Stanislaw Skrowaczewskis

Music for Winds

College Band Directors National Association

National Conference
March 25, 2015 - 3:00pm
Lowes Vanderbilt, Symphony I
Nashville, TN

Adam V. Fontana
Doctoral Graduate Teaching Assistant
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Conservatory of Music and Dance

Table of Contents

Presentation Abstract. 3
Program Note.. 3
Premiere Performances.. 4
Commissioning Ensembles... 4
Composer Biography. 4
Motivic and Thematic Catalogue:
Movement 1.... 7
Movement 2.... 8
Movement 3.... 9
Movement 4...... 10
Programming Possibilities... 11
Quotations from Skrowaczewski about Music for Winds... 12
Presenter Biography. 13

PRESENTATION ABSTRACT
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski is perhaps best known in the United States as the former, longtime Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra, but many also consider him a worldclass composer. Skrowaczewskis Music for Winds, written in 2009, is viewed by many
prominent wind ensemble conductors as one of the most significant pieces written for
winds in the last fifty years. The piece, which the composer describes as a symphony or
concerto for winds, shares many compositional ideas with symphonic compositions
from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. This presentation will provide conductors with a
thorough investigation of the work, and will present various programming possibilities
for the piece.

PROGRAM NOTE
Music for Winds (2009)

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
(b. 1923)

For Music for Winds, I was commissioned by a consortium of nine orchestras in four
countries (the United States, Germany, Austria, and Japan). The initiator of this project is
Dr. Frederick Harris, director of the wind orchestra at MIT in Boston. He knew that I had
long since wanted to write a kind of symphony or concerto for winds, or more precisely
for symphonic winds, the wind instruments that appear in the symphonies of the
nineteenth to twenty-first centuries, from Beethoven to Shostakovich and beyond. The
repertoire for the instruments is rather scarce, compared to the great repertoire for
strings. I added three saxophones, of which two are less common and less often played,
soprano and baritone saxophone. They enrich the wind section by extending the
possibilities of sound quality. And to that I brought in percussion, very gently along with
piano, celesta, and harp.
The work has four movements, which continue from one to the next without pause.
There is a primary theme played at the beginning by clarinet and celesta and this weaves
itself through all four movements, either in its original form or slightly modified. The
listener may find the character or tone of the piece to be sad, mysterious, or even tragic.
This could be my own reaction to the state of our world, in which great art is slowly
disappearing and being replaced by superficial semi-culture.
- Program Note by Stanislaw Skrowaczewski

PREMIERE PERFORMANCES
World Premiere:
December 11, 2009
Deusche Radio Philharmonie
Saarbrcken, Germany
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, conductor

US Premiere:
February 4, 2010
Minnesota Orchestra
Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, conductor

Program
Skrowaczewski: Music for Winds
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4
Brahms: Symphony No. 4

Program
Skrowaczewski: Music for Winds
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3, K. 216
Brahms: Symphony No. 3, op. 90

COMMISSIONING ENSEMBLES
Bruckner Orchester Linz, Linz, Austria
Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrcken Kaiserslautern, Saarbrcken, Germany
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Wind Ensemble, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Minnesota Orchestra, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Orchestra of Indian Hill, Littleton, Massachusetts, USA
University of Minnesota Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
University of Southern California Thornton Wind Ensemble, Los Angeles, California, USA
Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo, Japan

COMPOSER BIOGRAPHY
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski commands a rare position in the international musical scene,
being both a renowned conductor and a highly regarded composer. He has conducted
all the top orchestras during his long and distinguished career, and now, in his 91st year,
Skrowaczewski is the oldest working major conductor.
Born in 1923 in Lww, Poland, Skrowaczewski began piano and violin studies at the age
of four, composed his first symphonic work at seven, gave his first public piano recital at
11, and two years later played and conducted Beethovens Third Piano Concerto. A
hand injury during the war terminated his keyboard career, after which he concentrated
on composing and conducting. In 1946 he became conductor of the Wrocaw (Breslau)
Philharmonic, and he later served as Music Director of the Katowice Philharmonic (1949

