WINONA LAKE – The Grace College Community Wind Ensemble will present an evening of music titled “Portraits for Wind Ensemble” Friday at 7 p.m. at Rodeheaver Auditorium in Winona Lake. The concert, free and open to the public, will present music that shows the versatility of the wind band. A variety of styles from classical to musical theater will be performed. The Wind Ensemble will open the concert with March “Grandioso”, a march that has often been featured in parades. The “Grandioso” incorporates a theme from the 14th of Franz Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsodies”. On Nov. 21, 1930, John Philip Sousa conducted the University of Pennsylvania Band at the student quadrangle in Seitz’s march for the band. Afterward, Sousa said, “That is one of the best band marches, aside from my own productions, I have ever conducted.” Second on the program the band will perform one of the most popular of all band compositions – Gustav Holst’s “Second Suite in F for Military Band”. Gustav Holst’s second and last suite for concert band, although performed less frequently than the First Suite in E-flat, is still a staple of the band literature. Written in 1911, Conductor Martin Becker thought it was a fitting way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the composition. Finishing the first half of the program is a new arrangement for wind band: “La Tregenda”, the witches’ dance from the opera “Le Villi” by the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. Written in 1864, this instrumental selection from the one-act opera “Le Villi” occurs in a scene filled with magic and terror. Fast and furious, the music portrays a dance to the death.“La Tregenda” cannot be found in an Italian dictionary – or the vocabulary – today. However, in Italian, leggenda means legend; tragedia means tragedy. It is quite likely the two words were combined to convey the meaning: “the tragic legend.” Opening the second half of the concert The Wind Ensemble presents “Tchaikovsky Suite”. The movements in “Tchaikovsky Suite” have been taken from Tchaikovsky’s Album for the Young, Op. 39, originally written for piano. James Barnes has selected five pieces including: “Russian Folk Song”, “Morning Prayer”, Mazurka, “Polka” and “Waltz”. Next, “Highlights from Les Misérables” was conceived from the idea for a stage musical version of Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables”, which opened at the Palais de Sports in Paris in 1980. The musical opened to acclaim in London in 1985 and on Broadway in 1987. The Broadway production was nominated for 12 Tony Awards and won eight, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. “Les Misérables” celebrated its 20th anniversary in London in October 2005 and it is the third-longest-running Broadway musical following “Cats” and “The Phantom of the Opera”. The concert finale is “The Mystic Call”, a circus march by Karl King. King composed this march for circus use, and dedicated it to his friend Charles Duble, a trombonist for numerous circus bands of the early 1900s. As for the title, it is from Masonic ritual, with Karl King having been very active in the Masons and Shrine. The Grace College Community Wind Ensemble, conducted by Becker, has been presenting concerts under Becker’s baton for the past 10 years. Becker said, “The band will number 60 musicians for this concert and the Rodeheaver Auditorium’s acoustics will be in for a workout. The instrumentation is outstanding and will feature some of the area’s finest musicians. The band is made up of Grace College students, community members, and professional musicians. I am looking forward to the performance and encourage everyone’s attendance; this will be one not to miss.”
