Student Handbook - North Carolina Symphony

STUDENT BOOK COVER
i t's your orchestra's
80th birthday!
seating chart
The North Carolina Symphony has performed thousands of concerts for millions of
young people in our state. We even travel thousands of miles each year on a bus
to get to these students. So many people have sat in the same seats that you’re
percussion
about to use, and we bet you might know a few of them and not realize it. They
timpani
may even be your parents, grandparents, teachers or friends!
trumpets
This season your North Carolina Symphony turns
80 years old, and we want to celebrate with you.
horns
trombones
As you read this book, look for the birthday cakes to uncover more fun facts
about the North Carolina Symphony and how your education concert tells
clarinets
your orchestra’s story.
These concerts are made possible by a generous grant-in-aid from the State of North Carolina,
Honorable Beverly Perdue, Governor; Honorable Linda A. Carlisle, Secretary for Cultural Resources
EDUCATION SUSTAINERS ($100,000+)
tuba
bassoons
flutes
oboes
EDUCATION PATRONS ($10,000+)
first
violins
EDUCATION BENEFACTORS ($50,000+)
second
violins
basses
cellos
violas
William C. Etheridge Foundation, Mariam and Robert Hayes Charitable Trust,
The McLean Foundation, Wake County
EDUCATION PARTNERS ($1,000+)
Alamance County, Big Rock Foundation, Cumberland Community Foundation, Dr. Albert Joseph Diab Foundation, The Dickson Foundation,
Edward D. Jones & Co., Encompass Insurance, Enterprise Holdings Foundation, Gipson Family Foundation, Hanover Insurance Group,
Kinston Community Council for the Arts, The Kyser Foundation, McGladrey LLP, Mr. and Mrs. W.G. Champion Mitchell, Montgomery Insurance,
Orange County Arts Commission, James J. and Mamie Perkinson Trust, George Smedes Poyner Foundation, Prescott Family Foundation,
The Florence Rogers Charitable Trust, The Rolander Family Foundation, Safeco Insurance, Silverback Foundation, The Travelers Companies, Inc.,
WCPE Radio, The Mildred Sheffield Wells Charitable Trust, West Memorial Fund, Youths’ Friends Association
MUSIC EDUCATION ENDOWMENT FUNDS
The Ruby and Raymond A. Bryan Foundation Fund, The Mary Whiting Ewing Charitable Foundation Fund,
The Hulka Ensemble and Chamber Music Programs Fund, The Janirve Foundation Fund,
The Ina Mae and Rex G. Powell Wake County Music Education Fund, The Elaine Tayloe Kirkland Fund
Sponsors are current as of June 2012
conductor
Sections
Percussion
Brass
Woodwind
String
sit here!
u
o
y
nd
...a
CARL
Oriental Festival March
from Aladdin Suite, Op. 34
Born: June 9, 1865, Sortelung, Denmark
Died: October 3, 1931, Copenhagen, Denmark
Carl Nielsen was the seventh of twelve children in a family so poor, he had to work as a child to help everyone
survive. One day, when he was six years old and stuck
...to The
at home, sick with the measles, his mother gave him his
first violin. By the end of the day he had taught himself a few
short melodies, and soon enough, an assistant teacher at his school was encouraging him to learn to read and write music. Nielsen was sold. By the time he was
INTRODUCTION to the North Carolina Symphony!
a teenager, he had learned to play trumpet and earned a position in the Sixteenth
Battalion, a military band. That was just the beginning. Nielsen eventually became
Denmark’s greatest composer, as well as a famous violinist, teacher and writer
and the conductor of the country’s Royal Theatre. • You will hear the orchestra
perform the Oriental Festival March from Nielsen’s music for the play Aladdin. This
is “incidental music,” meaning it would be played in the background of the play
to create a particular atmosphere or feeling, just like the music to your favorite
movie today!
For many years, Nielsen’s picture
was on the Danish Krone,
which is the paper money
used in Denmark.
...
At age eight, Carl had a
job looking after geese.
...
Carl Nielsen
liked to knit.
p
pp
p
p
pp
p
WOLFGANG AMADEUS
Symphony No. 39 in
E-flat Major, K.543, Mvt. I or III
pp
ppp
Born: January 27, 1756, Salzburg, Austria
Died: December 5, 1791, Vienna, Austria
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an ex-
...the softness
pp
pp
or loudness
of sound
p
traordinarily gifted musician from the
very beginning. He was writing his own
music by the time he was five, and in just a
few years, was performing in front of kings,
queens, princesses, famous composers and some of the most im-
f
portant people in Europe. By the time he was eight, he had written
three full Symphonies! Word traveled fast about this new, amazing
prodigy, a name for a child who is better than almost everyone at a
particular task, like writing music or playing the violin. Mozart held
onto this fame for the rest of his life, and he made the most of it,
wearing expensive clothes and spending long nights at parties. Yet
all the while, he wrote some of the most beautiful music the world
f
f
f
ff
ff
has ever known. • Mozart wrote in all of the musical styles popular in his day, from massive operas for many singers to concertos
that call out a single instrument to symphonies for a full orchestra,
like the music you’ll hear in your concert. Unlike almost any other
composer you can name, Mozart was successful in whatever style
Mozart had perfect pitch and could
hear a note and identify it without
having to play it on the keyboard.
