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This is a link to information about "Blue Shades" by Frank Ticheli

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Blue Shades (1996) was my introduction to Frank Ticheli and his music back when I played it (2nd trumpet) with the Dartmouth Wind Symphony in 2000. I've seen a lot of his music since then, and I still think it's one of his best. Ticheli talks eloquently about the piece and its origins in the score:

In 1992 I composed a concerto for traditional jazz band and orchestra, Playing With Fire, for the Jim Cullum Jazz Band and the San Antonio Symphony. That work was composed as a celebration of the traditional jazz music I heard so often while growing up near New Orleans.

I experienced tremendous joy during the the creation of Playing With Fire, and my love for early jazz is expressed in every bar of the concerto. However, after completing it I knew that the traditional jazz influences dominated the work, leaving little room for my own musical voice to come through. I felt a strong need to compose another work, one that would combine my love of early jazz with my own musical style.

Four years, and several compositions later, I finally took the opportunity to realize that need by composing Blue Shades. As its title suggests, the work alludes to the Blues, and a jazz feeling is prevalent-however, it is not literally a Blues piece. There is not a single 12-bar blues progression to be found, and except for a few isolated sections, the eighth-note is not swung.

The work, however, is heavily influenced by the Blues.: "Blue notes" (flatted 3rds, 5ths, and 7ths) are used constantly; Blues harmonies, rhythms, and melodic idioms pervade the work; and many "shades of blue" are depicted, from bright blue, to dark, to dirty, to hot blue.

At times, Blue Shade burlesques some of the cliches from the Big Band era, not as a mockery of those conventions, but as a tribute. A slow and quiet middle section recalls the atmosphere of a dark, smoky blues haunt. An extended clarinet solo played near the end recalls Benny Goodman's hot playing style, and ushers in a series of "wailing" brass chords recalling the train whistle effects commonly used during that era.

He goes on to say that the minor 3rd is the most important interval in the piece, showing up in various accompaniment figures and in every major melodic theme. The piece even starts with that message in mind: the first nine intervals are all minor thirds! Listen to this nearly perfect (though they don't swing quite enough at 14) recording of the North Texas Wind Symphony playing it, and you'll see what I mean:

And here's the Columbia Wind Ensemble playing it in December 2007. We're not North Texas, but as I look at that video, I see one of the most legendary front rows in CUWE history! Fair warning - this was recorded from the front row of the audience on a camcorder.

Now let's look at some of the background in that program note: Ticheli talks about how there is no 12-bar blues in the piece, yet it's full of blue notes, those in-between pitches usually found at the 3rd, 5th, and 7th. To illustrate where that comes from, here's John Lee Hooker:

The smoky jazz club of the center section has its roots in slow blues. Ticheli even calls it "Dirty" in the score. So, here's some nice, dirty, slow burlesque-type blues. This will give you an idea of the sound you're after. I would show a dance to go along with it, but many of those are too PG-13 for this space. Suffice it to say, this section should sound like hair-tossing!

The clarinet solo was inspired by Benny Goodman. So here's the man himself:

Finally, Ticheli uses a train whistle effect in the brass wails towards the end of the piece. You can hear bits and pieces of that in the Chattanooga Choo-Choo as performed by the Glenn Miller Orchestra:

Ticheli's publisher hosts a complete, downloadable set of mp3s of the vast majority of his large ensemble music on their website - quite a find!

Frank Ticheli's personal website, Frankticheli.com.

Ticheli bio on wikipedia.

Frank Ticheli's Facebook fanclub.

A video interview with Ticheli in which he talks about composing.

For those who have forgotten, here's my short bio on Frank Ticheli: Educated at the University of Michigan, composer Frank Ticheli (b. 1958) has become one of the biggest names in new wind band repertoire. Since 1991 he has been a Professor of Composition USC-Thornton and, until 1998, Composer in Residence of the Pacific Symphony. The recipient of many awards, he was most recently winner of the 2006 NBA/William D. Revelli Memorial Band Composition Contest for his Symphony No. 2.

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Blue Shades (1996) was my introduction to Frank Ticheli and his music back when I played it (2nd trumpet) with the Dartmouth Wind Symphony in 2000. I've seen a lot of his music since then, and I still think it's one of his best.

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This is a link to background information about "Hammersmith:Prelude and Scherzo" and by the man who wrote it, Gustav Holst.

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Gustav Holst (1874-1934) was a British composer and teacher. After studying composition at London's Royal College of Music, he spent the early part of his career playing trombone in an opera orchestra. It was not until the early 1900s that his career as a composer began to take off. Around this same time he acquired positions at both St. Paul's Girls' School and Morley College that he would hold until retirement, despite his rising star as a composer. His music was influenced by his interest in English folk songs and Hindu mysticism, late-Romantic era composers like Strauss and Delius, and avante-garde composers of his time like Stravinsky and Schoenberg. He is perhaps best known for composing The Planets, a massive orchestral suite that depicts the astrological character of each known planet. His works for wind band (two suites and a tone poem, Hammersmith) are foundational to the modern wind literature.

