Maslanka's notes: "Song Book for Flute and Wind Ensemble"
"Influences and Expressions", the latest disc by the Arkansas Tech University Symphonic Wind Ensemble led by Daniel Belongia ends with David Maslanka's "Song Book for Flute and Wind Ensemble", featuring flutist and faculty member Dr. Phoebe Robertson.
About the piece, David Maslanka wrote:
“SongBook” is a set of pieces that are songlike - that is, intimate and expressive, though not necessarily quiet. The solo flute feels like a voice to me, a voice which has a complex story to tell, in the form of musical dreams.
The 371 Four-Part Chorales by J.S. Bach have been a long-time focal point for my study and meditation. These chorales are the models for melodic and harmonic movement used by every beginning music throy student. I had my first encounter with them as a college freshman in 1961. Ten years ago I returned to singing and playing them as a daily warmup for my composing. In that time I have come to experience the chorales as touchstones for dream space
I have used many of them as the jumping off point for my own compositions. The feeling is one of opening an unmarked door and being suddenly thrust into a different world. The chorales are the doors. I have used three chorales melodies in “SongBook.” The first movement, “A Song of Coming Awake,” is based on “Christ ist Erstanden” (Christ is Risen); the third, “In Loving Memory,” on “Von Gott will Ich nicht lassen” (I never wish to part from God); the fifth, “A Song for the End of Time,” on “O Gott, due frommer Gott” (O Good and Gentle God).
The title of the second movement, “Solvitur Ambulando,” is Latin for “it is solved by walking.” There is a centuries-old tradition that good ideas come while walking. It is a practice that I have used in my creative work for some years. Intuition and intellect are engaged together by the alternation motion of the limbs. The Danish philosopher Kierkegard wrote: “Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: every day I walk myself into a state of well-being; I have walked myself into my best thoughts… If one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.”
“In the Crucible of Your Pain” is a title that appeared in my mind as I was writing the fourth movement. I can’t explain it very well. There is a deep sense of struggle - something serious is going on! - David Maslanka
The 371 Four-Part Chorales by J.S. Bach have been a long-time focal point for my study and meditation. These chorales are the models for melodic and harmonic movement used by every beginning music throy student. I had my first encounter with them as a college freshman in 1961. Ten years ago I returned to singing and playing them as a daily warmup for my composing. In that time I have come to experience the chorales as touchstones for dream space
I have used many of them as the jumping off point for my own compositions. The feeling is one of opening an unmarked door and being suddenly thrust into a different world. The chorales are the doors. I have used three chorales melodies in “SongBook.” The first movement, “A Song of Coming Awake,” is based on “Christ ist Erstanden” (Christ is Risen); the third, “In Loving Memory,” on “Von Gott will Ich nicht lassen” (I never wish to part from God); the fifth, “A Song for the End of Time,” on “O Gott, due frommer Gott” (O Good and Gentle God).
The title of the second movement, “Solvitur Ambulando,” is Latin for “it is solved by walking.” There is a centuries-old tradition that good ideas come while walking. It is a practice that I have used in my creative work for some years. Intuition and intellect are engaged together by the alternation motion of the limbs. The Danish philosopher Kierkegard wrote: “Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: every day I walk myself into a state of well-being; I have walked myself into my best thoughts… If one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.”
“In the Crucible of Your Pain” is a title that appeared in my mind as I was writing the fourth movement. I can’t explain it very well. There is a deep sense of struggle - something serious is going on! - David Maslanka
