Vocalise - Sergei Rachmaninoff, arr. Quinto Maganini

As one of the leading late Romantic composers in music history, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s wide variety of works are some of the most performed selections to date. With influences of Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, his personal style was most noted for its song-like melodicism, expressiveness, and his use of rich orchestral colors. As a virtuosic pianist himself, his works featured the piano and explored the expressive elements of the instrument.

Composed and published in 1915, Vocalise is the last of his “Fourteen Songs,” Op. 34. It was originally written for high voice (soprano or tenor) with piano accompaniment and dedicated to soprano Antonina Nezhdanova. There are no words for the vocalist, so it is sung on a single vowel to the vocalist’s choosing. Since its publication, there have been many arrangements of this piece done, including arrangements by Rachmaninoff himself.


Vocalise - Rachmaninoff, arr. Maganini

Paean - Chant and Triumph
http://www.stevenbryant.com/paean-chant-triumph.php

Paean - Triumph (Texas State, TMEA 2015)

"Lightning Field" by John Mackey

Performed by the TCU Wind Symphony, conducted by Bobby Francis

To view the score and read more about the piece, please visit: http://ostimusic.com/LightningField.php

John Mackey:  Lightning Field

Deep Field

Songs from the End of the World
music by John Mackey
text by A. E. Jaques

performed by Lindsay Kesselman, soprano, with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Wind Ensemble, conducted by Kevin Geraldi

view the full score here: http://ostimusic.com/Songs.php

III. At sea

Again, alone.
Again, forever.
Solitude and I, once more, together.

And now—forget?
Or yet remember?
If I hold fast will I still surrender?

Shall I cling to memory, and polish thoughts like bright stones?
But every touch erodes them; to love their light is to lose it.
Remembering. Dismembering.

Forget, then.
Forget him.

Forget him.
Forget, yes.

And cast away the empty oyster shell. 
Tide take him.
But watch—who knows what waters wash home?

Forget him?
Forget, how?

This cruel moon brings ghosts in waves now, to haunt me.
Too-cruel moon brings ghosts to haunt me, to taunt me now.
This tide that gives and takes and tolls the time,
the time, the long and longing time alone.

I can't forget;
I can't remember.
The loss remains, so hard, so tender.

And all my rhymes are ravings,
my words the wailing of a lost one,
storm-tossed one.

The sea won't hear.
The sky won't care.
No different to them,
my silence or song.

No words, so.
Unheard, so.

Why go on then?
Why cry this silence?

Alone.
Alone.

All cast away now.
Just ghosts to stay now.
Alone, all lost at sea. 

Songs from the End of the World: 3. At Sea

Songs from the End of the World
music by John Mackey
text by A. E. Jaques

performed by Lindsay Kesselman, soprano, with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Wind Ensemble, conducted by Kevin Geraldi

view the full score here: http://ostimusic.com/Songs.php

II. Raveling

When I found you, or you found me,
both of us lost in the endless sea,
then I healed you, and you healed me,
two tattered souls stitched up lovingly.

Seven summers of sun,
seven winters of wanting,
seven springtimes as new as the dawn,
seven autumns of falling
deeper into your breath—
seven years you are warp to my weft.

Only now is this paradise paradise.
Only now is this living a life.
Only now is there greenness and sweetness and air—
lost and found ones, we two, what a pair.

As I lose you, and so lose me,
finding I never had what I thought was free—
how can you take what once you gave?
I asked only love for the life I saved.

Seven years you were warp to my weft.
Seven years, yet you leave me bereft.
Seven years and I have nothing left.

You and I, we were bound up together.
You and I wove a heaven from scars.
You and I turned the darkness and lostness and pain
into something worth living again.

Only you made this paradise paradise;
Only you made this living a life;
Only you gave me greenness and sweetness and air—
All unraveling now, past repair.
 

Songs from the End of the World: 2. Raveling

Songs from the End of the World
music by John Mackey
text by A. E. Jaques
performed by Lindsay Kesselman, soprano, with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Wind Ensemble, conducted by Kevin Geraldi

view the full score here: http://ostimusic.com/Songs.php

I. A long time alone

Dawn draws her rose-red fingers soft across the sleeping sky.
Another day unasked-for, light pinking flesh untouched.

Long ago I loved to watch the water wake 
when first rays raced the waves.
Morning warm-born in a moment.

But the sweetest second sours in solitude.
Forever is a long time alone.

Summer murmurs memory of seasons sweet with cypress.
Seabirds basking idle as the fishes dare to doze.

I used to sing with the insects 
answering slee slee whirrups with trilling airs.
But that was years ago,
before the buzzing buried cicada sounds inside
to rattle in the cluttered attic of never-spoken thoughts.

Even lovely liquid languor spoils.
Forever is a long time alone.

Wade into the wine-dark sea and leave the lonely island; 
let salt swamp tears.
Waters hold you for a while.

Skin gleams warm. Long-fallow flesh awakens 
but the ocean's kiss consumes.
Soon there is no woman—only wave.

So the body brought back rushes out again,
tide and time-taken as all things are.
The sea is not a solace but a cell.

Forever is a long time alone.
 

Songs from the End of the World: 1 . A Long Time Alone

Fanfare for Full Fathom Five
by John Mackey
performed by the Columbus State University Wind Ensemble, conducted by Jamie L. Nix
scored for 6 trumpets, 6 horns, 3 tenor trombones, 2 bass trombones, contrabass trombone, 2 tubas, and 4 percussionists

Full score and program note here: http://ostimusic.com/FullFathom.php

John Mackey: Fanfare For Full Fathom Five

"Liminal" by John Mackey
performed by the Abilene Christian University Wind Ensemble, conducted by Steven Ward

John Mackey's homage to progressive metal - specifically the simultaneous mixed-meters of bands like Tool.
Liminality is the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of rituals, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the ritual is complete. During a ritual's liminal stage, participants "stand at the threshold" between their previous way of structuring their identity, time, or community, and a new way, which the ritual establishes.

View the full score here: http://ostimusic.com/Liminal.php

John Mackey: LIMINAL

Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, conducted by Music Director Allen Tinkham - Live at Orchestra Hall, May 13, 2012

If the system isn't working anymore, then do what Guy Fawkes tried and go anarchist: Blow it all up, and start again. 

Blow It Up, Start Again

Victoria Hitz is in her third year of teaching, as well as her third year as Associate Director of Bands at T.A. Howard Middle School. In the past two years, Ms. Hitz’s ensembles have received consistent “Sweepstakes” ratings at UIL, and Superior ratings and “Best in Class” at the Sound Waves Music Festival in New Braunfels, TX. Most recently, the Howard Symphonic Band received 3rd Runner Up (4th place overall) at the 2018 Beach Within Reach Music Festival in Haltom City, TX.

Ms. Hitz received her Bachelor of Music Education at the University of Houston and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2015. During her time in Houston, she studied flute with Houston Ballet and Opera Orchestra flutist, Melissa Suhr, and was a member of the internationally-recognized Moores School of Music Wind Ensemble, where she performed with the ensemble at the 2012 Midwest International Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago, IL.

Ms. Hitz is a native of Keller, TX, where she was a flute section leader, Drum Major, President of the Keller Central High School Marching Band, and principal flute of the Keller Central High School Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Kevin McNulty. She is a member of the Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Bandmasters Association, Women Band Directors International, Phi Kappa Phi, the Golden Key International Honour Society, and Kappa Kappa Psi, National Honorary Band Fraternity.

Vocalise - Rachmaninoff, arr. Maganini

Victoria Hitz

Related tracks