High School orchestras to present fall concert
Team Radio Marketing Group - October 25, 2017 3:32 pm
The Ponca City High School Chamber Strings and Symphony Strings Orchestras will present their Fall Concert Monday night, Oct. 30.
The program will begin at 7 p.m. in the Howell Auditorium. There is no admission charge and the public is invited.
Director of Orchestras is Dan P. Larson, assisted by Paula Cochran and Katie Rolf.
The 41-piece Chamber Strings Orchestra, consisting of 9th and 10th grade students, will open the concert with Declarations by Jeffrey S. Bishop. This selection is a celebration of the inalienable rights enjoyed by every person in American today: the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. The composition seeks to celebrate the diversity that is America, be it ethnic, religious, or political. The composer dedicates this work to all the great free thinkers that have gone before us and those yet to come.
Next up for this group will be a beautiful work by William Hofeldt titled Lullaby. Their portion of the concert will conclude with A Pirate’s Legend by Soon Hee Newbold. Pirates, buccaneers, and privateers are a rich part of history that has produced myths, legends, and romanticized stories. A good pirate story is not complete without buried treasure, the dreaded Jolly Rogers, and adventure on the high seas.
The 58-member Symphony Strings Orchestra, made of 10th through 12th grade string musicians, will take the stage next. They will open with Allegro Moderato from Symphony No. 3 by Camille Saint-Saens, as arranged for string orchestra by Deborah Baker Monday. This works includes two of the more memorable themes from this symphony. Although the piece is unique because of its inclusion of organ, this rendition is based on the highly energetic string theme and includes the fugue based on his four note theme which cycles throughout the entire symphony.
Up next, will be Pavane, Op. 50 by Gabriel Faure, as arranged by Larry Clark. Faure, one of France’s best-known 19th-century composers, was a romantic with classical leanings. He enjoyed and studied the music of J.S. Bach. Faure’s Pavane is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful melodies every written.
This work will be followed by St. Paul’s Suite by English composer Gustav Holst. This is a standard work performed by string orchestras around the world. This four movement piece had originally been titled Suite in C. It was written in 1912, but due to revisions was not published until 1922. It is named after the St. Paul’s Girl’s School in the United Kingdom where Holst was director from 1905 – 1934. The piece was written in gratitude to the school, which had built him a soundproof studio. The work is the most famous of the many selections he wrote for the students of this school. The four movements are entitled Jig, Ostinato, Intermezzo, and Finale (The Dargason).
The next selection, titled Suite for Strings, comes from another famous English composer, John Rutter. This suite is written in four short movements. The orchestra will perform the slow, and beautiful third movement O waly waly, which comes from a folk song of Scottish origin.
The concert will come to a close with Ghosts of Brandenburg by Richard Meyer. This work is a fantasy based on themes from all of J.S. Bach’s six Brandenburg Concerti. Through the course of the piece, each section of the string orchestra is featured on material from a different concerto. There are seven distinct sections to the piece.
The Symphony Strings did their annual joint concert with the Stillwater High School Orchestra on Sept. 28. Both orchestras are preparing for the OSSAA State String Orchestra Contest on Wednesday, Nov. 15, at Edmond Santa Fe High School.
The next Ponca City performance for the two orchestras will be a Holiday Concert with the High School Concert Band at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 11, in the Howell Auditorium.
