 Disney animated film Fantasia and more recently in its reprise of 2000. In the film, Mickey Mouse is the apprentice, and the sorceror is named Yen Sid (Disney spelled backwards).

1812 Festival Overture in E Flat major

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Russian composer Tchaikovsky wrote this piece to commemorate Russia's defense of Moscow against the French army of Napoleon at the Battle of Borodino in 1812. It was first performed in Moscow on August 20, 1882. The Overture represents both the suffering of the Russian army and its military energy through a variety of militant and more gentle themes. It is best known for its climactic volley of cannon fire and ringing chimes. While this piece has no historical connection with United States history, it is often played at Fourth of July celebrations

David Morgan, Student Composer David Morgan is a resident of Stowe VT, and currently a senior at Harwood Union High School. He has studied the trumpet privately since elementary school (currently with Chris Rivers) and plays in school ensembles as well as orchestras of both the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association (VYOA) and Green Mountain Youth Symphony (GMYS). He is a District, All-State, and New England Music Festival participant and recently traveled with GMYS to the international Eurorchestries Festival in Quebec City. Morgan has benefited from Harwood’s extensive music programming offerings with excellent instruction in music technology, improvisation, theory and most recently composition. He explains, “At first, I bought the program "reason" to write music was to share with my friends online. But that has progressed to formal study, and most recently I have been fortunate to become involved in the Vermont MIDI Project’s online mentoring program, with ongoing tutelage from composer Erik Nielson and others.” Morgan practices composition regularly now and plans to pursue music composition as well as trumpet performance after high school.