Program Notes
Overture to Candide by Leonard Bernstein
Candide was Leonard Bernstein’s third Broadway musical, following On the Town and Wonderful Town.Adapted by Lillian Hellman from Voltaire’s 18th-century satire on blind optimism, Bernstein’s Candide is an operetta set in the castle of the Baron Thunder-ten-Tronckh in the mythical European land of Westphalia. Within these walls live the Baron and Baroness; Cunégonde, their beautiful and innocent virgin daughter; Maximilian, their handsome son; Candide, their handsome bastard nephew; and Paquette, the Baroness’ buxom serving maid. They are taught by Dr. Pangloss, who preaches the philosophy that all is for the best in “The Best of All Possible Worlds.”
Candide and Cunégonde kiss, and Candide is banned from Westphalia. As he leaves, Bulgarians invade, kidnap him and slaughter everyone except for Cunégonde, who they prostitute out to a rich Jew and the Grand Inquisitor. Candide escapes and begins an optimistic, satirical journey, taking with him his sweetheart Cunégonde and Pangloss. Candide journeys to Lisbon, Paris, Buenos Aires, and even the legendary El Dorado, only to discover reality in the forms of crime, atrocity, and suffering. He returns to Venice with Cunégonde, stripped of his idealism. His ultimate emotional maturation concludes in the finale with “You’ve been a fool, and so have I, But come and be my wife, And let us try before we die, To make good sense of life. We’re neither pure nor wise nor good; We’ll do the best we know; We’ll build our house, and chop our wood, And make our garden grow.”
Opening on Broadway on December 1, 1956, Candide was perhaps a bit too intellectually weighty for its first audiences and closed after just 73 performances. Bernstein was less concerned over the money lost than the failure of a work he cared about deeply. The critics had rightly noted a marvelous score, and Bernstein and others kept tinkering with the show over the years. With each revival, Candide won bigger audiences. In 1989, the already seriously ill Bernstein spent his last ounces of vital energy recording a new concert version of the work. “There’s more of me in that piece than anything else I’ve done,” he said.
The sparkling overture captures the frenetic activity of the operetta, with its twists and turns, along with Candide’s simple honesty. From the very beginning, though, the overture was a hit and swiftly became one of the most popular of all concert curtain raisers. Brilliantly written and scored, flying at breakneck speed, it pumps up the adrenaline of players and listeners alike. It features two of the show’s big tunes: the sweeping romantic one is Candide’s and Cunégonde’s love duet “Oh Happy We,” while the wacky up-tempo music is from Cunégonde’s fabulous send-up of coloratura soprano arias, “Glitter and Be Gay.”
- Program Note by San Luis Obispo Wind Orchestra concert program, 12 May 2012
Vongole ! by Satoshi Yagisawa
This concerto for baritone saxophone was commissioned by saxophonist Makoto Asari, who is a close friend of the composer. Vongole! consists of three movements Spumante (Sparkling wine), Bianco (White) and Rosso (Red). It is a unique and welcome addition to the baritone saxophone repertoire.
- Program Note from publisher
Third Suite by Robert Jager
Each movement depicts a quirky, slightly distorted, and cheerful melody that is developed throughout the movement. The first movement, March, makes use of the different colors within the band, while distorting the steady sense of time normally associated with a march. The second movement, Waltz, again distorts the sense of time within the dance, interspersing light and bright colors within the band's boisterous interjections. The final movement, Rondo, develops the entire movement based on the first five chords played in the introduction. The Rondo is upbeat, playful, and energetic.
- Program Note from Illinois State University Symphonic Band concert program, 5 October 2017
The Free Lance March by John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa loved the musical theater and spent a great amount of his time and energy composing operettas in the style of England’s famed Gilbert and Sullivan. Noted Sousa scholar Paul Bierley even suggested that had Sousa not become the Director of the United States Marine Band, a career decision that determined the path of the remainder of his life, Sousa would probably have spent his entire career in musical theater. He composed fifteen operettas beginning with Katherine in 1879.
In 1905 he collaborated with librettist Harry Smith to create his twelfth operetta, The Free Lance, a fun-filled story of a clever and enterprising goatherd named Sigmund Lump who hired himself out as the mercenary leader of two warring kingdoms that were trying to double cross each other by substituting commoners for royal offspring in an arranged marriage. Skillfully orchestrating the two opposing armies into a stalemate, he demands payment from both kingdoms. When neither can pay, Lump declares himself ruler of both.
The operetta, filled with numerous lively march tunes, was well received and had a run of seven months. Sousa deftly combined themes from various musical numbers in the operetta to compose his march The Free Lance. In it, Sousa makes a change of time signature from the opening six-eight meter to a two-four meter in the trio, an interesting effect he used in only a handful of his other marches.
The trio of the march corresponds to the song On the Victory in the operetta, and some editions of the march were published under that title.
- Program Note from U.S. Marine Band concert program, 17 August 2016
Memory Cascades by Christopher Bell
Most Commencement speeches involve the phrase,
“You’ll look back on this day for years to come”.
Memory Cascades was written to celebrate the bond between those memories and the moment they stemmed from.
