Spring Serenades – May 4, 2025: Program Notes

Dr. Matthew Morse, conductor

Program Notes

Brian Balmages is a wind, brass, and orchestral composer as well as an active conductor, producer, and performer. He received his bachelor’s degree in music from James Madison University and his master’s degree from the University of Miami in Florida. Balmages’ compositions have been performed worldwide in conferences such as the College Band Directors National Association national and regional conferences, the Midwest Clinic, the International Tube/Euphonium Conference, among others. He has been commissioned for groups such as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Miami Symphony Orchestra, the University of Miami Wind Ensemble, James Madison University’s School of Music, Boston Brass, members of the United States Marine Band, and the Dominion Brass Ensemble. Balmages is currently the Director of Instrumental Publications for the FJH Music Company Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

As suggested in its title, Groove Music is a work that focuses on various combinations of rhythms. The first section introduces the groove, layering instruments and changing textures. A thicker, more playful groove is introduced in the second section. Both ideas come together in the final section, concluding with a spectacular wall of color and rhythm.

James Clifton Williams Jr. was an American composer, who began playing French horn, piano, and mellophone in the band at Little Rock (Arkansas) High School. As a professional horn player he would go on to perform with the San Antonio and New Orleans Symphony Orchestras. Williams also served in the Army Air Corps band as a drum major, composing in his spare time.

Clifton Williams attended Louisiana State University (B.M., 1947) where he was a pupil of Helen Gunderson, and the Eastman School of Music (M.M., 1949) where he studied with Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson. In 1949, Williams joined the composition department at the University of Texas School of Music. He taught there until he was appointed Chair of the Theory and Composition Department at University of Miami in 1966. Williams retained this position until his death in 1976. His composition students included well-known band composers W. Francis McBeth and John Barnes Chance.

Clifton Williams received the prestigious Ostwald Award in 1956 for his first composition for band, Fanfare and Allegro. He repeated his success in 1957 when he won again with his Symphonic Suite. In addition to his many other honors, those most recently listed include election to membership in the American Bandmasters Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia National Music Fraternity of America, and the honorary degree of Doctor of Music conferred by the National Conservatory of Music at Lima, Peru.

The five movements of Symphonic Suite are dedicated to the composer’s beloved band director, L. Bruce Jones. “Intrada” is a stately establishment of a unifying theme. In “Chorale”, a new theme in the first cornet is treated in hymn-like style. “March” provides fanfare-like material. In “Antique Dance”, a new theme emerges in the horn and alto saxophone. “Jubilee” presents the head motive in a festive allegro con brio.

Dr. Jack Stamp is currently a freelance composer and conductor with several residencies with ensembles in the United Kingdom. He recently served as the visiting director of bands at Luther College in northern Iowa. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Stamp served as Director of Band Studies at Indiana University of Pennsylvania for 25 years. In addition, he served as chair of the music department for six years.

He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Wind Conducting from Michigan State University where he studied with Eugene Migliaro Corporon.

Prior to his appointment at IUP, he served as chair of the Division of Fine Arts at Campbell University in North Carolina. He also taught for several years in the public schools of North Carolina. In addition to these posts, Dr. Stamp served as conductor of the Duke University Wind Symphony (1988-89) and was musical director of the Triangle British Brass Band, leading them to a national brass band championship in 1989.

Dr. Stamp’s primary composition teachers have been Robert Washburn and Fisher Tull, though he was strongly influenced by his music theory teachers at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and East Carolina. Other studies include work with noted American composers David Diamond, Joan Tower, and Richard Danielpour.

In This Hid Clearing… (2001) was commissioned by the University of Missouri-Columbia Music Department to honor the inaugural season of Tom O’Neal as their director of bands. Stamp notes that this piece:

Was written in the summer of 2001 while I was ‘on vacation’ in the state of Maine. I have known Tom since the summer of 1983, and he have remained the best of friends since that time. Tom is one of those friends who, no matter how long it has been since we’ve seen each other, when we meet, we pick right up where we left off. The work was a labor of love as I tried to write a slow, mostly quiet work to reflect the importance of friendships through the best and worst of times. On its premiere, Tom viewed the work more programmatically as a descriptive of the life of our friendship. The work is meant to be reflective and honest.

In This Hid Clearing… is written in a twentieth-century tradition of single-movement, lyrical and reflective works composed for bands. It features contrapuntal soloistic chamber music sections contrasted with a full ensemble sound.

