1999

Notes from 1999. I am now beginning a composition in memoriam Stanley D. Hettinger. I have been asked to write this piece by the New England College Band Association. It will be premiered at the April 1, 2000, concert by the NECBA Intercollegiate Honor Band at the CBDNA Eastern Division/ NECBA conference at Yale University's Woolsey Hall. Stan was a good friend; he was the Director of Bands at the University of New Hampshire for several decades. He died in 1997. The music was going to be based on the ending of the Good Woman of Sechuan by Berthold Brecht, but will most likely be based on a couplet from Skakespeare's Hamlet (you will have to wait and see). The next project will be a composition for the United States Military Academy Band at West Point. Col. David Deitrich asked me to write a piece for the Bicentennial of the West Point Military Academy. I hope to have the music finished in time for premiere on the 4th of July, 2000, at the Academy. Then I have a magnum opus to write! Three Places in New Haven for marimba, percussion soli, and wind ensemble, for Robert Van Sice. He asked that I write something with band accompaniment that would involve the percussion section (as well as the percussion soloist) in some kind of concerto grosso-like piece. Cool idea! There will be three movements, each based on some aspect of Charles Ives in New Haven. I hope to have this piece finished by the end of the summer. This is a consortium commission. If you are interested in joining the consortium and having your (or your school's) name on the score forever (and receive your own score and parts before everyone else), you can contact me through this web page. I will tell you who to contact for more information, but buy-in prices begin at $500. Three are several options for participating, including one in which Robert Van Sice will come to your school, play the piece as the soloist with your percussion section and band, and do a master class! Let me know. Then I have a piece to finish for the Connecticut ASBDA meeting in Novemebr of 2000! The plans are still secret, pending some discussions with the commissions! Then I have a piece to write for the Yale Symphony Orchestra, for fall of 2000! In fact, I have to sign off now and get about composing! Latest premieres: Copland 2000 begins on January 1, 2000. The United States Army Field Band asked me to transcribe three of Copland's chorus and orchestra pieces for chorus and band. They are issuing a CD of these pieces very soon (I just heard the third working tape of the music and it is very exciting). Boosey and Hawkes has agreed to publish these three transcriptions, so you should be able to get them later this year. Here's what I have done: The Canticle of Freedom, and from the Copland opera The Tender Land - The Promise of Living and Stomp Your Foot. The US Army Field Band will be premiering these pieces in a live concert at the MENC Convention in Washington (and they did! TD 7/21/07). HUSA! was written on June 10, 1999, for a brass quintet of Ithaca, NY, professionals (which included Patricia Hurley and Mark Scatterday). Husa was being honored by the Cornell Class of '59 and was being feted at the class reunion. I based the entire piece on "perversions" of Husa's musical motive H=B; U = Ut = C; S = Eb; A=A. Karel didn't know that the work or the performance was to be premiered there; he was "amused." The whole thing is only 1:45 and uses 2 C trumpets. Butterflies and Bees!was premiered on May 17, 1999, at the Bishop Ireland High School in Alexandria, Virginia, under the direction of Garwood Whaley. The latest performances, all conducted by the composer, were by the Dublin Institute of Technology College of Music Wind Ensemble, Dublin, Ireland, November 3, 1999, the Hartt Symphony Band, University of Hartford, Hartford, CT on October 15, 1999, and by the Yale University Concert Band, Novemeber 17, 1999, New Haven, CT. It is available from Meredith Music (see Duffy Links page.) Butterflies and Bees! was recorded on CD by a group of professional musicians under the direction of Garwood Whaley. If you would like to inquire about that CD, please do so through the Meredith Music link on the Links page of this web-site.