First Concert of the 79th Season

Max Steiner was an Austrian-born American composer whose work changed the character of film music. With the advent of sound-movies, the addition of background music was a logical step, but initially it was used sparingly. Directors were afraid it would distract the audience. Then standard classical music began to be used because it was often royalty-free and, therefore, cheap. Max Steiner was instrumental in changing that viewpoint.

Steiner believed that each character should have a theme. That principle also meant that his film scores would be longer than most. Among his most successful compositions are the scores for King Kong, Now Voyager, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Casablanca, The Fountainhead, Sergeant York, The Adventures of Don Juan, and The Searchers.

No doubt, his most famous score was for Gone with the Wind, a film directed by David O. Selznick, for whom Steiner worked on many films. Selznick wanted him to use existing classical music, with perhaps a few of his own themes, for two reasons. It would be cheaper and it would be faster. Selznick gave Steiner only three months to complete the score. Steiner insisted on writing original music for the entire film, which lasted almost three hours. It was the longest film score written at that time. What's more, Steiner completed scores for twelve other films that year! During his career, he composed over three hundred film scores. He was nominated for twenty-four Academy Awards, winning three.

The score contained sixteen main themes, of which Tara's Theme is the best-known.

Brian Balmages is a versatile man ... a composer, conductor, arranger, and performer. He graduated with a B.A. in music from James Madison University in Virginia, and received his Master's Degree from the University of Miami in Florida. He specializes in wind instruments, particularly brass, and enjoys working with school orchestras, for whom he has produced many age-appropriate works. He has played with professional symphony orchestras, and his music has been performed by many important orchestras, such as the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, and the Manchester Symphony.

As a conductor, he has worked mostly with bands, especially with regional band clinics, such as the Midwest Clinic, the Western International Band Clinic, the College Band Directors Eastern Regional Conference, and others.

The work we are to hear today is a medley of songs related to the Civil War. The title refers to the Point Lookout State Park in Maryland, which held a prisoner of war camp during the Civil War. It was the largest such camp in the country, holding more than 50,000 Confederate soldiers at one time. Almost four thousand of the prisoners died in that camp. Their names are found on a bronze plaque at the foot of an obelisk commemorating that event. A United States flag flies near the monument, but a Confederate flag flies just outside the gate.

Civil War songs heard in this fantasy include The Battle Cry of Freedom, Battle Hymn of the Republic, and When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again. The re-union of the country is symbolized at the end by a full rendering of America the Beautiful, bits of which we have been hearing throughout the medley.

This piece was commissioned by the family of mezzo-soprano, Judy Sadler Marlett. It was inspired by a collection of letters written during the years surrounding the Civil War in the U.S. (mid-late 19th Century). Of all the letters sent to me, I decided to focus this composition on letters written by three main characters: Tyler, Lanie, and Percy Houghtaling. One of the things I love most about composing vocal music is the element of text. Poems have a clearly defined meter, but the texts for this composition are excerpted from letters, so there is less in the way of a prescribed rhythm to the words. I chose to set multiple letters by each character to establish recurring themes and show how their writing evolved through time, due to their changing circumstances. Given the rich body of American folk music and hymn tunes from the time, it made sense to derive the themes for each character from this beloved repertoire. An excerpt from Walt Whitman's To Think of Time seemed a perfect text to serve as bookends for the entire work.

Tyler's Letters
All three letters by Civil War soldier Tyler Houghtaling are dated 1861-1862, and show the progression of his feelings throughout those years -- moving from optimism and wonder to impending doom and regret. In one letter, he mentions a folk-song called "The Banks of the Schuylkill" and wishes he were home to sing it with his friends and family. The Schuylkill River is located in Pennsylvania and the source of its eastern branch is in the Appalachian Mountains. The setting of the first letter opens with this folk-tune, which continues to be heard throughout each of Tyler's letter settings -- especially when he is remembering his home. It is often sung by the chorus as Tyler might have been remembering it while writing.

The chorus also layers in other folk-songs in each subsequent letter setting. "Tenting Tonight" was very popular during the Civil War and is introduced in the second letter setting. It describes conditions at a military camp. Each verse becomes more despairing than the previous until the final chorus text becomes "dying tonight." The chorus sings the words "dying tonight" in the third letter setting while "Taps" is heard in the distance. The third letter setting is definitely the most heart-wrenching. It retains the previous folk-songs, but adds to them "The Vacant Chair" (a favorite of Abraham Lincoln) sung by a family mourning the loss of their war dead. This tune, also referenced by Tyler in his letters, appears at first in a minor key, played by the clarinet solo, then in its original major mode, sung by the chorus.

