Keveli Music Chamber Music Publication

Winter Ricercar

for

Chamber Winds & Percussion

Kevin M. Walczyk

Grade 4 | Duration: 9'30"

Winter Ricercar is an instrumental chamber work based on the traditional English Christmas carol, Upon the Snow-clad Earth. The carol was originally set to Reverend Richard Robert Chope’s lyrics by composer Henry John Gauntlett (1805-1876). The melody was slightly altered by composer Arthur Sullivan in 1876 and it is Sullivan’s melody that is used in Winter Ricercar. Named after its Renaissance and Baroque counterparts, the ricercar is an instrumental composition that explores the permutations of the melody of Upon the Snow-clad Earth. The carol is developed in similar fashion to both the homophonic treatment of the early ricercar and the highly imitative form of the later ricercar that favors variation form and is a predecessor of the fugue.

Winter Ricercar utilizes instrumentation - including saxophones, percussion and brass - that is more commonly associated with the contemporary wind band genre when compared to the personnel required of historic chamber wind works (i.e., Richard Strauss' SERENADE, opus 7). Furthermore, this work was commissioned to address the need for quality chamber works that are more conducive to the performance requirements common to small music programs.

Winter Ricercar was the subject of a Doctoral Dissertation by University of Kansas graduate, Dr. Luke D. Johnson, who served as co-lead consortium member and premiered the work at the University of Kansas (April 17, 2015) and at MidAmerica Nazarene University (April 21, 2015).

University of Kansas Chamber Winds, Luke D. Johnson, conductor

CONSORTIUM
FORCES

Keveli Music has long been dedicated to forming consortium commissioning projects in order to give performing organizations the opportunity to participate in the commissioning process without paying large commissioning fees. This is accomplished by asking multiple members of a consortium to share the commissioning fee. Keveli Music acknowledges Dr. Luke D. Johnson, who served as the consortium coordinator, and the following band programs and their directors for participating in the consortium commissioning process that brought Winter Ricercar to life:

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Chamber Winds
Co-lead Consortium Member
Paul W. Popiel, Director

MIDAMERICA NAZARENE UNIVERSITY Chamber Winds
Co-lead Consortium Member
Luke D. Johnson, Director

ADAMS STATE UNIVERSITY Chamber Winds
Don Miller, Director

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Chamber Winds
Sarah Labovitz, Director

CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY ANN ARBOR Chamber Winds
William Perrine, Director

ELON UNIVERSITY Chamber Winds
Adam Kehl, Director

HIRAM COLLEGE Chamber Winds
Matthew Salvaggio, Director

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY Chamber Winds
Steven Smyth, Director

KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Chamber Winds
Frank Tracz, Director

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY Chamber Winds
Christopher Chapman, Director

PITTSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY Chamber Winds
Craig Fuchs, Director

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL MISSOURI Chamber Winds
Scott Lubaroff, Director

WASHBURN UNIVERSITY Chamber Winds
Michael Mapp, Director

WILLIAM AND JEWELL COLLEGE Chamber Winds
Langston Hemenway, Director

Empty Stage

CHAMBER WINDS & PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTATION

Winter Ricercar is a grade 4 work. It is moderately challenging to and suitable for most high school and college chamber ensembles. Although this work is written for 13 instruments, it was conceived and orchestrated with a contra-alto clarinet part as a means of reinforcing the string bass part for balance and color, thereby increasing the ensemble to 14 players. The contra-alto clarinet part is not represented in the score but follows the string bass part verbatim. The work, however, can be adequately represented without the included contra-alto clarinet part. If the string bass and (optional) contra-alto clarinet players are not available then a substitute tuba part has been included to replace them.

flute 1
flute 2 – doubles piccolo
clarinet
contra-alto clarinet – optional
bassoon
contrabass clarinet
alto saxophone
tenor saxophone
horn
cornet
trombone
euphonium
string bass – (tuba substitution part supplied)
percussion 1 – vibraphone, suspended cymbal, triangle, snare drum, and xylophone
percussion 2 – marimba, glockenspiel, tambourine, and bass drum