54), Krakw Philharmonic (1954-6) and permanent conductor of the Warsaw National
Philharmonic Orchestra (1956-9).
Skrowaczewski spent the immediate post-war years in Paris, studying with Nadia
Boulanger and co-founding the avant-garde organization, Groupe Zodiaque. In 1948 he
conducted the Paris premiere of Shostakovichs Fifth Symphony with LOrchestre
Philharmonique de Radio France. After winning the 1956 International Competition for
Conductors in Rome, he was invited by George Szell to make his American debut,
conducting the Cleveland Orchestra in 1958. This led to engagements with the New
York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony and Cincinnati Symphony orchestras and, in
1960, to his appointment as Music Director of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra
(now the Minnesota Orchestra), a position that he held for 19 years. During the 1960s he
made his debuts with the Royal Concertgebouw, London Symphony, Philadelphia,
Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic,
Vienna Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras, as well as with the Vienna State
Opera and Metropolitan Opera (New York). In particular, he became a regular guestconductor of the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras and the Berliner Philharmoniker.
From 1984 to 1991 Skrowaczewski was Principal Conductor of The Hall. With The Hall,
he gave concerts across England, led tours throughout Europe and the USA and
recorded extensively. In 2007 Skrowaczewski was appointed Principal Conductor of the
Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra for three highly successful seasons, during which
time many of his performances were recorded live for Columbia Records.
Guest engagements continue to take Skrowaczewski across North and South America,
Europe and Japan. Highlights last season included the London Philharmonic, Berlin
Radio Symphony and Galicia Symphony orchestras. Skrowaczewski is currently
Conductor Laureate of the Minnesota Orchestra, which he conducted in their muchanticipated homecoming concerts in February 2014 and where he returns in May 2015.
2014/15 takes him across Europe, including to the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and
Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Basel Symphony, National Polish Symphony and Warsaw
Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic and Gothenburg Symphony orchestras, Bruckner
Orchester Linz and the Hall.
In Autumn 2014, Skrowaczewski returns to conduct Bruckner with the Yomiuri Nippon
Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo as their Honorary Conductor Laureate and conducts two
weeks with the So Paulo Symphony Orchestra.
Still an active composer, Skrowaczewskis works have recently been performed by the
Bavarian Radio Symphony, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Bruckner Orchester Linz,
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Yomiuri Nippon Symphony and Minnesota orchestras. His Concerto for Orchestra (1985)
and Passacaglia Immaginaria (1995) were both nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Earlier
award-winning compositions include Overture 1947, which won the Karol Szymanowski
Competition in Warsaw, and Ricercari notturni (1977), which received the first Kennedy
Center Friedheim Award. Music for Winds (2009) was commissioned by a consortium of
nine orchestras from the USA, Germany, Austria and Japan. Recordings of
Skrowaczewskis music are found on Oehms Classics, Reference Recordings, Albany
Records and Innova.
The recipient of numerous accolades, Skrowaczewski was recently awarded the Knights
Cross of Polonia Restituta, one of Polands highest decorations, and has six Honorary
Doctorates, awarded most recently by the universities of Minnesota and Wrocaw, the
New England Conservatory of Music and the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music,
Katowice. Skrowaczewskis interpretations of Bruckner have earned him the Bruckner
Society of Americas Kilenyi Medal of Honor and the Gold Medal of the Mahler-Bruckner
Society, and his programming of contemporary music at the Minnesota Orchestra was
acknowledged with five ASCAP Awards and the Ditson Conductors Award, bestowed by
Columbia University, New York. He is the recipient of the 2004 McKnight Foundation
Distinguished Artist Award, one of Minnesotas highest cultural recognitions. In 2013 the
University of Minnesota established the Stanislaw Skrowaczewski Endowment in
Conducting in honor of his remarkable contributions to music and to Minnesota.
Of particular note within his extensive discography are Skrowaczewskis complete
recordings of Bruckners and Beethovens symphonies with the Saarbrcken Radio
Symphony Orchestra (now Deutsche Radio Philharmonie) for Arte Nova Classics (now
Oehms Classics), which received enormous critical acclaim. The Bruckner set won the
2002 Cannes Classical Award in the Orchestral 18/19 Century category and was also
included in BBC Music Magazines Top Ten Discs of the Decade.
Published in 2011, a comprehensive account of Skrowaczewskis life and work can be
found in Seeking the Infinite: The Musical Life of Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, by Frederick
Harris, Jr. Currently, two documentary films about Skrowaczewski are in progress in
Poland and the United States.
- 2014/2015 Composer Biography provided by Intermusica

MOTIVIC AND THEMATIC CATALOGUE

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski - Music for Winds
Movement 1: Misterioso, Subito Allegro

Sonata Form

Introduction
mm. 14

Exposition
m. 5

Transition
m. 59

Development Recapitulation Coda

m. 70
m. 97
m. 152

Main Motive

Notes:
016 Chord

B Motive

Movement 2: Aria

Lyrical
Contrasting textures
Use of tritones, thirds and diminished triads

A Motive

Theme

B Motive

Notes:

Movement 3: Presto Tenebroso

Three-part form
Motivic
Connection to Tenebrism in visual art
o Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
o Jusepe de Ribera

A Section
mm. 1-27
A Motive
Restatement of 016 chords
Chromatic scale passages
A Motive

B Section
mm. 28-84
B Motive

Descending four-note chromatic motive

Closing Section
mm. 85-end
Combination of A and B motives

Notes:

Movement 4: Molto Allegro (Finale)