Bursting into the present moment with a flourish, the piece quickly drifts into a daydream, remembering the present
moment from a detached consciousness. The palindromic form of the piece wanders back, returning to the present
moment, already colored and transformed by our memory of it. The piece ends the way it began, bursting into and
out of a moment you’ll remember forever.
This piece was selected as the winner of the 2025 Mason Wind Symphony Commencement Fanfare Competition.
- Program Note by the composer
Arizona by Franco Cesarini
Arizona is written in a typical three-part overture form. The composition is not strictly descriptive as such, but rather conveys moods and emotions, inspired by impressions of the American desert state of Arizona: the endless, cactus-studded desert landscape, a lone Indian on horseback, the legendary Grand Canyon Railroad, the Petrified Forest and the famous Monument Valley.
- Program Note from publisher
Pineapple Poll by Sir Arthur Sullivan
The ballet Pineapple Poll is a spoof of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. The plot is based upon The Bumboat Woman's Story of Gilbert's Bab Ballads, which was later developed by Gilbert into H.M.S. Pinafore.The story evolves around Pineapple Poll and her colleagues who are all madly in love with the captain of the good ship H.M.S. Hot Cross Bun. In order to gain admittance to the ship, they disguise themselves in sailors' clothes, a fact which is kept secret from the audience until near the end of the ballet.
According to Charles Mackerras, the British conductor who arranged this ballet, "The score is a patchwork quilt of tunes from most of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Every bar of Pineapple Poll, even the short bridge passages, is taken from some opera or other." Pineapple Poll was first performed in March 1951 by the Sadler Wells Theater Ballet.
- Program Note from Program Notes for Band
Windsprints by Richard Saucedo
Windsprints is a flourish of notes and rhythms meant to stir the kind of emotion one might experience during the running of a 50- or 100-yard dash. The piece gets off the "starting blocks" quickly and immediately involves numerous wind and percussion instruments in a technical "race to the finish line!"
Windsprints was written for students (that I absolutely adore) in the top concert band (Wind Symphony I) at Carmel High School (Indiana) during late fall of 2003. The band performed the work at the National Concert Band Festival in Indianapolis in February, 2004.
- Program Note by composer
Arabian Dances by Roland Barrett
After a long day's journey, the nomads set up camp for the evening. As the sun casts its final searing rays on the desert landscape, a campfire roars to life and the celebration begins. As the sky darkens, the festivities grow wilder and wilder until eventually three groups of revelers take turns dancing at the edge of the fire, each trying to outdo the other. Finally, the entire tribe joins, dancing wildly for hours until the campfire dims and morning grows near.
- Program Notes by composer
Candide was Leonard Bernstein’s third Broadway musical, following On the Town and Wonderful Town.Adapted by Lillian Hellman from Voltaire’s 18th-century satire on blind optimism, Bernstein’s Candide is an operetta set in the castle of the Baron Thunder-ten-Tronckh in the mythical European land of Westphalia. Within these walls live the Baron and Baroness; Cunégonde, their beautiful and innocent virgin daughter; Maximilian, their handsome son; Candide, their handsome bastard nephew; and Paquette, the Baroness’ buxom serving maid. They are taught by Dr. Pangloss, who preaches the philosophy that all is for the best in “The Best of All Possible Worlds.”
Candide and Cunégonde kiss, and Candide is banned from Westphalia. As he leaves, Bulgarians invade, kidnap him and slaughter everyone except for Cunégonde, who they prostitute out to a rich Jew and the Grand Inquisitor. Candide escapes and begins an optimistic, satirical journey, taking with him his sweetheart Cunégonde and Pangloss. Candide journeys to Lisbon, Paris, Buenos Aires, and even the legendary El Dorado, only to discover reality in the forms of crime, atrocity, and suffering. He returns to Venice with Cunégonde, stripped of his idealism. His ultimate emotional maturation concludes in the finale with “You’ve been a fool, and so have I, But come and be my wife, And let us try before we die, To make good sense of life. We’re neither pure nor wise nor good; We’ll do the best we know; We’ll build our house, and chop our wood, And make our garden grow.”
Opening on Broadway on December 1, 1956, Candide was perhaps a bit too intellectually weighty for its first audiences and closed after just 73 performances. Bernstein was less concerned over the money lost than the failure of a work he cared about deeply. The critics had rightly noted a marvelous score, and Bernstein and others kept tinkering with the show over the years. With each revival, Candide won bigger audiences. In 1989, the already seriously ill Bernstein spent his last ounces of vital energy recording a new concert version of the work. “There’s more of me in that piece than anything else I’ve done,” he said.
The sparkling overture captures the frenetic activity of the operetta, with its twists and turns, along with Candide’s simple honesty. From the very beginning, though, the overture was a hit and swiftly became one of the most popular of all concert curtain raisers. Brilliantly written and scored, flying at breakneck speed, it pumps up the adrenaline of players and listeners alike. It features two of the show’s big tunes: the sweeping romantic one is Candide’s and Cunégonde’s love duet “Oh Happy We,” while the wacky up-tempo music is from Cunégonde’s fabulous send-up of coloratura soprano arias, “Glitter and Be Gay.”
