THE UNITED STATES ARMY AIR FORCES

through the

ARMY AIR FORCES TRAINING COMMAND

in cooperation with the

SCOTT FIELD AAF TRAINING COMMAND RADIO SCHOOL,

THE CITY OF ST. LOUIS,

and the WAR FINANCE COMMITTEE OF MISSOURI

proudly presents the

ROYAL AIR FORCE BAND

of London, England

Wing Commander R. P. O'Donnell, M. V. O., Conducting

(Organizing Director of Music, Royal Air Force)

SCOTTISH RITE CATHEDRAL

Saint Louis

February 18th, 8:30 P. M.


HONORARY COMMITTEE

HON.PHIL M.DONNELLY,Governor,State of Missouri

HON.A.P.KAUFMANN,Mayor,City of Saint Louis

COLONEL NEAL CREIGHTON,Air Corps Commanding Officer,
Scott Field,Illinois

COLONEL F.F.CRISTINE,Exective Officer,Scott Field,Illinois

ALEXANDER SWINTON PATERSON,O.B.E.,British Consul

WALTER W.HEAD,State Chairman,Missouri War Finance Committee

JAMES P.HICKOK,Chairman,Metropolitan St.Louis
War Finance Committee


Program

THE NATIONAL ANTHEMS OF THE UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN

Symphony Orchestra:

      "CARNEVAL OVERTURE"
 ANTONIN DVORAK

Antonin Dvorak was perhaps the greatest musical figure among Czech composers. Although not always deliberately nationalistic,yet his origin shows clearly through all his music. This overture is one of his most successful and brilliant works:the opening and closing sections scintillating with gaiety and excitement,and enclosing between them a passage of quiet,almost nostalgic,sweetness which is Dvorak at his best.

Military Band:

      RHAPSODY,"THE SEAFARER"
 HAYDN WOOD

This is a brilliant fantasy for military band,made up from several of those most English of all tunes-the Sea Shanties-(and dedicated to the Merchant Navies of the Allies). Sailors roamed far afield and these songs tell of the places they knew and of incidents which befell-What shall we do with the Drunken Sailor-Hulla-baloo-balay-and from America,Rio Grande and Shenandoah.

String Section of the Orchestra:

      SERENADE FOR STRINGS IN E MINOR
 SIR EDWARD ELGAR

This quiet little work,from which the Elgarian pomp is quite absent,shows the composer in his most intimate and charming mood. In the slow movement-Romance-it is surely of something even deeper than intimacy and charm that this song-like music speaks. The work was composed in 1983,when Elgar was a very new name in the world of music.

      GROUP OF PIANO SOLOS
 L.A.C.Denis Matthews

Military Band and Symphony Orchestra:

      MARCH,"POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE No.4"
 SIR EDWARD ELGER

Perhaps the most English of composers,Edward Elgar(1859-1934)was typical of the late Victorians and Edwardian eras,when all the world seemed fine and prosperous. Daniel Gregory Mason has spoken of Elgar's "noble plainness" and it is this quality of nobility which is audible through all the "pomp and circumstance" of this march.



I N T E R V A L

Military Band:

      OVERTURE TO "WILLIAM TELL"
 GIOACHINA ROSSINI

Rossini was a prolific composer of light operas which were exceedingly popular only a few generations ago. The overtures to many of these operas are still in the standard repertoire of the band and orchestra. The present overture is one of the most familiar and popular.

Symphony Orchestra:

      FIRST MOVEMENT FROM SYMPHONY No.8
IN B MINOR (UNFINISHED)

 PETER FRANZ SCHUBERT

Conducted by Pilot officer John Hollingsworth

This symphony has had a strange history. Never heard by its composer,and not discovered until thirty-seven years after his death,it has enjoyed a posthumous popularity beyond the wildest dreams of the imagination and has led to much speculation on its unfinished state. It is fashionable nowadays to consider it as an artistic whole to which no additions could or should be made,and that attitude,even though it negates the idea of a symphony current in Shubert's day,it possibly correct.

Military Band and Symphony Orchestra:

      TOCCATA AND FUGUE IN D MINOR
 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Johann Sebastian Bach(1685-1750),composer of some of the grandest music in the world,was also the greatest organist of his time and much of his best work was for his own instrument. The Toccata and Fugue in D Minor,originally written for the organ,shows him in his most magnificent mood-here is musical architecture piling up througout to a tremendous and impressive climax.

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