Sonata form
Harmonies utilizing 016, tritones, sevenths and diminished chords

Exposition
m. 1

Development
m. 34

Recapitulation
m. 110

Coda
m. 142

Primary Motive

Secondary Motive

Notes:

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PROGRAMMING POSSIBILITIES

Concert #1: Connections (62 minutes)

Brahms
Begrbnisgesang, Op.13

Skrowaczewski

Music for Winds

20

Bruckner

Mass No. 2 in E minor

35

Concert #2: Music from Slavic Composers (56 minutes)

Shostakovich
Prelude, Op. 34, No. 14
3
(arr. Reynolds)
Skrowaczewski

Music for Winds

20

Lutoslawski

Dance Preludes (Third Version)

(1111/1000/1.0.1.1.1)

Dvorak

Serenade in D minor, op. 44

25

Concert #3: Symphonies for Wind Instruments (55 minutes)

Bernstein
Profanation from Symphony No. 1
8
(arr. Bencriscutto)
Gounod

Petite Symphonie

25

Gabrieli

Canzon Septimi Toni No. 2

From Symphonie Sacrae

Skrowaczewski

Music for Winds

20

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SKROWACZEWSKI DISCUSSING MUSIC FOR WINDS

On March 19, 2015, I interviewed Stanislaw Skrowaczewski about Music for Winds, and
his compositional process. The quotations below are from that interview, and help to
shed light on his thoughts about the piece.

About the main motive, and the construction of the work:

The motive repeats in many forms. When composing, I have a plan of composition, but
Im not cooking any specific plan. I just start to write freely and see how it develops. I do
not write with a plan, so things come as my fantasy goes. It is very free. What is
important to me is the beauty of certain chords, certain notes, certain materials,
especially in a thematic sense, and the overall atmosphere of the piece.
I am not writing with any specific plan. Im just going from one idea to another. I was
just trying to play on the possibilities of the wind instruments of a symphony orchestra,
either as solos or in groups. Its like improvisation.

About the use of saxophone in Music for Winds:

It was suggested to me that I use saxophones, which at first I didnt want, and then I
found it quite interesting. Right now, I regret that I did not use them more! If I had time, I
would review this piece again, using much more saxophones. I dont have time for this,
so I leave it as it is.

About the influence of other composers on Music for Winds

I never think of other composers when I compose, but they are in my head! I am trying
to produce something meaningful in this moment. In this case, I am using the winds of
the symphony orchestra to present certain materials, in as many colors as possible.

On his programming of Music for Winds

I use it to contrast a symphony for strings. As a conductor, on the first half of my

programs, I used a piece for string orchestra, along with this piece for winds. The second
half would be a piece that uses the entire orchestra. This contrast is very interesting to
me, and very interesting for the audience.

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PRESENTER BIOGRAPHY
Adam Fontana is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting at
the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Conservatory of Music and Dance, where he
studies conducting with Steven D. Davis, and serves as a graduate teaching assistant of
the Bands at the Conservatory. At UMKC, Adam has served as the manager of the
Conservatory Wind Symphony and Conservatory Wind Ensemble, assisted with the
instruction of undergraduate conducting courses, and taught undergraduate woodwind
methods. In addition to his studies, Adam is in his second year as the Conducting Fellow
of the Youth Symphony of Kansas Citys Symphony Orchestra.
Prior to his studies at UMKC, Adam was the conductor and founder of the Hudson Valley
Chamber Winds (HVCW), a professional chamber wind ensemble based in New Yorks
Hudson Valley. Under his direction, HVCW was selected to perform at the 2012 CBDNA
Eastern Division Conference at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Adam has recently appeared as guest conductor of the UMKC Conservatory Wind
Symphony, UMKC Conservatory Wind Ensemble, Hartford Independent Chamber
Orchestra, and the Cortlandt Chamber Orchestra. In May 2015, he will conduct UMKCs
Musica Nova Ensemble for the world premiere of David Stocks Chamber Concerto for
Saxophone, with UMKC Professor, and PRISM Quartet Member, Zachary Shemon as
soloist.
As a clarinetist, he is a three-time performer in Carnegie Hall, performing with the
Juilliard Orchestra (under the direction of Marin Alsop), The Hartt Wind Ensemble, and
the National Collegiate Wind Ensemble. He also appears as a clarinetist on the Hartt
Wind Ensemble's Naxos recording, "Dragon Rhyme. He has studied clarinet with Dr.
Alan Woy and Thomas Scott.
Adam has nine years of public school music teaching experience. He holds degrees in
Music Education and Conducting from The Hartt School, Columbia University, and SUNY
Potsdam's Crane School of Music. He has previously studied conducting with Glen Adsit,
Dr. Dino Anagnost and Dr. Timothy Topolewski.

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