Never Has Been… Yet | Oregon State University Wind Symphony

May 19, 2026 Oregon State Wind Symphony Presents: Never Has Been… Yet Olin G. Hannum, Conductor Jamar Bean, Featured Speaker Video Production Hailey De Leon Olin G. Hannum Cole Keady Setlist Chester | William Schuman Lincoln Portrait | Aaron Copland Shenandoah | Omar Thomas Symphonic Dances from West Side Story | Leonard Bernstein Narration featuring texts from Fredrick Douglass Abraham Lincoln Eleanor Roosevelt Program Notes: Chester, William Schuman The tune on which this composition is based was born during the very time of the American Revolution, appearing in 1778 in a book of tunes and anthems composed by William Billings called The Singing Master’s Assistant. The book became known as Billings’ Best following as it did his first book called The New England Psalm Singer, published in 1770. Chester was so popular that it was sung throughout the colonies from Vermont to South Carolina. It became the song of the American Revolution, sung around the campfires of the Continental Army and played by fifers on the march. The music and words, both composed by Billings, expressed perfectly the burning desire for freedom which sustained the colonists through the difficult years of the Revolution. Lincoln Portrait, Aaron Copland Lincoln Portrait was commissioned by Andre Kostelanetz for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in early 1942. Copland initially chose Walt Whitman as his subject, but picked Lincoln instead when Kostelanetz suggested a historical government figure. For the narration, which occurs only in the Portrait’s third and final section, Copland used Lincoln’s words, adding his own brief descriptions of the former president. Copland’s score is not a literal exposition of Lincolns pronouncements, but an extraordinary skilled way of applying and combining free-sounding music with specific prose meanings. It is as moving and significant as the words Lincoln wrote. The composition is divided roughly into three main sections. In the opening, Copland hoped to suggest something of a mysterious sense of fatality that surrounds Lincoln's personality, transitioning to suggestions of his gentleness and simplicity of spirit. Brief sketches, in the quick middle section, relate to the times in which Lincoln lived. The conclusion draws a simple but impressive frame about the words of Lincoln himself. Shenandoah, Omar Thomas Shenandoah is one of the most well-known and beloved Americana folk songs. Originally a river song detailing the lives and journeys of fur traders canoeing down the Missouri River, the symbolism of this culturally significant melody has been expanded to include its geographic namesake -- an area of the eastern United States that encompasses West Virginia and a good portion of the western part of Virginia -- and various parks, rivers, counties, and academic institutions found within. Back in May of 2018, after hearing a really lovely duo arrangement of Shenandoah while adjudicating a music competition in Minneapolis, I asked myself, after hearing so many versions of this iconic and historic song, how would I set it differently? I thought about it and thought about it and thought about it, and before I realized it, I had composed and assembled just about all of this arrangement in my head by assigning bass notes to the melody and filling in the harmony in my head afterwards. I would intermittently check myself on the piano to make sure what I was imagining worked, and ended up changing almost nothing at all from what I’d heard in my mind’s ear. This arrangement recalls the beauty of Shenandoah Valley, not bathed in golden sunlight, but blanketed by low-hanging clouds and experiencing intermittent periods of heavy rainfall (created with a combination of percussion textures, generated both on instruments and from the body). There are a few musical moments where the sun attempts to pierce through the clouds, but ultimately the rains win out. This arrangement of Shenandoah is at times mysterious, somewhat ominous, constantly introspective, and deeply soulful. Program Note by composer Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story” was first performed by the New York Philharmonic on an all-Bernstein concert in 1961, four years after the opening of West Side Story on Broadway. The songs of the musical had immediately become popular standards, while at the same time the dance music had been sophisticated enough to find its way into the concert hall, similar to music of a ballet. Most composers for Broadway were songwriters who did not write their own dance music, but Bernstein, a fully trained composer who had already written two formal ballets, crafted these remarkable dances himself. Mambo, a competitive dance between the gangs; Cha-Cha, when Tony and Maria see one another for the first time; and the Finale, love music and a procession that recalls the ever-popular aria Somewhere, but now with a more tragic sentiment.