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Magneticfireflies (2001)

For high school band

2+pic.2.3+bcl.asx+tsx.1/4.3.3(btbn).1/4 perc. */1 timpani/Harp (is optional)/7 additional musicians play high pitched metallic percussion at conclusion
* Tubular Chimes, Vibraphone, Marimba, Glockenspiel, Crotales (2 complete octaves if available - but less than 2 octaves is acceptable), xylophone, Suspended Cymbal, 2 Triangles, Large Tam-Tam, Bass Drum

Premiered at Lakota West High School, Gregory L. Snyder conducting,
West Chester, Ohio, 17 December 2001
Duration: 5 minutes

 
CD Available
Traces and Magneticfireflies premiere recordings

This work is available on
Traces and Magneticfireflies premiere recordings

 
Toccata Festiva

This work is available on Toccata Festiva

 

Magneticfireflies for band performed by students of the Hodgson Wind Ensemble conducted by doctoral conducting student Matthew Sadowski

 
Program Note

Williamsville's Innovative Commissioning Consortium

On March 21, 2002, the Williamsville (NY) East, North, and South High School Wind Ensembles will perform a premiere of Magneticfireflies by the internationally acclaimed composer, Augusta Read Thomas.  Currently on the composition faculty at Northwestern University, the former Eastman School of Music professor also holds the post of Composer-In-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  Her new work for wind ensemble will be one of her first for this medium in her brilliant career, which includes other recent commissions from the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Berlin Philharmonic, as well as the Grammy Award winning vocal ensemble, Chanticleer.

In the spring of 1999, Williamsville directors Matthew S. Cool, Geoffrey Richter, Stephen Shewan, and district music coordinator Gary Stith, launched this commissioning project which is remarkably innovative.  Their objective was to initiate an ongoing project in an effort to commission contemporary works for wind ensemble by some of most highly respected composers in the country who may be rather new to the medium.  They also sought to do this with no particular concern for the price tag!  To accomplish this final goal, they set out to create a national consortium of outstanding high school band/wind ensembles with the unique agreement that each member organization would be afforded the opportunity to perform the "premiere performance" of the new piece in THEIR OWN STATE or PROVINCE.

Thomas agreed to the terms of the commission project in the spring of 2000 and, shortly thereafter, Stith began contacting college, university, conservatory, and professional wind band conductors around the country seeking recommendations of exceptional high school wind ensemble programs in their particular region.  The high school directors were then contacted individually and invited to become involved in the project.  The initial objective was to create a consortium of 20-25 of the finest high school bands in the nation, but limited to one per state.

Other benefits to the directors involved in this unique project are that all consortium members have the phone numbers, mailing and e-mail addresses of one another so that they may share rehearsal strategies, corrections in the score and parts, and ideas as to the promotion and performance of the work.  They have all been afforded the opportunity to contact the composer directly and have been regularly kept abreast of the progress of the composition and the addition of new consortium members.  Early members of the consortium were also afforded the opportunity to offer opinions to the composer regarding instrumentation and difficulty of the individual parts.  In addition, Stephen Shewan in Williamsville is preparing a piano reduction of the new work to assist each consortium member with score study, Kurt Schmidt in Rio Rancho, New Mexico is penning a condensed score, Scott Porter in Conard, Connecticut has offered to compile a CD recording of many of the individual performances, and Gary Stith in Williamsville has penned a press release to be used as a model for the various statewide and national publications.

Composer Augusta Read Thomas describes Magneticfireflies as "very rhapsodic, lyrical, rich and majestic, but also quite playful."  In the score, she writes "One of the main intentions of this music is the juxtaposition between stark, bold, individual colors, such as a loud solo trumpet, Mahler style, with a completely blended timbre, Debussy style."

