Santa Barbara City College Symphony



First Violins

David Stone,

Concertmaster

Kathy Leer

Victor Gasser

Henry Null

Kevin Kishiyama

Diana Andonian

Veronica Fortier

Clark Leslie

Aubrey Spilde

Jeon Richard

Second Violins

Joel Schwimmer,

Principal

Tammie Wrocklage

Alice Green

Leonard Chen

Irwin Maguire

DeeDee Nussmeier

Sara Tennant

Elvira Tafoya

Susie Thielmann

Jessica Sahagun

Devin Barry

Stephane Detournay

Violas

Terence Geoghegan,

Principal

Kathleen Feldman

Esther Frankel

Helena McGahagan

Martin Shapiro

Sherrill Pfeiffer

Julia Webb

Molly Clark

Francisca Lara

Cellos

Carol Roe,

Principal

Jacqueline Greenshields

Hugh Snyder

Jeannot T. Maha’a

Michael Burridge

Claudia Scott

Carol Sipper

Karen Spechler

David Roe

Gerrie Fausett

String Basses

Dege Donati,

Principal

Nick Carlson

Andrew Saunders

John Ahern

Flutes

Mary Maguire,

Principal

Monica Bucher-Smith

Ritchie Gonzales

Piccolo

Ritchie Gonzales

Oboes

Louis Grace,

Principal

Adelle Rodkey

Elizabeth Turner

English Horn

Adelle Rodkey

Clarinets

Peggy Liborio,

Co-Principal

Kathryn Woolf

Co-Principal

Carol Simon

Bassoons

Hap Russell,

Principal

Kristen Smith

French Horns

Sherry Trujillo,

Co-Principal

Johann Trujillo

Co-Principal

Margaret LaFon

Susan Miller

Trumpets

James Labertew,

Principal

Scott Pickering

Alex Feldman

Trombones

Michael Evans,

Principal

Hisashi Masui

Donald Faith

Steve Larios

Tuba

Howard Simon

Timpani

Charles Hamilton

Percussion

Nick Moore

Peter Hathaway

James Mooy holds music and education degrees from UCLA (B.A. and M.A.). His trumpet performance studies have been with Jimmy Valves, Ron Thompson, Tony Plog, and Mario Guarneri. A Music Academy of the West alumnus, he has toured the U.S. and Japan as a professional trumpet player. James taught the band and orchestra program at R.A. Millikan High School in Long Beach for five years. During that time he freelanced regularly in the Los Angeles area and held a full-time position as a Disneyland musician. Mr. Mooy currently conducts the Lunch Break Jazz Ensemble, and the Symphony Orchestra at Santa Barbara City College. Additional teaching duties include Music Appreciation and Music Technology. He has served as an adjudicator for numerous solo, chamber, wind ensemble, string ensemble, and jazz ensemble festivals. He has repeatedly served as conductor for honor bands and orchestras. He has served as guest conductor for the Santa Barbara Schools String Festival and the SB Youth Symphony.

Program

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Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Prelude to “The Afternoon of a Faun”

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Intermission

Symphony No. 3 in D Major, Op. 29

Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

James D. Mooy, Director

Special thanks to:

Martin Shapiro, Program Notes

Esther Frankel, Post Concert Reception

James Watson, Program

Pamela Lasker, Tickets

Jason Flynn

Luke Theater Staff

Program Notes

Academic Festival Overture

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

For a fellow who never went to college, Johannes Brahms was quite an academic achiever. In 1876, at the ripe old age of 43, Brahms received an invitation to travel to Cambridge University, in England, to receive an honorary Doctorate of Music degree. However, since he suffered terribly from sea-sickness, he decided to stay put in Germany, and he relinquished the degree. But then, in 1879, deja vu. This time it was a more local institution, the (German) University of Breslau. They were prepared to offer Brahms a prestigious Ph.D., or Doctor of Philosophy degree, and all he had to give them in return was the Dedication of a brand new major work, on the scale of a substantial symphony or concerto. Imagine the surprise in Breslau, then, when Brahms arrived to accept his Doctorate with nothing more to offer than a "boisterous potpourri of student drinking songs."

So Brahms might never have been a college student, but he sure knew all the good tunes. The Academic Festival Overture consists of four continuous sections, each built around a familiar German student drinking song.

1- Allegro: this opening section begins in minor with intense, driving rhythms. Three trumpets then introduce  the noble "Wir hatten gebauet ein stattliches Haus" (We have built a stately house).

2- Maestoso: the violins and violas introduce "Der Landesvater" (The Father of our Country).

3- Animato: this one is fun. The bassoons, backed by off-beat (syncopated) violas and cellos, play a traditional "freshman song," "Was komm dort von der Hoh'" (What comes from afar). This is the longest, most symphonic section.

4- For the grand finale, the entire orchestra (and it is the largest in any of Brahms' works) joins together for a rousing version of "Gaudeamus igitur," (Therefore, let us be merry). Not exactly Beethoven's 9th, but a moving, spiritual ending nonetheless.

 

Symphony No. 3 - "Polish"

Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky 1840-1893

There's an old Tchaikovsky joke that goes like this: Q. How many symphonies did Tchaikovsky write? A. He wrote three - numbers 4,5, and 6. The joke, of course, is that for many years, and throughout the 20th century, whenever a Tchaikovsky symphony would be performed, whether in concert or on a recording, it was always number 4, 5, or 6 that would be selected. Back in the sixties, when Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra released an LP collection titled Tchaikovsky's Great Symphonies, it only included numbers 4,5, and 6. But fortunately we now live in more progressive times, and musically we can enjoy a new attitude - that the early works of Haydn, Mozart, and, yes, Tchaikovsky, can offer much listening pleasure.