Edwin Eugene Bagley was an American composer, who began his music career at the age of nine as a vocalist and comedian with Leavitt’s Bellringers, a company of entertainers that toured many of the larger cities of the United States. He began playing the cornet, traveling for six years with the Swiss Bellringers.

After his touring days, he joined Blaisdell’s Orchestra of Concord, New Hampshire. In 1880, he came to Boston as a solo cornet player at The Park Theater. For nine years, he traveled with the Bostonians, an opera company. While with this company, he changed from cornet to trombone. He performed with the Germania Band of Boston and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Edwin Eugene Bagley is best known for composing marches.

National Emblem March is one of America’s best loved and most popular marches, and probably Bagley’s most famous. The Chatfield (Minnesota) Music Lending Library includes 14 different arrangements for band or orchestra among its holdings. Reginald Bagley, a third cousin of the composer, believed that the march was begun in 1902 and first rehearsed in a train baggage car en route from Bellows Falls to Greenfield, New Hampshire. It was first played in manuscript by the Keene, New Hampshire, City Band, was revised, and was copyrighted in 1906. A vocal arrangement, with words by M.F. Sexton, was copyrighted two years later. A copy of Bagley’s revision was presented to the University of Florida’s Bachman Band Library in 1965.

In addition to The Star Spangled Banner, which provided melodic material for the first strain and trio, Bagley’s memories of the herds of buffalo he had seen while crossing the Western prairies in the 1870s and 1880s inspired the heavy, repetitive beats heard in the trio.

Leroy Anderson was an American composer, who was born to Swedish immigrants. He attended Harvard University where he received a B.A. in Music in 1929, and a M.A. in Music in 1930. He studied toward a Ph.D. in German and Scandinavian languages through 1935 although he never completed his thesis. His composition teachers included George Enescu and Walter Piston. While in school he taught music to undergraduate students at Radcliffe College and was director of the Harvard University Band.

After hearing Anderson’s arrangements for the Harvard Band, Arthur Fiedler asked him to make an arrangement of Harvard songs for the Boston Pops Orchestra. This eventually led to Fiedler hiring Anderson as an arranger for the Boston Pops and to the BPO performing original works by Anderson.

Leroy Anderson served in the United States Army during World War II as an interpreter and translator for the Counter Intelligence Corps and rose to the position of chief of the Scandinavian Department of Military Intelligence at the Pentagon.

After the war, Anderson moved to Connecticut with his family where he composed some of his most successful works, including Sleigh Ride (1948). His The Syncopated Clock (1945) was used as the theme show for The Late Show for 25 years, and his composition Blue Tango sold over a million copies in 1952. As his compositions grew in popularity, Anderson was engaged as guest conductor of many orchestras across the United States.

Anderson wrote primarily for full orchestra. Soon after completing each orchestral composition, he would score many of his pieces for concert band and, in some cases, for piano and small ensembles. From 1938 to 1950, Anderson’s compositions received their first performance with either Arthur Fiedler or Leroy Anderson conducting the Boston Pops. From 1950 to late 1962 Anderson’s compositions received their first performances during recording sessions for Decca Records, conducted by Anderson.

He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.

Taken from his larger Irish Suite, Anderson based The Rakes of Mallow on a traditional 18th century Irish polka. Adopted as a fight song by Notre Dame University, the polka has subsequently been featured in the films 1941, The Quiet Man, and Rudy.

Carl Maria (Friedrich Ernst) Weber was a German Romantic composer. Weber’s childhood was concerned with a constant struggle between his music practice and a congenital hip joint disease which prevented him from normal boyhood activities. He studied piano and violin with Michael Haydn in Salzburg and Abt Volger in Vienna. His ambitious father exposed the boy’s talents in concerts all over Europe until the death of his mother finally stopped the exhausting tours and young Weber entered the choir boys school in Salzburg.

Founder of the German Romantic opera, Weber also takes high rank as a composer of concertos. When Mozart introduced the clarinet into the higher levels of music, it rapidly became a favorite solo instrument. Weber was a great friend and admirer of Heinrich Baerman, the leading clarinetist of his day, and for Baerman, Weber wrote, among other works for clarinet, Concertino for Clarinet and the Second Grand Concerto in E-Flat.

Concertino for Clarinet, Op. 26, by Weber is one of the great works of the clarinetists’ repertoire. Its first performance as on April 5, 1811, and the concert was such a success that the composer was commissioned to write two more selections for the clarinet. These fine works brought even greater fame to Weber, already a highly respected composer, and established the clarinet as a leading instrument for the expression of Romantic music. This concertino to this day remains the most popular solo in the clarinetists’ repertoire.

