The OU Symphony Band and Concert Band, directed by Brian Britt and Jeff Jahnke, present a joint concert on Monday night, April 27, in the Paul F. Sharp Concert Hall in Catlett Music Center on the University of Oklahoma campus. Admission is free. It's the final concert of the 2008-2009 academic year—some recitals with symphonic winds are ahead, as usual, but this is the last full-band concert of the season. A live stream is available if you really can't make it (those of you who live in Alaska, for example, are excused).

In case you've been away from the band program for a while: the Symphony Band is an undergraduate ensemble of up to 70 players, whose members and parts are chosen by audition. It's been part of the band program for about 10-12 years now. The Concert Band has been around much longer, and is open to absolutely anyone who wants to play—no one is turned away, and auditions are solely for chair placement. The Symphony Band is mostly composed (no pun intended) of music majors, while the Concert Band, like The Pride of Oklahoma, has a majority of players with non-music majors.

I did not get to see these bands in concert earlier in the year, which I regret. I've heard that Concert Band participation is lower this year, but I haven't seen it. If it is, I understand—when times get tough, students are under more and more pressure to drop "optional" activities. Yet if the Concert Band becomes optional, that makes it far too easy for The Pride to appear optional when the fall semester arrives. Every one of you knows exactly how much work and effort is required of a member in The Pride of Oklahoma, and how disappointing it is when the students with the talent and leadership to be a major part of The Pride wind up not participating due to other pressures.

That's why we like band scholarships to be for both semesters and to include participation in a spring ensemble like the Concert Band. So, again, if you have some extra cash, please consider a tax-deductible donation to one of our scholarship funds so that more students can participate in both fall and spring ensembles each year.

The Concert Band opens with David Shaffer's Regatta for Winds (1995). Shaffer is the director of the Miami (Ohio) University Marching Band. His publisher describes Regatta for Winds as "A sparkling piece that begins with a brisk tempo, contemporary rhythyms, and bold chord changes. A beautiful andante section features a short trumpet solo and lush background writing, which provides a wonderful contrast to the fast 'regatta' sections." The same page provides links to a full PDF score of the piece (it's not printable, though) and an MP3 sample of the piece from page 1 through page 17 of the score.

The Concert Band will also perform Larry Daehn's 1998 work Country Wildflowers, a richly scored piece based on an 18th-century Scottish folksong; Mark Williams' two-movement 1995 piece Highbridge Excursion that exhibits both British and Renaissance qualities (you can hear it here if you have Flash Player installed), and the classic British Eighth March, composed by Zo Elliott in 1944 and dedicated to General (later Field Marshal) Bernard Law Montgomery and the eponymous British Eighth Army for their victories in North Africa in 1942. You may have played British Eighth; either way, much more information about it is available by asking Mr. Google.

The Symphony Band opens with Brant Karrick's arrangement of Percy Fletcher's 1924 composition Vanity Fair: A Comedy Overture In Which Several Characters From Thackeray's Novel are Portrayed. The novel Vanity Fair appeared in 1847, has a shorter title, and to my knowledge is not being performed anywhere at OU on Monday night. (People may be reading Vanity Fair magazine in the Union; I have no schedule for that.) Mr. Google tells me that Fletcher was a respected British brass band composer about a century ago who influenced Holst, Vaughan Williams, and Gordon Jacob. Karrick turned it into a grade 5 adaptation for the modern symphonic ensemble (you know, with woodwinds and all).

The Symphony Band next performs David Gorham's 2005 work Pacific Heights: A Symphonic Panorama (  ), named after the famous San Francisco neighborhood and based on an octatonic scale like many favorite works by Ron Nelson (Rocky Point Holiday, Sonoran Desert Holiday). Echoing the Wind Symphony last week, they'll perform an H. Robert Reynolds transcription of a 1990s Morton Lauridson piece originally composed for chorus—this time, Contre Qui, Rose, from the song cycle Les chansons des roses.

They'll close with Frank Ticheli's 1997 piece Blue Shades. I love this piece—it's a lot of fun. The complete program notes (duplicating what's in the score) show the thematic material, describing the work as "heavily influenced by the blues" but adding, "It is in not literally a Blues piece. There is not a single 12-bar blues progression to be found, and except for a few isolated sections, the eighth-note is not swung." (The Bass Clarinet solo in this piece is only frosting on the delicious blue cake.)

So it's a full evening of music from two student ensembles, and it's free! If you can be at Catlett Music Center at 8PM on Monday, we know they'd love to have you!