7.00pm Saturday 2nd December 2023
Blackburn High School Auditorium, 60 Springfield Road, Blackburn. We recommend you bring a cushion to sit on!
A program that is entertaining to help you celebrate the end of the year!
To download the printed program as a pdf click here
PROGRAM (in performance order)
The Grainger Wind Symphony
Maestro! by Roger Cichey (USA) – a tribute to Ray Cramer conductor and leader
Maestro literally means an eminent teacher or conductor of music, a master of any art. Composer Roger Cichy was asked to consider writing a piece for Ray Cramer’s “retirement”. In his research he found that when many colleagues talked of Cramer’s achievements and accomplishments they consistently discussed his integrity, passion, warmth, energy and love.
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Kang Ding Love Song by Simon YAU Yuen Hing (Hong Kong) – a Chinese Szechuan Folk Song
“Kangding Qingge” (Chinese: 康定情歌; pinyin: Kāngdìng Qínggē; Wade–Giles: K’ang1-ting4 Ch’ing2-ko1), or “Kangding Love Song”, is a traditional folk song of Kangding, Sichuan Province. The song is one of the most popular songs across the Sinosphere.
History: in 1946, while studying vocal music in Sikang Province, the Quanzhou native Wu Wen- ji had collected the song Paoma Liuliude Shanshang (On the Running Horse Mountain) amongst other local folk songs. While teaching at a Kuomintang military academy, Wu scored and renamed the song as Kangding Love Song, after the capital of the Sikang Province. The song was then spread to the rest of China after being performed by then popular Soprano Yu Yixuan.
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Jumeirah Jane by Katy Abbot (Melbourne)
The term ‘Jumeirah Jane’ is a colloquial Dubai description of an expatriate woman who has accompanied her husband to Dubai and lives the high life in the lovely beach suburb of Jumeirah (pronounced Joo-mear-ah as in ‘hear’). In the initial stereotype, a Jumeirah Jane spends her days at the gym, the café and ferrying her children to soccer and ballet lessons in between mani/pedicures and organising her staff. Further research on chat-sites, blogs and information boards (which can be quite heated and opinionated – just google ‘Jumeirah Jane’) suggests that a Jumeirah Jane lives in Dubai with no understanding of her cultural environment nor inclination to learn. At the most extreme (negative) end of the continuum, a Jumeirah Jane thinks herself above those around her.
This piece is a response to my initial observations of such women and a cheeky play at the imagined attitudes they have towards others in Dubai, strutting their stuff around the footpath with a superiority complex over people from other cultures who come here to work to support their families at home. It is perhaps also written in response to my niggling fear that I may be thought of as Jumeirah Jane myself – because really, pedicures are lovely, I love my coffee and I ferry my children to and from school! Perhaps I will have to learn how to spend more on designer clothes and stop work to strut my stuff at the beach and shopping malls!
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D’un Soir Triste (A sad evening) by Lili Boulanger (France)
Boulanger (d.1918) was a French composer and the first female winner of the Prix de Rome composition prize. Her older sister was the noted composer and composition teacher Nadia Boulanger. D’un soir triste – this symphonic poem was the last work Boulanger was able to compose by her own hand, without help in writing before her death at age 24.
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The Night Before Christmas by Randol Alan Bass (USA), poem by Clement Clarke Moore (USA). narrated by Kristian Gregory – this poem is largely responsible for some of the conceptions of Santa Claus from the mid-nineteenth century to today.
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Chamber and solo items
Three Sketches a brass quartet by Emerson Hurley (Melbourne) – a march, a blues-inspired lullaby, and a fast, highly chromatic fanfare. Emerson Hurley is a composer and pianist with a background in jazz. His chamber music mixes the harmonic language of that style with classical textures. He also writes musical theatre.
Hungarian Fantasy Op.35 a flute duet by Franz Doppler (Lemberg, now Ukraine)
A clarinet quintet in two movements by David Goddard (Melbourne) Apples Ain’t What They Used To Be – Give a Little Smile. David recently graduated from Blackburn High School and is pursing composition whilst studying science at university.
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The Grainger Wind Symphony
Phantom of the Opera Medley by Andrew Lloyd Webber (UK) arr. Warren Barker (USA) – a medley of this long-running musical
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Spirited Away by Joe Hisaishi & Yumi Kumura (Japan) – The music for Studio Ghibli‘s 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film Spirited Away directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Joe Hisaishi
Youmi Kimura
A review from Sputnikmusic rated 4.5 (out of 5) to the album opining that it “nearly as perfect as the film it accompanies”.[9] Clara V. Nguyen, staff writer at The Harvard Crimson, reviewing the soundtrack said that: “Joe Hisaishi’s soundtrack has stood the test of time, and features memorable leitmotifs that pair with the film’s themes of courage and friendship. Immediately recognizable to audiences all over the world, Hisaishi’s musical signatures bring a sense of cohesion and familiarity to director Hayao Miyazaki’s otherworldly vision by creating their own kind of magic.”[10] James Southall of Movie Wave wrote “Hisaishi’s music has an eternal, child-like quality without actually being childish. It’s like a wistful, sentimental, romantic portrait of childhood innocence
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Fantasia On British Sea Songs – Henry Wood (UK) arr. Linden Greatwood (Australia)
This is a fun medley requiring audience participation to clap, whistle, sob, sing and cheer. It is a medley of British sea songs arranged by Sir Henry Wood in 1905 to mark the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar. For many years it has been an indispensable item at the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms concert. It comprises nine parts which follow the course of the Battle of Trafalgar from the point of view of a British sailor, starting with the call to arms, progressing through the death of a comrade, thoughts of home, and ending with a victorious return and the assertion that Britain will continue to ‘rule the waves’.
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Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah by George Frederick Handel (German-British), arr. Michel Rondeau (Canada) – a rousing sing-a-long often performed at Christmas
Though in popular culture the “Hallelujah” chorus has come to signify any kind of jubilant celebration. In Handel’s Messiah it is specifically a celebration of Christ’s ultimate sovereignty over earthly kings and lords. The “Hallelujah” chorus proclaims Christ’s Resurrection and makes a splendorous finale to Part Two of Messiah. It was early in the 19th century that more and more choirs began to co-opt the famous chorus for Christmastime.
Lyrics Hallelujah Chorus – music by George Frederick Handel (1741)
Please sing with the wind symphony
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
The kingdom of this world
Is become the kingdom of our Lord,
And of His Christ, and of His Christ;
And He shall reign for ever and ever,
For ever and ever, forever and ever,
King of kings, and Lord of lords,
King of kings, and Lord of lords,
And Lord of lords,
And He shall reign,
And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings, forever and ever,
And Lord of lords,
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings! and Lord of lords!
And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings! and Lord of lords!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!