Tyler's words, always sung by the soloist, function more like a descant above the folk-song tunes. This indicates the conflict within Tyler -- torn between his longing for home and his duty as a Union soldier. Fortunately, Tyler survived the Civil War and returned home to marry and raise a family. Tyler was Judy Marlett's great-great-grandfather.

Lanie's Letters
Lanie Houghtaling's letters astounded me. My immediate impressions of her included: sarcastic and ironic wit, highly intelligent and articulate, well-educated (especially for a woman of her time), busy, and a woman of strong faith. I have enjoyed getting to know Lanie through her letters. They have a distinctive form apart from all the other I read from this family. Lanie lists a few facts, then offers short (sometimes sardonic) personal commentaries about those facts. I kept envisioning what this would look like in a stage production: there would be dry plot exposition, followed by colorful asides to the audience. When setting her words to music, these little "asides" are set apart in a recitative (recitation) style. The audience will feel frozen in time for a moment while Lanie delivers her "punchline," and then the orchestra will propel us back for more plot exposition.

About half of the first letter, from Lanie to her sister Etta, describes an incident in which a friend was accosted by a group of young people at a dance. Therefore, the solo themes are derived from a couple of contrasting folk tunes that would likely have been played at a dance during that era -- "Turkey in the Straw" and "Sweet Betsy from Pike." The orchestra plays those songs as a fitting soundtrack for the events being described in Lanie's letter. The accosting adolescents are characterized by members of the chorus and the woodwind section, who shout lines of text, censored by the brass.

The second letter, to another sister, Altha, is similar in tone and spirit. Lanie is writing in the morning (before her young son Percy is awake), therefore the tune "My Lord What a Morning" is incorporated. She describes attending a Children's Day event (these were popular at that time), which spurred a lot of bickering by its planners, not the least of which included having the children march to a waltz. The tune "My Lord What a Morning" is then transformed into a comical waltz to help the listener visualize the incident. The children's song "Old Molly Hare" propels most of the orchestral material in this movement.

Lanie's final letter, addressed to Etta, is a sad occasion. Lanie was writing from her deathbed, realizing she would not be able to see Etta again. Gone are the witty "asides." All Lanie had strength to write were expressions of thankfulness and peace. It's an entirely different side of Lanie, but she leaves no doubt about her faith in God and her love for her family. The "Sweet Bye and Bye" tune appears in this letter setting rather prominently. Lanie was Judy Marlett's great-grandmother.

Percy's Letters
The first letter by Percy Houghtaling (Lanie's son and Judy Marlett's grandfather) was written when he was very young, and is addressed to his mother's sister, Etta (the sister to whom two of Lanie's letters were addressed). The music attempts to convey some of the "stream-of-consciousness" so evident in the writing and story-telling of young children. Much seems random and the emotional range is extreme. This achieved musically by setting the movement in two different keys simultaneously -- about half of the orchestra and the chorus perform in D Major, while the other half of the orchestra and the soloist perform in G-flat Major. Recognizable tune fragments appear as well: Nursery songs ("Row, Row, Row Your Boat," "Pop Goes the Weasel," and "Ring Around the Rosy") and a favorite hymn tune of the time ("Sweet Bye and Bye" -- which represents both Percy and Lanie's affection for Etta). Frequent interruptions by his mother help keep Percy "on task" as he writes. Since much of the letter describes berry-picking, a frolicking 6/8 meter helps the listener envision Percy leaping through nearby berry patches. Since Percy was a young boy when he wrote this letter, I've set this solo for mezzo-soprano.

Percy's second letter was written when he was a young man, and it is addressed to his step-sister, Esther, to whom he had just become engaged. This letter, scored for baritone solo, is evidence that Percy inherited some of his mother's tender, yet humorous, disposition. He tells Esther that, even though they grew up in the same household, they should pretend they just met -- to keep it "more romantic." He also hints that he hopes she doesn't want a diamond engagement ring, because that would bankrupt him to the point where he wouldn't be able to buy them any bedroom furniture. This is the only letter set as a duet or an actual conversation. Since no surviving reply letter from Esther exists, I formed her answer to Percy from a popular love song from the time period, "Come dearest, the daylight is gone."

Note of Thanks
I love writing for musicians I know personally. Thanks to Judy Sadler Marlett for inspiring the composition with your beautiful voice and your love of history. Thanks also to Daniel Belcher for lending your beautiful voice to Tyler and Percy's words. Finally, thank you to Scott Humphries and the Manchester Symphony Orchestra for the care with which you have approached and prepared this music.