The work opens with a slow introduction and proceeds to a leisurely theme followed by several contrasting variations.

Derek Bourgeois was a prolific British composer for brass bands and wind bands. He attended Magdalene College in Cambridge, where he received an honorary degree as well as a doctorate. He then spent two years at the Royal College of Music where he studied composition with Herbert Howells and conducting with Sir Adrian Boult. In 1994, Bourgeois was appointed Director of Music at St. Paul’s Girls School in London, a position which was previously held by Gustav Holst. By the time of his death, Bourgeois had composed 116 symphonies.

Serenade Op.22c was written by Bourgeois for his own wedding, originally to be played by the organist as the guests left the ceremony. The uneven meter of 11/8 did not allow the guests the luxury to proceed in a comfortable manner to an even beat. In case anyone felt too comfortable, the piece transitions to 13/8 in the middle. Bourgeois’ work has now been released in a number of different orchestrations of the original version for organ.

Frank Ticheli joined the University of Southern California composition faculty in 1991 and retired following the 2022-2023 academic year after 32 years. His music has been described as “brilliantly effective, deeply felt, with impressive flair and striking instrumental colors…” The Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and the Dallas Symphony have performed Ticheli’s works. He received his doctoral and master’s degrees in composition from the University of Michigan.

The Shenandoah Valley and the Shenandoah River are located in Virginia. The origin of the name for this river and valley is obscure. The origins of the folk song are equally obscure, but all date to the 19th century. Many variants on the melody and text have been handed down through the years with the most popular telling the story of an early settler’s love for a Native American woman. The composer writes:

In my setting of Shenandoah I was inspired by the freedom and beauty of the folk melody and by the natural images evoked by the words, especially the image of a river. I was less concerned with the sound of a rolling river than with its life-affirming energy – its timelessness. Sometimes the accompaniment flows quietly under the melody; other times it breathes alongside it. The work’s mood ranges from quiet reflection, through growing optimism, to profound exaltation.

Jerrald King “Jerry” Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring.

Goldsmith’s parents were Tessa (née Rappaport), a school teacher, and Morris Goldsmith, a structural engineer. He started playing piano at age six, but only “got serious” by the time he was eleven. At age thirteen, he studied piano privately with legendary concert pianist and educator Jakob Gimpel (whom Goldsmith would later employ to perform piano solos in his score to The Mephisto Waltz) and by the age of sixteen he was studying both theory and counterpoint under Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who also tutored such noteworthy composers and musicians as Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle, Herman Stein, André Previn, Marty Paich, and John Williams.

At age sixteen, Goldsmith saw the 1945 film Spellbound in theaters and was inspired by veteran composer Miklós Rózsa’s soundtrack to pursue a career in music. Goldsmith later enrolled and attended the University of Southern California where he was able to attend courses by Rózsa, but dropped out in favor of a more “practical music program” at the Los Angeles City College. There he was able to coach singers, work as an assistant choral director, play piano accompaniment, and work as an assistant conductor.

He composed scores for such noteworthy films as The Sand Pebbles, Logan’s Run, Planet of the Apes, Patton, Chinatown, The Wind and the Lion, The Omen, The Boys from Brazil, Night Crossing, Alien, Poltergeist, The Secret of NIMH, Gremlins, Hoosiers, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Rudy, Air Force One, L.A. Confidential, Mulan, The Mummy, three Rambo films, and five Star Trek films. He was nominated for six Grammy Awards, nine Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Film Awards, and eighteen Academy Awards. In 1976, he was awarded an Oscar for The Omen.

He collaborated with some of film history’s most prolific directors, including Robert Wise (The Sand Pebbles, Star Trek: The Motion Picture), Howard Hawks (Rio Lobo), Otto Preminger (In Harm’s Way), Joe Dante (the Gremlins films, The ‘Burbs, Small Soldiers), Roman Polanski (Chinatown), Ridley Scott (Alien, Legend), Steven Spielberg (Twilight Zone: The Movie), and Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Hollow Man). However, his most notable collaboration was arguably that of with Franklin J. Schaffner, for whom Goldsmith scored such films as Planet of the Apes, Patton, Papillon, and The Boys from Brazil.

Goldsmith’s score to Star Trek: The Motion Picture marked the beginning of his long association with Star Trek film and television, and was influenced by the romantic, sweeping music of John Williams’ Star Wars score. This arrangement contains both the romantic Ilia’s Theme from the 1979 film along with its Main Title, which was also used as the theme music for Star Trek: The Next Generation television series in the 1980s.

