Australian Wind Symphony
ENGAGING – LIVE
Conducted by Geoff Grey
Mastered by Lee Webb
60 minutes of music coming to you this April 2022
Performed live by Australian Wind Symphony
Belly Dance
Yosuke Fukuda
Yosuke Fukuda was born in Tokyo and started composing at age 11, largely self-taught.
Because he played a synthesiser, his first compositions and arrangements also employed the
multimedia capabilities of his computer. But at junior high school, he became familiar with
the different wind instruments. He also plays oboe, conducts and lectures.
At the end of high school he was employed in a music business and also composed for the
theatre, opera, dance and TV. His music has since diversified even further to music and
surround sound, earning him a reputation for his ability to compose multidimensional
music. His styles vary from dynamic symphonic music to catchy simple tunes.
This is the fifth, almost mesmerising, movement from his Symphonic dances for wind
ensemble, a suite that was commissioned by the Central Air Defence Force Band, stationed
in Hamamatsu, Japan. Enjoy its swaying rhythms and sinuous melodies.
Buxtehude’s daughter
Martyn Hancock
Martyn is an Australian composer and arranger who has been writing music for more than
20 years, including works for wind bands, orchestras, brass quintets and fanfares. He is staff
arranger for the Royal Australian Navy Band.
In 2011, he was awarded an Australia Day Medallion for his musical compositions and
arrangements and, in 2014, he was awarded a Conspicuous Service Medal in the Queen’s
Birthday Honours for composing new marches and a 40-minute symphony for the
International Fleet Review.
Before moving to Australia in 2007, Martyn also arranged a great deal of music for the Royal
Marines Band Service. He was also a tuba, string bass and bass guitar player.
In September 2016, he was the winner of the inaugural Australian Wind Symphony
Composition Competition for his work Aurora Australis.
This work was composed in 2004, but this version dates from 2011. It features the organ at
the Presbyterian Church of St Andrew in Canberra. The composer’s notes tell the story of
this work:
‘In the year 1668, the resident organist Franz Tunder, of St Mary’s Church (Marienkirche) in
Lübeck, passed away. The position that he had held was highly esteemed and was filled by
an up-and-coming young man named Dietrich Buxtehude, on the condition that he married
his predecessor’s daughter, Anna Margarethe Tunder. This condition was not unusual at the
time and was to be also strictly extended to Buxtehude’s successor.
In 1703, after 35 years of service, Buxtehude had the opportunity to take early retirement
following a very keen interest in his post by two famous organists, Georg Frederic Handel
and Johann Matheson. A year later, Johann Sebastian Bach notoriously walked over 200
miles to see the great Buxtehude perform, and also had a strong desire to succeed him.
Unfortunately, there was a slight problem… Buxtehude’s eldest daughter, Anna Margareta,
was exceptionally unattractive, and no matter how prestigious the appointment, none could
bear the thought of taking her hand in marriage! And so Dietrich Buxtehude remained
organist at the Marienkirche until his death four years later.
The daughter that he had left behind to frighten away aspiring candidates did not languish
long. Buxtehude’s old assistant, a certain JC Schieferdecker, who is famous for nothing else,
wed the daughter, and gained what was known at the time as “erhielt den schönen Dienst”
(the pretty job)!’
Need we say more?
Angels of the Apocalypse
David R Gillingham (1947– )
American composer David Gillingham studied instrumental music education at the
University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh (b’gosh!) and theory and composition at the Michigan
State University. He is professor of music at the Central Michigan University. Many of his
most noted works are for wind symphony.
This work was originally composed in 2010 for percussion octet (including five keyboard
percussion). It was expanded to create the wind symphony version in 2013.
The composer’s program notes say, ‘Angels of the Apocalypse was inspired by the Biblical
book of Revelation. The work begins with the opening of the Seventh Seal with trumpets
being given to seven angels. One of the angels has a golden censer and offers prayers of the
saints at the altar and then takes fire from the altar, puts it in the censer and throws it down
to the earth causing thunder, lightning and earthquakes. Following six sections, each
representing the first six angels. The first angel blows the trumpet … that brings about hail
and fire. A trumpet call by the second angel produces a mountain of fire thrown to the earth
and one third of the oceans and water on earth become blood. Following a trumpet call by
the third angel, the star, Wormwood, poisons all the waters. The angel blowing the fourth
trumpet causes one third of the sun, moon and stars to be smitten. The trumpet call of the
fifth angel releases locusts from the bottomless pit to kill those who are without God’s seal
and the sixth angel’s trumpet summons four angels from the Euphrates river to slay one
third of the people on earth. A rainbow forms over the earth and the seventh angel blows a
trumpet: Voices praise God, saying that all the kingdoms of the world are His (“Hymn of the
Angels”).’
Symphony No. 3 – The Tragic
James Barnes (1949– )
(i) Lento Allegro ritmico
(ii) Scherzo
(iii) Fantasia – Mesto
(iv) Finale – Allegro giocoso
Born in Oklahoma, American composer James Barnes studied at the University of Kansas
and, since 1977, has been professor of theory and composition at the same university. As a
tuba player, he has also played with numerous professional ensembles.
His numerous compositions for wind ensembles are regularly played in America, Europe,
Japan, Taiwan and Australia.
This work was composed in 1994. It was commissioned by the United States Air Force.
James Barnes’ own program notes for his third symphony say, ‘I was given complete
freedom to write whatever I wanted to. I began to work on it in earnest at a very difficult
time in my life, right after our baby daughter, Natalie, died. This symphony is the most
emotionally draining work that I have ever composed. If it were to be given a nickname, I
believe that “Tragic” would be appropriate.
‘The work progresses from the deepest darkness of despair all the way to the brightness of
fulfillment and joy. The first movement is a work of much frustration, bitterness, despair,
and despondency – all my own personal feelings after losing my daughter. The scherzo
(second movement) has a sarcasm and bitter sweetness about it, because it has to do with
the pomposity and conceit of certain people in this world. The third movement is a fantasia
about what my world would have been like if Natalie had lived. It is a farewell to her. The
finale (fourth movement) represents a rebirth of spirit, a reconciliation for us all. The second
theme of the last movement is based on an old Lutheran children’s hymn called “I am Jesus’
Little Lamb”. This hymn was sung at Natalie’s funeral …
‘Three days after I completed this symphony, on June 25, 1994, our son Billy Barnes was
born. If the third movement is for Natalie, then the Finale is really for Billy, and our joy in
being blessed with him after the tragic death of his sister.’