Tuesday, April 14, 2026, 7:30pm
Meyerson Symphony Center + Livestream

Fanfare

7:15pm, Meyerson lobby

Exuberances!
John Dupuis
Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra Wind Symphony Brass & Percussion
Jeremy Kondrat, conductor

Program

Selections from “The Danserye”
Tielman Susato, arr. Patrick Dunnigan

1. La Morisque
2. Bergerette
3. Les quatre Branles
4. Fagot
5. Den hoboecken dans
6. Ronde & Salterelle
7. Ronde & Aliud
8. Basse danse: Mon desir
9. Pavane: La Battaille

The Distant Band  *World Premiere*
Steven Juliani
Seraph Brass, guest artists
Mary Elizabeth Bowden, trumpet; Morgen Low, trumpet;
Layan Atieh, horn; Lauren Clyde-Casey, trombone;
Cristina Cutts Dougherty, tuba

— INTERMISSION —

Pictures at an Exhibition
Modest Mussorgsky, orch. Maurice Ravel, tr. Paul Lavender

Promenade
1. The Gnome
Promenade
2. The Old Castle
Promenade
3. Tuileries (Children Quarreling After Play)
4. Bydlo (Cattle)
Promenade
5. Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks
6. Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle
7. The Marketplace (Important News)
8. Catacombs (A Roman Sepulchre)
With the Dead in a Dead Language
9. The Hut on Hen’s Legs (Baba Yaga)
10. The Great Gate of Kiev

Dallas Winds Personnel

Program Notes

Selections from “The Danserye” (1551)

Tielman Susato (Publisher) (1510/1515 – c. 1570); arranged by Patrick Dunnigan

It wouldn’t be until the earliest years of the Baroque Era (1597) that composers would begin to specify which instruments they intended for use in a performance of their work. Prior to this, performers simply chose whichever instrument best suited the music. Tielman Susato, who was born nearly a century earlier, was one of the most important music publishers of the sixteenth century. He was the first music publisher in all of the Low Countries (The Netherlands and Belgium). Being a publisher was often regarded as being of a higher status than being a mere composer. While it’s clear that Susato was a composer of some note, it’s unknown if Susato wrote all the works that appear in his publications.

His publication, “The Danserye” (originally, titled simply the “Third Book of Music”), from 1551 was clearly indicated for instrumental use. Many of the instruments used would be the predecessors of today’s band instruments. Music for wind instruments was highly important in the Renaissance era, and many strange and wonderful wind instruments were in use. One of Susato’s favorite instruments was the crumhorn. In fact, the name of his publishing house was “At the Sign of the Crumhorn.” In many ways, this music is some of the earliest band music that exists, as it was often performed in groups of all wind instruments.

Patrick Dunnigan has reimagined nine of the original fifty-seven pieces from “The Danserye” for modern wind band. The most famous of these pieces is the finale: The Battle Pavane.

The Distant Band (2026) *World Premiere*

Steven Juliani (b. 1960)

(Notes by the composer) This is the first piece I’ve written where I had the title before I wrote a note. “The Distant Band” came to me when I first started thinking about the sound of a piece for solo brass quintet and wind ensemble. Something about that sound world reminded me of playing horn in the Golden Gate Park band when I was in high school. I imagined walking into the park, which is very large, hearing the sound of the band from far away and being drawn to it. I decided the piece would be about the journey to that distant band.

But as I worked, I realized that this preordained story was inhibiting my creativity. So, I decided to let it go and just follow my musical instincts without concern for whether or not those choices conformed to a narrative.

After finishing the piece, I tried to understand what I had created. I realized that it was still about being drawn to distant music except that now the journey was punctuated by my formative musical experiences. Memories from music I heard or concerts I played: The Beatles, the first time I heard the end of Mahler 1, playing the Pines of Rome and the Rite of Spring and many others. Recently it has been studying the masterpiece of the wind ensemble repertoire: Lincolnshire Posy by Percy Grainger. Those experiences triggered a large palette of emotions for me.
I see now that “The Distant Band” is a kaleidoscope of reminiscences – a more abstract journey. These are not quotes, instead they are sounds that emanate from my early, natural, connection to music, something at the core of my being.

