13 Band 10-1.pdf - Arts Academy High School

Fiesta del Pacifico (1960) Roger Nixon
Fiesta del Pacifico is one of several festivals held annually in various communities in
California, which celebrate the Old Spanish Days in the State. This particular festival is
held in San Diego for twelve days in the summer, and features a play on the history of the
area with a cast of over a thousand, a parade, a rodeo, and street dances. Born and
raised in California's Central Valley towns of Tulare and Modesto, Roger Nixon acquired a
taste for the rhythms and dances of the early settlers of the state, and they appear in many
of his works. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and joined
the faculty at San Francisco State University in 1960. His teachers were Arthur Bliss,
Ernst Bloch, and Arnold Schoenberg.
Courtly Dances from Gloriana, Op. 53a (1953) Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten’s seventh opera, Gloriana, was commissioned by Covent Garden to
celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953. The libretto was by William
Plomer, after the book "Elizabeth and Essex" by Lytton Strachey. Heavily criticized after its
first performance, Gloriana has never found a permanent niche in opera houses. The
criticism was mainly aimed at the opera's scenario, which tended to highlight the Queen's
frailties, her personal relationship with the Earl of Essex, and the intrigues and jealousies
at Court. It was thought that the persona of Queen Elizabeth I of England should have
been portrayed as the monarch of a burgeoning European power. Britten was also
criticized for choosing to close the opera with the spoken word, rather than musically.
The Courtly Dances appear in the third scene of Act II. In the Great Room of Whitehall
Palace, the Queen is giving a ball. Accompanied by a stage band, the curtain rises on a
stately Pavane, followed by a Galliard. The Queen enters and upon catching sight of the
Countess of Essex, her jealous rival, she commands a La Volta - a vigorous dance during
which their partners toss the ladies in the air. It is so vigorous in fact that at its end the
Queen further commands that the "Ladies, go change thy linen"! Meanwhile a Morris
Dance is performed to entertain those who remain in the room. Britten subsequently
compiled the music from this scene into a symphonic suite.
Drei Lustige Märsche, Op. 44 (1924-26) Ernst Krenek
One of the most prolific composers of the twentieth century, composer Ernst Krenek wrote
in a wide variety of idioms. Described as “stylistically unstable,” Krenek experimented
throughout his career with many different manners of writing. He held Paul Hindemith in
high esteem in the early 1920s, however he eventually came to reject Hindemith's notion of
Gebrauchsmusik, writing, “the making of music should be left to the highly trained, while
children and amateurs should be schooled to appreciate it.” After the Nazis annexed
Austria in 1938, Krenek immigrated to the United States where he would become an
influential author and teacher.
John Carmichael has written the following about the work:
Drei Lustige Märsche is a collection of march parodies. As his response to
Hindemith's commission, Krenek submitted this composition, which pokes fun at the
typical military music of the day. From the stilted percussion introductions to the
disguised quotes of well-known tunes, like "Mexican Hat Dance," and "Can-Can,"
Krenek teases the present and the past, while pointing a finger to the possibilities of
the future.