Fiesta del Pacifico

(10/21/12)

John Wallace, Featured Composer

Sunday, October 21, 2012
3:00 PM

Fireman Performing Arts Center,Tabor Academy
235 Front St.., Marion, MA

Tickets $10 (Students $5, Children 12 and under are free)

Our 51st season begins with a fantastic flourish that was written especially for the group by Rochester, MA composer John Wallace. Wallace captures the excitement of a new beginning and the bountiful colors of the band.

Roger Nixon's opus "Fiesta del Pacifico" is considered one of the finest pieces written for the concert band and it is the feature piece in our presentation of music associated with the Pacific Ocean and the "Pacific Rim." Inspired by a 12-day festival held each year in San Diego, Nixon develops three different melodies while exploring a number of different tempos and moods. "Fiesta del Pacifico" features several instrumental solos as it reflects the energy of the annual celebration.

The Korean folk song "Arirang", which the composer heard while in Korea with the U.S. Army in the late 1950s, is set to five different variations in John Barnes Chance's "Variations on A Korean Folk Song." Of particular interest is the variation that features the percussion section. It is dynamically Korean in flavor.

The "Invercargill March" is a march written by Alex Lithgow and named after his home town of Invercargill, on the South Island of New Zealand. When Invercargill hosted the National Brass Band Contest in 1909, Alex’s brother Tom asked for a test piece for the contest and Alex offered this piece to the city. On the music, he wrote ...

To Invercargill, the Southernmost City in New Zealand (End of the World), and its Citizens, I dedicate this March as a memento of the many pleasant years spent there in my boyhood.

—Alex Lithgow

H. Owen Reed's "La Fiesta Mexicana", subtitled "A Mexican Folk Song Symphony for Concert Band", is a work, written in 1949, based on experiences gained during a five-month sojourn in Mexico on a Guggenheim Fellowship. The authentic folk tunes Reed used can be found in Chapala, Jalisco, and Guadalajara; other themes were borrowed from Gregorian motifs and Aztec dances.

"South Pacific" is considered to be one of the greatest Broadway musicals.The musical premiered in 1949 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1950. Several of Richard Rodgers' songs, including "Bali Ha'i", "Some Enchanted Evening", "Happy Talk", "Younger Than Springtime" and "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy", will be featured in this arrangement by Erik Liedzen. The Broadway production won ten Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Libretto, and it is the only musical production ever to have won all four Tony Awards for acting.

Wallace - Fanfare for the 51st Season
Nixon - Fiesta del Pacifico
Chance - Variations on a Korean Folk Song
Lithgow - Invercargill March
Reed, H. Owen - La Fiesta Mexicana
Rodgers - South Pacific