...
As an adult, Mozart enjoyed billiards
and dancing. He also had several
pets including a canary, starling,
dog and horse for riding.
...
Like many men in the 1700s, Mozart
wore a powdered wig. A wig was
considered very fashionable,
but it also kept people from having
to wash their hair every day and
reduced the spread of lice.
he attempted. He is still remembered and loved as one of music’s
great geniuses.
ff
Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 is one of the
North Carolina Symphony’s most frequently
performed pieces of music for students.
sto
to
o
...the speed
of the music
“Golliwogg’s Cakewalk” from
Children's Corner, Suite for Orchestra
Born: August 22, 1862, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
Died: March 25, 1918, Paris, France
Too poor to care for him,
ears.” Along the way, he became friends with painters
Claude Debussy’s parents sent
and poets like Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
their young son to live with
They would all be grouped together as Impressionists, a
an aunt, a decision that would
term for an artist who was part of a famous and popular
change not just his boyhood, but
artistic movement, Impressionism, that broke all of the
• At your concert you will hear
his entire life. Debussy’s aunt introduced the young boy
rules that came before.
to music through live concerts and piano lessons, and
“Golliwogg’s Cakewalk” from Debussy’s Children’s Cor-
immediately Debussy was hooked. He was just ten years
ner, Suite for Orchestra. Written for Debussy’s daughter,
old when he entered the Paris Conservatoire, the best
Claude-Emma, when she was three years old, the Suite
music school in France. Debussy wanted to be a com-
was inspired by the toys in the girl’s closet. When you
poser, but he disliked his teach-
hear the Cakewalk, listen for the
ers’ many rules for music writ-
dance-like pulse and how the or-
ing. Instead, as he grew up, he
chestra stretches the speed of the
searched for a sound that, in his
music, just like a dancer in motion.
words, would “please his own
Most of Debussy’s music was
written for solo piano and later
arranged for a full orchestra,
including this Suite.
...
...how fast o
r how slow..
a
CLAUDE
.
Debussy’s daughter’s nickname
was “Chou-Chou,” which is a term
of endearment that means
“favorite” in French.
The first time
Debussy’s
Children’s Corner, Suite for
Orchestra was performed by
the North Carolina Symphony
for students was in 1949, more
than sixty-three years ago. If
you had been at that education
concert you’d be about 71 years
old now.
1
ABACABA
… how the sections
of the music are put together…
its structure...
ABACABA
Waltz from
The Sleeping Beauty
Born: May 7, 1840, Votkinsk, Russia
Died: November 6, 1893, Saint Petersburg, Russia
ing. The pair wrote more than 1,200 letters to each
start out as a great musician.
other but never met, remarkable for a relationship
Though
had
whole
ole note
n
half note
quarter not
q
ote
eighth note
that produced some of the most
played
famous music of the past 200 years. •
the piano since
R
Tchaikovsky
is most often remem-
he was four years old, he first stud-
bered for his ballets, including one
ied law and got a job with the govhowever, and he was soon back in
school, this time at the famous Saint
Petersburg Conservatory. His compositions shot him to stardom, especially
for the way they combined classical
music with Russian folk tunes. A rich
widow, Nadezhda von Meck, took
a liking to Tchaikovsky’s music and
offered to pay him a regular salary
so that he could focus on compos-
tthe
h beat
at or the pulse of the music...
6
he
ernment. His love of music won out,
…a pattern of notes
of varied lengths and accents…
quarter
arter no
note
eighth note
4
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky didn’t
Tchaikovsky loved nature
and one of his favorite
hobbies was searching for
wild mushrooms
when out on long walks.
...
His family was very wealthy.
They lived in a large house
with many servants.
you always hear around the holidays,
The Nutcracker. At your Symphony
concert, you’ll hear a piece from another famous ballet, The Sleeping
Beauty. The music is a waltz, played
when Sleeping Beauty dances at her
birthday party. You may remember it
from Disney’s movie Sleeping Beau-
...
ty, as “Once Upon a Dream.” Listen
He was very orderly and
kept to a rigid schedule.
and imagine how Sleeping Beauty
The North Carolina Symphony last performed
Tchaikovsky’s Waltz from The Sleeping Beauty for
elementary students in 1972. Dr. Benjamin Swalin
was our music director back then, and 1972 was his
last year conducting the North Carolina Symphony after
thirty-three years of service. We call Dr. Swalin the father
of the North Carolina Symphony because our orchestra grew
so much with him as our leader.
closely to the swaying waltz rhythm
might have danced.