Tchaikovsky wrote his Third Symphony in 1875 while staying at the estate of a wealthy friend and traveling companion, Vladimir Shilovsky. (Tchaikovsky famously preferred the companionship of men.) The symphony gets it's "Polish" nickname from the fifth or last movement, which employs some Polish rhythms in its main theme.

First Movement - Introduzione ed Allegro. Moderato assai (Tempo di marcia funebre). The "Introduction" is actually a brief funeral march that leads to the lengthy Allegro. Now, just about every symphony, string quartet, concerto, sonata, etc., ever written has a first movement in traditional sonata (allegro) form, and Tchaikovsky's Third is no exception. The Allegro presents several striking themes in its Exposition section, Develops them (development section) by slicing and dicing them (cutting them up into fragments, or motives, and tossing them around the orchestra). And then comes the Recapitulation (Recap) - like in one of those great old Hollywood musicals, the Happy Ending. The original themes return in their original form and style, and the first movement comes to a lengthy but joyous close.

Second Movement - Time for another joke.  Q. When do you have five movements in a symphony? A. Pretty rarely. There's Berlioz' colorful Sinfonie Fantastique,  Beethoven's rustic Pastoral Symphony (#6), and - Tchaikovsky's Symphonie #3. It's the dance-like second movement that's the extra one. Most symphonies go directly from an energetic first movement to a relaxing slow movement. Here the slow movement comes in third; Alla tedesca (In the German style). The second movement opens with an awkward little waltz in the flutes, which eventually broadens into a lush, romantic passage in the strings.  Both melodies return several times throughout the movement, alternating with a lively "chattering" passage in the woodwinds.

Third Movement - Andante elegiaco. The third movement, one of the most romantic in the entire symphonic literature, begins as a slow lament (andante elegiaco) in the winds, and step by step introduces a series of expressive melodies, culminating in one of Tchaikovsky's most inspired moments - a series of ascending sequences (rising passages) in the strings that in their beauty rival the love music in Romeo and Juliet. Listen for this inspired music again towards the end of the movement - Tchaikovsky repeats the entire first half of the Andante, with stunning effect.

Fourth Movement - Scherzo (Allegro vivo). This quick little movement (it's the shortest of the five) is something of a joke (Scherzo in Italian means "joke.") Scherzos (Scherzi), which replaced the Classic minuet of Mozart's time, are always in 3 (triple meter). But this Scherzo has only two beats to the measure, and the tempo marking - Allegro vivo, is so fast that it must be conducted and played in 1 (one beat per measure). Some joke! The movement consists of 3 sections: 1- A treacherously fast dialogue between the strings and the winds, using wispy little figures, continuing almost non-stop. 2- The Trio (middle section) is a March with crisp rhythms (originally written for a tribute to Czar Peter the Great). 3- Section 1 returns, but now includes some of the March with crisp rhythms.

Fifth Movement - Allegro con fuoco (fire), tempo di Polacca. Musically the Finale is a tale of two themes. The first is the Polish one, using changing rhythms. Pay attention to this scrambling theme - it returns, in whole or in part, throughout the movement, and really dominates the entire Finale. The second theme is quite contrasting, with long lyrical (song-like) notes in the winds against a scrambling string accompaniment. It returns only once, but it's terrific - the entire orchestra is playing their hearts out, fortissimo. But the last word goes to the Polish theme, still full of changing rhythms, and full of vim and vigor.

Prelude to "The Afternoon of a Faun"

Claude Debussy (1863-1918)

Once upon a time there was a faun, a mythical free spirit who lived in the forest primeval, and who passed the time playing his flute and thinking about the beautiful nymphs who temptingly surrounded him.  In 1876 a famous French poet, Stephane Mallarme, published an extended poem about the faun, in Symbolist style, where words don't mean what they ordinarily mean. The poem was a smashing critical success and was read at poetry readings year after year. In 1894, in celebration of the poem's continued success, a young composer, Claude Debussy (he had only composed for piano thus far) was asked to write a 3-part orchestral triptych to be played during an all-star reading of the poem. There would be a Prelude, to be played before the reading of the poem, an Interlude, played intermittently during the reading, and a Finale, for after the reading. Unfortunately - Debussy didn't have time to complete the project. All that he was able to finish was the Prelude, but what a suburb Prelude it is. The Prelude begins with a most famous solo flute melody which represents the faun meditating on wine, women, and song, but especially women (nymphs). Here are the opening words of Mallarme's poem, in translation:

“Those nymphs, I want to make them permanent. So clear their light flesh-pink, it hovers on the atmosphere  - oppressed by stuffy sleep. Was it a dream I loved?" 

And here's what Debussy himself thought about his Prelude:

"The music of this prelude is a very free illustration of Mallarmé's beautiful poem. By no means does it claim to be a synthesis of it. Rather there is a succession of scenes through which pass the desires and dreams of the faun in the heat of the afternoon. Then, tired of pursuing the timorous flight of nymphs and naiads, he succumbs to intoxicating sleep, in which he can finally realize his dreams of possession in universal Nature."

Sweet dreams, faun.

Dr. Martin Shapiro

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