Hammersmith, op. 52, is Holst's only late-period work for wind band, and the only one intended for professional musicians. Although it was commissioned by the BBC military band in 1930, it received its premiere on April 17, 1932 by the United States Marine Band, conducted by Captain Taylor Branson, at the American Bandmasters Association convention in Washington, D.C. This performance was not repeated, and the piece was forgotten for two decades, to the extent that Boosey & Hawkes, which published Holst's 1931 orchestral transcription, had no record of the band version at all. It remained unknown until 1954 , when Richard Cantrick, the band director at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), unearthed the band version, which existed only as a manuscript in the possession of Holst's daughter (also his biographer), Imogen. He conducted the second performance with their Kiltie Band on April 12 of that year, after which Boosey & Hawkes finally published the piece. Imogen Holst provides program notes in the score:

Hammersmith is a Prelude and Scherzo which was commissioned by the BBC military band in 1930. Holst afterwards rewrote it for full orchestra.

Those who knew nothing of this forty-year-old affection for the Hammersmith district of London were puzzled at the title. The work is not program music. Its mood is the outcome of long years of familiarity with the changing crowds and the changing river [ Thames]: those Saturday night crowds, who were always good-natured even when they were being pushed of the pavement into the middle of the traffic, and the stall-holders in that narrow lane behind the Broadway, with their unexpected assortment of goods lit up by brilliant flares, and the large woman at the fruit shop who always called him "dearie" when he bought oranges for his Sunday picnics. As for the river, he had known it since he was a student, when he paced up and down outside William Morris's house, discussing Ibsen with earnest young socialists. During all the years since then, his favorite London walk had been along the river-path to Chiswick.

In Hammersmith the river is the background to the crowd: it is a river that goes on its way unnoticed and unconcerned.

from Gustav Holst, A Biography by Imogen Holst

A wind group from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra plays the original (band) version of Hammersmith:

Hammersmith has generated a lot of scholarship and general chatter. Will Rapp includes a chapter on it in his book The Wind Masterworks of Holst, Vaughan Williams, and Grainger (click for a Google Books preview of the Hammersmith chapter). It figures prominently in this internet biography of Holst and his final years. It shows up on the Wind Repertory Project, which includes a useful errata list. You can read Robert Cantrick's fascinating account of re-discovering the piece on JSTOR (or at least a preview of it if you do not have access through a school or otherwise). Understand that he wrote it believing that his performance was the actual premiere, demonstrating the extent to which the US Marine Band performance was forgotten. Finally, visit Gustavholst.info, a major web resource for information on the composer.

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Gustav Holst (1874-1934) was a British composer and teacher. After studying composition at London's Royal College of Music, he spent the early part of his career playing trombone in an opera orchestra. It was not until the early 1900s that his career as a composer began to take off.

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Media 2: Hammersmith:Prelude and Scherzo

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Media 2: Hammersmith:Prelude and Scherzo

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Another one of the pieces in the Wind Symphony that I was impressed by the soft beginning and the much louder middle and climax.

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HOLST Hammersmith: Prelude and Scherzo - "The President's Own" U.S. Marine Band

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"The President's Own" United States Marine Band presents Gustav Holst's Prelude and Scherzo from Hammersmith, Opus 52, transcribed and directed by Col. Michael J. Colburn. From the album "Music from the Land of Hope and Glory," recorded 2008. http://www.marineband.marines.mil/ Read the liner notes: http://www.marineband.marines.mil/Portals/175/Docs/Audio/Educational_Series/hopeandglory/hope_and_glory.pdf Listen to the album: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA7no0L9zTk77a2uuBBG5LoeMYDaCRtTG

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This one of my favorite pieces played at the Wind Symphony

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Performed by the North Texas Wind Symphony Another amazing piece by Frank Ticheli :) Blue Shades is a fun jazzy piece that is great for any wind band!

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I accidentally sat very close to the symphony, but I'm glad I got to see it that close up.

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My overall reaction was impressed and inspired by the pieces they played. I found myself at moments being content and calm with the quite moments, such as the beginning in "Hammersmith:Prelude and Scherzo", and then soon after very intensive to the louder moments that followed it. I also enjoyed the sound of "Blue Shades" with its more jazz like sound and found it very enjoyable to listen too. I overall loved the pieces performed at the symphony and was throughly impressed by how much I ended up liking the music played.

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On Thursday night, I attended the Wind Symphony performance and I can honestly say it was a wonderful experience. I'm not a active "classical" music listener and was not particularly wanting to go and sit down to see this performance but like I said, it turned out to be something great to see. I particularly enjoyed listening to "Hammersmith:Prelude and Scherzo" by Gustav Holst and "Blue Shades" by Frank Ticheli. These two were my favorite, I found Hammersmith:Prelude and Scherzo to be slow at first but then building up to an intense and loud performance and I found Blue Shades to be a really nice and fun piece that they showed. Overall the performance was beautifully played and I was very impressed by the symphony.