She is delighted with this project because it guarantees, at least, twenty-three performances of her new work in various locations around the continent within the first six months of its young life! As of this writing, she is planning to attend several of the performances, including a day of rehearsals, composition workshops, and a radio interview in Williamsville and the Buffalo, NY area.  That particular premiere will be conducted by guest conductor, Charles Peltz of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

Thomas is further delighted with news that the piece will also receive performances at several major music conventions around the country.  Thomas Haller and his Douglas Anderson School of the Arts Wind Ensemble in Jacksonville will perform the state premiere at the Florida Music Educators Convention, Ann Goodwin will lead her Park Hill High School Wind Ensemble from Kansas City, Missouri in a performance of the work at the Missouri Music Educators Convention, Aaron Robin plans to do the piece with his Comeaux, Louisiana High School Wind Ensemble at the All-South Honor Band weekend at the University of Southern Mississippi, Clifford Chapman and his Clarkston High School Wind Ensemble has programmed the Michigan premiere at their joint concert to be shared with the Michigan State University Wind Symphony, and Scott Jones and his Apple Valley (MN) High School Wind Ensemble will perform the work at the Minnesota Music Educators Conference.  In addition, the Eleanor Roosevelt High School Wind Ensemble from Greenbelt, Maryland, under the direction of Sally Wagner, is tentatively scheduled to perform Magneticfireflies in March at the Harrogate International Youth in Music Festival in Harrogate, England.

— Gary Sith

 

The charter members of the Williamsville Commissioning Consortium and the dates of their state-wide premieres of Thomas' Magneticfireflies for Band are as follows:

Apple Valley High School, Apple Valley, MN - Scott A. Jones, director - February 15, 2002
Champlain Valley Union High School, Hinesburg, VT - Andrew Miskavage, director - December 18, 2001
Clarkson High School, Clarkson, MI - Clifford Chapman, director - March 24, 2002
Comeaux High School, Lafayette, LA - Aaron Robin, director - February 16, 2002
Conard High School, West Hartford, CT - Scott R. Porter, director - May 22, 2002
Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, Jacksonville, FL - Thomas Haller, director - January 10, 2002
Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Greenbelt, MD - Sally S. Wagner, director - May 17, 2002
Flower Mound High School, Flower Mound, TX - Mike Brown, director - February 7, 2002
John Overton High School, Nashville, TN - Jo Ann Hood & David Aydelott, directors - May 14, 2002
Lake Braddock Secondary School, Burke, VA - Roy Holder, director - May 23, 2002
Lakota West High School, West Chester, OH - Gregory L. Snyder, director - December 17, 2001
Lexington High School, Lexington, MA - Jeffrey P. Leonard, director - April 3, 2002
Mason City High School, Mason City, IA - Gilbert G. Lettow, director - May 19, 2002
Millburn High School, Millburn, NJ - Mindy Scheierman, director - May 22, 2002
Newark High School, Newark, DE - Lloyd H. Ross, director - March 19, 2002
Park Hill High School, Kansas City, MO - Ann Goodwin, director - February 11, 2002
Pomona High School, Arvada, CO - W. L. Whaley, director - February 12, 2002
Rio Rancho High School, Rio Rancho, NM - Kurt A. Schmidt, director - April 9, 2002
Trinity High School, Washington, PA - William Galvin, director - May 14, 2002
Union High School, Tulsa, Oklahoma - L. Dale Barnett, director - February 5, 2002
Unionville High School, Unionville, Ontario, Canada - John Phillips, director - Apr. 30 or May 2, 2002
Williamsville East High School, East Amherst, NY - Stephen Shewan, director - March 21, 2002
Williamsville North High School, Williamsville, NY - Geoffrey Richter, director - March 21, 2002
Williamsville South High School, Williamsville, NY - Matthew S. Cool, director - March 21, 2002
Willowbrook High School, Villa Park, IL - William Gilmer, director - March 7, 2002

To obtain examination or performance material for any of
Augusta Read Thomas's works, please contact G. Schirmer Inc..