R
Rondo
Ro
ond
o
n
R
L
PIOTR ILYICH
L
ACABA
L
R
IGOR
“Dance of theYoung Girls”
from The Rite of Spring
Born: June 17, 1882, Oranienbaum (Lomonosov), Russia
Died: April 6, 1971, New York City, New York
...the overall sound
of the instruments
that are playing...
...it’s how
the music feels
The son of an opera-singing fa-
new and unusual, members of the first audience that
ther and piano-playing mother,
heard it couldn’t decide if they loved it or hated it. They
Igor Stravinsky grew up sur-
argued with each other, and the argument turned
rounded by music. Strangely, his
into a riot. The debate about The Rite of Spring
parents didn’t want him to pursue
made Stravinsky the world’s most famous living com-
•
a career in music. They encouraged him to become a
poser.
When you hear the “Dance of the Young
lawyer, and though Igor loved playing the piano, he
Girls,” one of many dances from Stravinsky’s ballet
at first honored their wishes. Then his father died,
The Rite of Spring, think about how the music makes
and Stravinsky changed his plans,
you feel. Is it rough? Is it smooth?
moved to Paris and became a com-
Are many instruments playing, or
poser. When he was 28 years old,
only a few? In The Rite of Spring,
Stravinsky wrote The Firebird, a
you’ll hear a variety of rhythms and
ballet for the famous Ballet Russes
that was so popular, Stravinsky became a celebrity overnight. More
ballets were demanded, and one
of them, The Rite of Spring, was so
Walt Disney’s Fantasia uses
The Rite of Spring as the music
depicting animated scenes of
erupting volcanoes, prehistoric
forests and dinosaurs.
...
Stravinsky once wrote a
circus polka for fifty elephants
wearing ballet tutus.
...
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy
honored Igor Stravinsky
at the White House on the
composer’s 80th birthday.
dissonant sounds, or notes that do
not sound like they are meant to
go together. Think, have you ever
heard anything like it before?
Stravinsky’s ballet
The Rite of Spring is
twenty years older than the
North Carolina Symphony.
The ballet, which premiered
in 1913, celebrates its 100th
anniversary this year.
RICHARD
Overture to Rienzi
Born: May 22, 1813, Leipzig, Germany
Died: February 13, 1883, Venice, Italy
Like many composers featured in your concert,
Richard Wagner showed an interest in music at
a very young age. He studied piano as a boy and
wrote variations on his favorite composers’ music.
Yet it was opera with which he fell in love, and Wagner,
now considered one of the best opera composers of all time, perfected
many of its most famous musical techniques. For example, he loved the
“leitmotif,” a melody that represents a specific character or idea in an opera and is played whenever that subject appears. His works often build to
a conclusion but rarely conclude until the very end, so that tension grows
throughout the entire work. And he also enjoyed length, as many of his op-
...the last music
you will hear at a concert...
...the most dr
amatic
and exciting...
eras take several hours to perform! Altogether, these techniques showcase
Wagner’s central belief, that all of the arts – music, dance, visual arts and
theater – could be brought together in one “total artwork.”
•
In today’s
concert, you will hear the Overture, or the introduction, to one of Wagner’s
Wagner composed the famous
wedding song “Here Comes the
Bride” for his 1850 opera Lohengrin.
...
Wagner designed some new
instruments such as the “Wagner
Tuba” and an opera house
especially for his own music.
...
Wagner’s Ring cycle is a gargantuan
collection of four operas that
are all performed separate from
one another. You could almost think
of the Ring cycle as being similar
to a movie series, such as
Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings,
but with opera instead!
first successful operas, Rienzi. Notice how Wagner uses different dynamics,
tempos, rhythms, textures and melodies to make this music more interesting. Every part of Wagner’s music means something. Let the melodies guide
you as you try to imagine the opera’s story just from its music.
We’re breaking the rules and ending our program with our
beginning. Wagner’s Overture to Rienzi was performed
at the North Carolina Symphony’s very first concert on
May 14, 1932, held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
We hope you enjoy this exciting conclusion to your concert!
...it’s the main
idea of the music
...the line that you walk away singing...
We have included a song for you to sing with us at your concert. “North Carolina is My Home”can also be played with
instruments, like the recorder. We hope to hear an instrumental group from your school perform this song at your concert before
you sing it with the orchestra. For those who will play, here are the instructions:
1
Learn to play “North Carolina is My Home” on an instrument, such as recorder,
stringed instrument, bells, xylophone, guitar or other.
2
Memorize the music so you can watch your conductor.
3
Play the song through one time at your North Carolina Symphony concert.
” North Carolina Is My Home”
Music by Loonis McGlohon • Words by Charles Kuralt
North Carolina Symphony, 3700 Glenwood Ave., Suite 130, Raleigh, NC 27612 • 919.733.2750 • www.ncsymphony.org/educationprograms
North Carolina Symphony Student Handbook © 2012 by North Carolina Symphony Society, Inc. Reproduction of this book in its entirety is strictly prohibited.