The piece is in two parts and is based on three themes. The first part ends just after a solo played by the horn in the solo quintet which is followed by three quiet timpani notes. A short break in the music there seemed appropriate. The first of the themes is heard in the opening, played by harp, piano and timpani. It later comes back in a more compressed form played by the entire ensemble. The second theme is a chorale also heard in the opening, played first by the solo quintet. This theme is repeated a number of times. In the first part of the piece it is played by the whole ensemble in a way that is less recognizable. The last theme does not appear until the second half of the piece and that one is the foundation for the finale.

One of the challenges of writing this piece was that the timbre of the solo instruments is the same as the large brass section of the wind ensemble. Five solo brass could easily be overwhelmed by that larger force. For this reason, the brass section hardly plays for the first half of the piece. When they finally arrive, you will notice a real change in sound.

Maybe this music will remind you of a journey you have taken to be closer to something very dear to you, like me and my musical memories. I hope so, and I hope you enjoy the piece.

I am so honored that Seraph Brass, Maestro Junkin and the Dallas Winds asked me to write this piece. Thank you to them and to the members of the commissioning consortium who will be performing the work over the next year (in alphabetical order): Saratoga High School, Michael Boitz, Performing Arts, Department Chair; University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Thomas Leslie, Director of Wind Band Studies; University of Wyoming, Dr. Matthew Schlomer, Director of Bands; Western Illinois University, Dr. Mike Fansler, Director of Bands; and to my lifelong friend: Michael Gast, Principal Horn, Minnesota Orchestra (retired).

Pictures at an Exhibition (1874)

Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)
Orchestrated by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937); transcribed by Paul Lavender

Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is one of the most well-known works in classical music. However, it is most commonly heard in an orchestration by the brilliant French composer Maurice Ravel. Originally, the work was a ten-movement piano suite written in June of 1874. It depicts a patron walking through a gallery of the works of the recently deceased artist and architect Viktor Hartmann, a friend of Mussorgsky. Mussorgsky intended the piece as an everlasting homage to his colleague. Today, only six of the original works of art have survived, while Mussorgsky’s tribute has lived on.

The work was originally published five years after the composer’s death by his good friend Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who took it upon himself to edit the work and make “corrections.” Mussorgsky was notoriously a drunkard and left many of his works in a state of disarray. However, Pictures at an Exhibition was not one of them. The original manuscript is beautifully hand-written and shows no signs of Mussorgsky’s supposed “failings.” It is Rimsky-Korsakov’s edition that Ravel used for his orchestration.

Interestingly, Mussorgsky uses a variety of languages for his titles. Latin, Italian, French, Polish, Yiddish, and Russian are all used to give the work a pan-European and pan-cultural feel. The key structure of the piece is also of importance. If we look at how each movement’s tonal centers relate to one another, we can see a well-thought-out internal structure for the entire work. This structure is one reason the final movement’s climax is so satisfying.

Promenade – We open the work with the first of several promenades. These movements represent the patron of the gallery walking between the paintings. This opening statement is heroic and bold and characterized in Ravel’s orchestration by the solo Trumpet.

1. Gnomus [Gnomes] – Latin – We can only guess what Hartmann’s gnome was, as the original painting has not survived. If the music is a guide, we can picture a maligned little creature full of spite and tricks. This is an angular movement with jarring transitions and creaking rumblings.

Promenade – In contrast to the opening promenade, this version is much more subdued and relaxed.

2. Il veccio castello [The Old Castle] – Italian – Set in the style of a Sicilienne (a slow dance in 6/8 time with dotted rhythms), The Old Castle has one of the most hauntingly beautiful melodies in the entire work. Ravel’s orchestration gives a chance for the Alto Saxophone to shine.