- Program Note by San Luis Obispo Wind Orchestra concert program, 12 May 2012
Vongole ! by Satoshi Yagisawa
This concerto for baritone saxophone was commissioned by saxophonist Makoto Asari, who is a close friend of the composer. Vongole! consists of three movements Spumante (Sparkling wine), Bianco (White) and Rosso (Red). It is a unique and welcome addition to the baritone saxophone repertoire.
- Program Note from publisher
Third Suite by Robert Jager
Each movement depicts a quirky, slightly distorted, and cheerful melody that is developed throughout the movement. The first movement, March, makes use of the different colors within the band, while distorting the steady sense of time normally associated with a march. The second movement, Waltz, again distorts the sense of time within the dance, interspersing light and bright colors within the band's boisterous interjections. The final movement, Rondo, develops the entire movement based on the first five chords played in the introduction. The Rondo is upbeat, playful, and energetic.
- Program Note from Illinois State University Symphonic Band concert program, 5 October 2017
The Free Lance March by John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa loved the musical theater and spent a great amount of his time and energy composing operettas in the style of England’s famed Gilbert and Sullivan. Noted Sousa scholar Paul Bierley even suggested that had Sousa not become the Director of the United States Marine Band, a career decision that determined the path of the remainder of his life, Sousa would probably have spent his entire career in musical theater. He composed fifteen operettas beginning with Katherine in 1879.
In 1905 he collaborated with librettist Harry Smith to create his twelfth operetta, The Free Lance, a fun-filled story of a clever and enterprising goatherd named Sigmund Lump who hired himself out as the mercenary leader of two warring kingdoms that were trying to double cross each other by substituting commoners for royal offspring in an arranged marriage. Skillfully orchestrating the two opposing armies into a stalemate, he demands payment from both kingdoms. When neither can pay, Lump declares himself ruler of both.
The operetta, filled with numerous lively march tunes, was well received and had a run of seven months. Sousa deftly combined themes from various musical numbers in the operetta to compose his march The Free Lance. In it, Sousa makes a change of time signature from the opening six-eight meter to a two-four meter in the trio, an interesting effect he used in only a handful of his other marches.
The trio of the march corresponds to the song On the Victory in the operetta, and some editions of the march were published under that title.
- Program Note from U.S. Marine Band concert program, 17 August 2016
Memory Cascades by Christopher Bell
Most Commencement speeches involve the phrase,
“You’ll look back on this day for years to come”.
Memory Cascades was written to celebrate the bond between those memories and the moment they stemmed from.
Bursting into the present moment with a flourish, the piece quickly drifts into a daydream, remembering the present
moment from a detached consciousness. The palindromic form of the piece wanders back, returning to the present
moment, already colored and transformed by our memory of it. The piece ends the way it began, bursting into and
out of a moment you’ll remember forever.
This piece was selected as the winner of the 2025 Mason Wind Symphony Commencement Fanfare Competition.
- Program Note by the composer
Arizona by Franco Cesarini
Arizona is written in a typical three-part overture form. The composition is not strictly descriptive as such, but rather conveys moods and emotions, inspired by impressions of the American desert state of Arizona: the endless, cactus-studded desert landscape, a lone Indian on horseback, the legendary Grand Canyon Railroad, the Petrified Forest and the famous Monument Valley.
- Program Note from publisher
Pineapple Poll by Sir Arthur Sullivan
The ballet Pineapple Poll is a spoof of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. The plot is based upon The Bumboat Woman's Story of Gilbert's Bab Ballads, which was later developed by Gilbert into H.M.S. Pinafore.The story evolves around Pineapple Poll and her colleagues who are all madly in love with the captain of the good ship H.M.S. Hot Cross Bun. In order to gain admittance to the ship, they disguise themselves in sailors' clothes, a fact which is kept secret from the audience until near the end of the ballet.
According to Charles Mackerras, the British conductor who arranged this ballet, "The score is a patchwork quilt of tunes from most of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Every bar of Pineapple Poll, even the short bridge passages, is taken from some opera or other." Pineapple Poll was first performed in March 1951 by the Sadler Wells Theater Ballet.
- Program Note from Program Notes for Band
Windsprints by Richard Saucedo
Windsprints is a flourish of notes and rhythms meant to stir the kind of emotion one might experience during the running of a 50- or 100-yard dash. The piece gets off the "starting blocks" quickly and immediately involves numerous wind and percussion instruments in a technical "race to the finish line!"
Windsprints was written for students (that I absolutely adore) in the top concert band (Wind Symphony I) at Carmel High School (Indiana) during late fall of 2003. The band performed the work at the National Concert Band Festival in Indianapolis in February, 2004.
- Program Note by composer
Arabian Dances by Roland Barrett
After a long day's journey, the nomads set up camp for the evening. As the sun casts its final searing rays on the desert landscape, a campfire roars to life and the celebration begins. As the sky darkens, the festivities grow wilder and wilder until eventually three groups of revelers take turns dancing at the edge of the fire, each trying to outdo the other. Finally, the entire tribe joins, dancing wildly for hours until the campfire dims and morning grows near.
- Program Notes by composer