On Sunday, March 1st at 2pm the SCSU Wind Ensemble will perform a concert for students, friends and family entitled “Origins – Early Music for Winds and Percussion.” The program includes works that draw on Renaissance dance styles, early 15th century Gregorian chant and music composed for early church settings by J.S. Bach and Pavel Chesnekov.

The program will open with Alfred Reed’s A Festival Prelude, composed in 1962. Alfred Reed said, “The work was conceived specifically in terms of its title as an opening kind of piece…the music was to establish a bright and brilliant mood throughout, with no other connotation in mind.” Two fanfare‐like motifs and a main theme occur throughout the composition using the brass and woodwinds separately and combined to impart tone color and majesty.

Come Sweet Death (Komm, süßer Tod) is one of a group of 69 so-called “Sacred Songs and Airs” attributed to J.S. Bach, each of which exists only in the form of a single melodic line with figured bass. These pieces were first published in 1736, some 14 years before Bach’s death, as the musical settings for a huge collection of 954 sacred songs edited by Bach himself. For all of its apparent simplicity of musical construction (a small, two-part song form, played through twice), this music is deeply moving and of great expressiveness, culminating in an exalted singing line that perhaps signified for the deeply religious Bach the willing embrace of death as the final deliverance from earthly strife, and an entrance into eternal glory.

Old Churches  by Michael Colgrass uses Gregorian chant to create a slightly mysterious monastery scene filled with the prayers and chanting of monks in an old church. Gregorian chant is ancient church music and that has been in existence for over 1500 years. The chant unfolds through call and response patterns. One monk intones a musical idea, then the rest of the monks respond by singing back. This musical conversation continues throughout the piece, with the exception of a few brief interruptions. Perhaps they are the quiet comments church visitors make to one another.

Salvation is Created is by Pavel Chesnekov, who belongs to a late-Romantic group of Russian “spiritualist” composers that included Bortniansky and Gretchaninoff. Chesnekov wrote a choral conducting text and produced more than 500 choral works; the choral nature of this work is as resplendent as the transcription is classic. The simple musical form comprises two stanzas. Horn and clarinets, then the trombone section, carry the melodic “question,” and the full ensemble supports the “answer” each time.

This arrangement is almost an exact transcription of the original choral work composed in 1912, before Chesnokov (or Tschesnokoff) was forced to turn to secular compositions by the Soviet government. It is a communion hymn based on a chant from Kiev and Psalm 74 (73 in the Greek version): “Salvation is made in the midst of the earth, O God. Alleluia.” It is transposed up 1/2 step from the original to accommodate the wind ensemble. There are other minor rhythmic changes; otherwise, there is no deviation from the original. The work is in two sections, each in “A-B-Coda” form.

Courtly Airs and Dances by Ron Nelson is a suite of Renaissance dances which were characteristic to five European countries during the 1500s. Three of the dances (Basse Dance, Pavane, and Allemande) are meant to emulate the music of Claude Gervaise by drawing on the style of his music as well as the characteristics of other compositions from that period. The festival opens with a fanfare-like Intrada followed by the Basse Danse (France), Pavane (England), Saltarello (Italy), Sarabande (Spain), and Allemande (Germany).

The St. Cloud State Wind Ensemble is a select group of 40 performers, mostly St. Cloud State University music majors led by conductor Catharine Bushman. This event is free and appropriate for audiences of all ages. Please call (320) 308-3223 for more information. Parking is available in the 4th Avenue Parking Ramp at 4th Ave and 6th Street on the SCSU campus. Accessible parking is available close to the auditorium if you enter off 6th Street or behind Stewart Hall entering from 8th street. For more information, contact Dr. Bushman: csbushman@stcloudstate.edu or call Performing Arts Center office: (320) 308-3223.