HEART SONGS - Parts & Score

Dedication :
 
 
 
Heart Songs was commissioned by, and is dedicated with warm appreciation to, the Harwood Junior High School Band of Bedford, Texas, Christopher Ferrell, conductor. My thanks go as well to Joe Gunn, former director of bands at Harwood, who initiated the commission.
 
 
 
Performance Notes :
 
 
 
The title Heart Songs comes from the image of watering the tree of life with the blood of the heart. It is my hope with this music to provide a substantial and deeply felt piece for young players. The second and third songs are based on melodies from the 371 Chorales by J.S. Bach.
 
 
 
About the Composer :
 
David Maslanka was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1943. He attended the Oberlin College Conservatory studying clarinet with George WaIn and composition with Joseph Wood. He studied for a year at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and did graduate work in composition at Michigan State University with H. Owen Reed. David Maslanka?s compositions have been performed throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, and numerous European countries. He has received three National Endowment for the Arts Composer Awards, and five residence fellowships at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. In addition, he has received grants from the State University of New York Research Foundation, the University of Connecticut Research Foundation, the American Music Center, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music, and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.
 
 
 
His works for winds and percussion have become standard in the wind band repertory. They include A Child?s Garden of Dreams for symphonic wind ensemble, Concerto for Piano, Winds, and Percussion, and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Symphonies. Percussion works include Arcadia II: Concerto for Marimba and Percussion Ensemble, and Montana Musk: Three Dances for Percussion. His catalogue also contains a wide variety of chamber, orchestral and choral pieces.
 
 
 
Maslanka?s style is characterized by a very contemporary blend of heart-felt lyri cis and rhythmic drive, coupled with an uncanny and remarkable ear for musical sonorities. Particularly in his well-known and acclaimed works for wind band, the music is notable for its poetry, warmth and spiritual quality. Inspiration is frequently
 
drawn from such fascinating sources as the dreams of a young girl as recorded by psychologist C.G. Jung (A Child?s Garden of Dreams), the work of African writer Ahmadou Kourouma (Tears) and the poetry of Richard Beale (A Litany for Courage and the Seasons, Mass).
 
 
 
Maslanka?s works have been recorded on the CR1, Mark, Crest, Umass, Novisse, Klavier, Cambria and Albany labels. He has served on the faculties of the State University of New York at Geneseo, Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, and Kingsborough Community College. He now lives in Missoula, Montana.