Promenade – This promenade is heavy and ponderous, with a special emphasis on the bass.

3. Tuileries (Dispute d’enfantes après jeux) [Quarrels of Children after Play] – French – In stark contrast to the ponderous promenade that precedes this movement, Tuileries is light and effervescent. Ravel’s orchestration leaves out most of the lower instruments in the ensemble. The painting, now sadly lost, depicts children at play in the French gardens of the Tuileries just outside of the Louvre in Paris.

4. Bydło [Cattle] – Polish – This is perhaps the most unusual movement in the work, and it poses more questions than it answers. What was the original painting that is now lost? Why did Mussorgsky choose Polish for the title? Why did Rimsky-Korsakov leave out the opening dynamic (fortissimo) in his published score?
Ravel’s orchestration is most famous for the tuba solo in this movement. Because it was written for the now largely forgotten French Tuba in C (a small instrument pitched a whole step higher than the modern Euphonium), it is most commonly played today on the Euphonium – even in the orchestra.
Promenade – This promenade, now shifted to a minor key, takes a darker turn from the previous iterations. It leads directly into the next movement.

5. Balet nevylupivshikhsya ptentsov [Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks] – Russian – This is the lightest and fastest of all the movements in the work. It depicts a sketch of Hartmann’s costumes for a ballet about a Scottish house spirit who falls in love with a housewife.

6. “Samuel” Goldenberg und “Schmuÿle” – Yiddish – This work, often given the subtitle “Two Jews: One Rich, One Poor,” is most likely based on a pair of small portraits by Hartmann. Mussorgsky himself owned these paintings. This movement is characterized by two themes. The first is imperious and heavy, while the second is almost mocking in nature. We hear the dialogue of the two as almost quarrelsome.

(At this point a recapitulation of the opening Promenade was omitted by Ravel.)

7. Limoges. Le marché (La grande nouvelle) – [The Market (The Great News)] – French – This movement depicts the market in the city of Limoges, France. Mussorgsky crossed out the subtitle of “The Great News” as well as two paragraphs in French detailing a quarrel between two women. The vigorous action of this movement leads directly into the solemn nature of the next.

8a. Catacombæ [Catacombs], and 8b. Cum mortuis in lingua mortua [With the Dead in a Dead Language] – Latin – These two movements are treated as a pair and are the darkest and most somber moments in the entire work. We can interpret this as Mussorgsky mourning for his lost friend, Hartmann. Catacombæ is built on giant block chords alternating between loud and soft, while Cum mortuis in lingua mortua is a dark form of the promenades we’ve heard throughout this work. In this movement, we hear the promenade melody for its final time, as if it is fading off into the afterlife itself.

9. Izbushka na kuryikh nozhkakh (Baba-Yaga) – [The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Baba Yaga)] – Russian – Perhaps one of the most well-known sections of the entire work, The Hut on Fowl’s Legs reminds us of old fairy tales of boogeymen and witches luring children to their house in the woods. Hartmann’s actual painting is far more innocent, as it is simply an ornate clock that one might find on the mantle over a fireplace (albeit one with the legs of a chicken).

10. Bogatyrskiye vorota (V stolnom gorode vo Kiyeve) – [The Bogatyr Gates (In the Capital in Kyiv)] – Russian – Often called the Great Gate of Kyiv, the final movement of the work is one of the most triumphant endings in all music. It borrows heavily from Russian Orthodox chant. Mussorgsky’s original word “Bogatyr” is often translated as heroes. Bogatyrs were the heroes in many Russian and Ukrainian folk tales. Hartmann’s picture depicts a proposed grand gate into the city to honor those who have fallen in battle. This movement, designed to welcome heroes into their home city of Kyiv, becomes all the more poignant in its original title when we consider current global affairs.