Stephen Pratt: Hello, I'm Steven Pratt, conductor of the Southern Indiana Wind Ensemble, which is a wonderful organization made up of adults of various ages and stations in life, but all of whom have two characteristics. One is they play well, and the other is they're very serious about their playing and sharing their music with others. And so, the love of performance, the love of rehearsal, the love of bringing music together is what brings the ensemble together. So it's a joy to work with them. And on May 1st, we're giving a concert at the Carmichael Auditorium at Bloomington High School South. And we're doing a program entitled “Marching, Dancing, Fantasy and Song.” So it's a variety of music, but it's a little bit what music is all about. Marching has been involved with music for a long time, as has been dancing, and what is more descriptive than music when talking about something that is fanciful? And, of course, song, and singing, and the idea of playing tunes brings it all together.
Aaron Cain: Now, of course, with a march, you're going to have some Souza, and you will, but you also have a march by Samuel Barber, I believe?
Stephen Pratt: Yes. And Samuel Barber was one of the most prominent American composers. And when he was in the service during World War Two, he was stationed in such a place that it was his responsibility to work with music. But he had the idea that he wanted to compose a piece that could be played as a march, but also with a great deal of sophistication. So he wrote a piece called Commando March. And it is delightful. Any number of pieces of Samuel Barber have been transcribed for the wind band, but this is the piece that he wrote specifically for band. And it explores all the parameters of a march, and Samuel Barber, his wonderful gift of melody. And his orchestration is fantastic, and it's just great fun to play.
Aaron Cain: And that's what you're opening the program with.
Stephen Pratt: Yeah. That gets us started.
Aaron Cain: Now, the second piece, I think, probably comes from both the fantasy category and the walking category, because if I'm not mistaken, there's a lot of walking done by the subject of that piece.
Stephen Pratt: Yes. However, the second piece is entitled Gandalf and it's from a symphony entitled The Lord of the Rings. Now, of course, everyone this day and age immediately remembers the movies that have come out, and they were wonderful, and they had their own soundtrack. But this particular piece was composed by Johann DeMeij before the movies were even thought of. So it's his way of describing things. And so, the first movement is entitled Gandalf. The wizard, of course. But it also features his horse Shadowfax. And so you'll hear, at the beginning, lots of grandeur. But then, all of a sudden, you hear Gandalf jumping up on his horse and riding. And so there's a lot of fast music that illustrates that. And I think it is very indicative of a composer who actually read the novels. And was inspired. The Kalinnikov Symphony in g minor is done, somewhat, with orchestras. Rarely in the United States, quite often more in Europe and in Russia. But, years ago, I think in the 50s, Glenn Cliffe Bainum, who was the director of bands at Northwestern at the time. was a wonderful arranger, and he arranged the finale for a large concert band. And it works great, it works beautifully. And I'm proud to say that one of our Jacobs School doctoral student alumni, Dr. Chris Heidenreich, took the Bainum setting and did his own edition of it. So we'll be doing that particular piece with the Jacobs School connection involved with that.
Aaron Cain: Am I correct that you also have a premiere as part of this program?
Stephen Pratt: Yes. As a member of the American Bandmaster’s Association, I was involved with a project to set up funds to encourage young composers—particularly African American composers, women composers—to write for a band in particular areas. And so, with this one, Kevin Day, who is an up-and-coming composer who composes really well, and for lots of things now. This particular piece, called Stride!—and I don't know if my voice can make that happen, but it has an exclamation point at the end: Stride!—it's sort of a combination of his thoughts about not only people in groups striding—which could be perceived as marching, so we're back to our title again—but also striding forward into the future with a lot of optimism. He does a marvelous job of taking 21st-century rhythms and 20th-century tonality, putting it together into part of what we call a consortium premiere. And the only people who can play this piece for a year are those people who were involved with supporting the work. So it has been done at least once with one of the United States service bands in Washington, DC a month ago. And this will be certainly the Monroe County, Bloomington premiere, I think the Indiana premiere, one of the first in the Midwest, for sure.
Aaron Cain: And rounding out your theme, you have two honest-to-goodness dances, one by Arturo Marquez and one by Mr. Strauss. Richard, not Johann.
Stephen Pratt: Yes, and two, shall we say divergent styles of dancing? The suite of dances from Der Rosenkavalier are taken from the suite that Richard Strauss originally did not want to do, he didn't want to pull excerpts, he wanted the whole opera performed, but it became too popular, and he could not resist. And so, he did a setting of these dances from one of the acts of Der Rosenkavalier. And, of course, they are wonderful. The music is intricate. It combines several waltzes together and separately and then together again. And the setting is beautiful, done recently by a Dutch arranger. We're doing this for the first time in this area, and that's a lot of fun. The Danzon No. 2 by Marquez, of course, is extremely popular. It also hit the YouTube circuit with the famous recording by Gustavo Dudamel, and now everybody's doing it, and has been doing it. I did it several times at IU and I did it several times with All-State bands across the country. It's a wonderful piece with a very powerful ending. And so that that is—while a very difficult work—is a lot of fun. People will enjoy that greatly.
Aaron Cain: Well, Steven Pratt, thank you so much for letting us know about this concert. And thank you for speaking with me today.
Stephen Pratt: Absolutely. Great to be here. And we're looking forward to sharing our music with the community.
Aaron Cain: Stephen Pratt, conductor of the Southern Indiana Wind Ensemble. They are presenting their Spring Concert: “Dancing, Marching, Fantasy and Song,” Wednesday, May 1st at 7:00 PM in the Bloomington High School South Carmichael Auditorium. More information at siwemusic.com. For WFIU Arts, I'm Aaron Cain.
