Delaware County Symphony
Sebastian Grand, Music Director
Visual Program Notes
April 12 Chamber Concert
String Ensemble
The String Ensemble is performing all American tunes. Simple Gifts is the shaker melody composed by Joseph Brackett in 1848. Spirit of the American West is by American composer, conductor, musician, film producer, and director, Soon Hee Newbold, who was also inducted into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2024. Old Mac Needs His Animals Back was composed by our own Chamber Series Co-Director, Laura Goughan. Merrily We Roll Along is a song written in 1935, used in Merrie Melodies, by Charlie Tobias, Murray Mencher, and Eddie Cantor, arranged by Bob Cerulli.
Classic title card for the Warner Brothers' famed cartoon series Merrie Melodies.
Joseph Brackett
Cello Quartet
The Cello Quartet is performing a selection of American patriotic music; My Country, Tis' of Thee, written by Samuel Francis Smith in 1831, Yankee Doodle by Richard Shuckburgh from the time of the Revolutionary War, and America the Beautiful, music composed by Samuel A. Ward in 1882, all arranged by John Marshall.
Samuel Francis Smith by CD Mosher, 1890
Samuel A. Ward
The Curmudgeon and The Lark by Arthur M. Bachmann
The Curmudgeon and the Lark is a contemporary piece for flute and alto flute with music by Arthur M. Bachmann and story by Michael Hope.
A Crested Lark
Partita No. 2 in D minor for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach
The Partita in D minor for solo violin, by Johann Sebastian Bach, was written between 1717 and 1720. This year's Youth Concerto Chamber Series Soloist, Isabella Munoz, will be performing this piece.
J. S. Bach, 1748
Fife and Drum
In the U.S. services from the Revolutionary War up until the late 19th Century, it became customary for each company of 100 or so men to be assigned 2 fifers and 2 drummers to sound signals, hours and alarms, as well as play popular music on the march.
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Brandywine, La Belle Catherine, Seven Stars, Norman Toy, and Yankee Doodle are popular tunes from the Revolutionary War Era, and the Pennsylvania Quickstep is from the Civil War Era.
The U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps
The America 250 Wind Band
The American 250 Wind Band is performing music from great American composers and bandmasters. Echo Sonata for Two Unfriendly Groups of Instruments by P.D.Q Bach is a satirical work written by Peter Schickele. The marches: Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and The Washington Post were composed by John Philip Sousa in the 1880’s, and National Emblem was composed by Edwin Eugene Bagley in 1902. Musical Haiku #14: Never Forgotten was composed by Stephen Melillo in 1985 as one of a series of warm-ups for his school band students. Sunflower Slow Drag was written for piano by Scott Joplin and Scott Hayden in 1901 and arranged by our own Principal Percussionist, Katie Hajec.
Peter Schickele in 1983
John Philip Sousa in 1900
Scott Joplin in 1907 by GuardianH -
Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=124491373
John Philip Sousa, circa 1910
Sunflower Slow Drag
sheet music cover from1901