Sandra McPherson graduated with a Bachelor in Music from CSU Fresno and a Master’s Degree in Clarinet Performance/Musicology from UC Santa Barbara, where she studied clarinet with James Kanter. She performs frequently as principal clarinetist and bass clarinetist in numerous Northern California orchestras, including the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera, and Sacramento Choral Society Orchestras. She also has extensive experience as a chamber music performer and coach.

As a member of the Sacramento Philharmonic’s woodwind quintet, she performs educational concerts throughout the region. She has performed with numerous other chamber music ensembles at the Crocker Art Museum Sunday Series, Sacramento State’s Festival of New American Music, Chamber Music Alive!, and the Capital Chamber Players Series.

Ms. McPherson is conductor of clarinet ensembles, rehearsal coach and chamber music instructor for the Sacramento Youth Symphony’s orchestras and Chamber Music Workshops. She is the clarinet instructor at Sacramento State, maintains an active private teaching studio, is also on the faculty at American River College, and has previously served as clarinet and chamber music instructor at U.C. Davis. Ms. McPherson is also a published author of articles on early-American clarinet literature.

Sacramento Symphonic Winds Music and Artistic Director Dr. Matthew Morse is currently Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Conducting in the School of Music at California State University, Sacramento, where he conducts the Symphonic Wind Ensemble and the Concert Band, oversees the Marching Band, and teaches courses in undergraduate and graduate conducting. He is in demand as a clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor throughout California and nationwide. Under his direction, the Sacramento State Symphonic Wind Ensemble was selected to perform at the California All-State Music Education Conference in Fresno in February 2019.

Prior to his appointment at Sacramento State, Dr. Morse graduated in May 2017 with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Wind Conducting from the University of North Texas, where he was a conducting student of Eugene Migliaro Corporon. He also earned a Master of Arts degree in Instrumental Conducting in 2013 from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he was a student of Dr. Jack Stamp, and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Thomas Edison State University in Trenton, New Jersey, in 2011.

Concurrent with finishing his undergraduate degree in 2011, Dr. Morse retired as a chief warrant officer four following a 25-year military music career with the United States Army. Early in his career, Dr. Morse served for nearly 12 years as a multi-instrumentalist performing primarily on euphonium and trombone and serving two alternating tours each with the 4th Infantry Division Band at Fort Carson, Colorado, and the United States Army Japan Band, Camp Zama, Japan. In 1997, Dr. Morse was selected to become a warrant officer bandmaster and served as the commander and conductor of the 3rd Infantry Division Band at Fort Stewart, Georgia, the 1st Armored Division Band, then stationed Wiesbaden, Germany, and the 282nd Army Band at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. He deployed as a band commander to combat zones in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2000 and twice to Iraq during a 15-month period in 2003-04. In 2007, Dr. Morse was selected by competitive audition for his capstone assignment as the associate bandmaster and director of the Jazz Knights of the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, New York, where he shared the stage with numerous name artists and soloists.

Dr. Morse has appeared as a guest conductor with many groups, including the United States Army Field Band, the United States Army Europe Band and Chorus, and the West Point Band. He has conducted both the California Music Educators Association Capital Section High School Honor Band as well as the Northern California Band Association All Northern Honor Band. As an instrumentalist, he has performed on bass trombone in recent years with the North Texas Wind Symphony, the Keystone Wind Ensemble, various ensembles at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and the Pueblo Symphony Orchestra in Pueblo, Colorado, along with various freelance settings, including an orchestra backing Bernadette Peters in 2012 and a big band backing Doc Severinsen in 2014.

Dr. Morse’s military decorations include the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Meritorious Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters. Other awards and recognitions include being a finalist for The American Prize in the university conductor category, the John Philip Sousa Foundation’s Colonel George S. Howard Citation of Musical Excellence for Military Concert Bands for his work with the 282nd Army Band in 2007, and the South Suburban Conference (Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota area) Achievement Award in Fine Arts in 2013. Additionally, Dr. Morse received the Thomas Jefferson High School (Bloomington, Minnesota) Fine Arts Hall of Fame award in 2009. Morse also holds a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do through Young Brothers Tae Kwon Do Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Morse’s professional affiliations include the College Band Directors’ National Association, National Band Association, National Association for Music Education and the California Music Educators Association, California Band Director’s Association, Northern California Band Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity, and Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.