GLORIFICO!

 

Purchase, NY -The men and women of the New York Staff Band (NYSB)

spent two days, February 8-9, 2005 , recording new music for their

upcoming Scandinavian Tour. The featured venue for the recording was

again the SUNY Purchase (State University of New York at Purchase)

which boasts a beautiful 500-seat concert hall that is used frequently by

professional ensembles like the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

for recording purposes. In fact, the band feels that the venue is of

such a high standard that they battle Manhattan-bound rush hour traffic,

just to use the hall.

 

In the booth, as always, is recording engineer extraordinaire, Ted Marshall,

who has been recording the band for over 20 years.

 

With an early start (recording no later than 8:30 a.m. ) and coffee pumping

through the veins, the band began with morning devotions before ripping into

the first piece of the day, Eric Ball's timeless tone poem The Triumph of

Peace . Other pieces featured on the first day of recording were Dorothy

Gates' march Agape, Dick Krommenhoek's lovely trombone feature,

From that Sacred Hill , Dean Jones' popular and scintillating major work

Glorifico Aeternum (title track), a tribute to the band's friends in Norway with,

Valdres March, Tchaikovsky's technical tour de force, Dance of the

Jesters (arranged by James Curnow for Stephen Cobb and the International

Staff Band), and finally Erik Silfverberg's delightful little arrangement,

Lift Up the Banner .

 

The second day of recording began with Dorothy Gates' new concert opener,

All Glorious, featuring the hymn tune, Hanover ( O Worship the King,

All glorious above ). Then it was time to feature the band's superb principal

cornetist in the new Terry Camsey solo, The Victor! John Williams was up next

with his magnificent setting of The Star Spangled Banner, recently

arranged especially for the New York Staff Band by Stephen Bulla. Two further

band pieces were featured on the day-Ray Steadman-Allen's imaginative

and challenging Victorian Snapshots on Ratcliff Highway and another tribute to Scandinavian friends with the march, Under Blagul Fana (Under the Blue

and Yellow Flag).

 

The NYSB Chorus continues to be a special ministry to many of the

band's supporters, and the new recording will feature a new work arranged by

Dorothy Gates with trombone and piano accompaniment simply called, Peace.

With words and music by Swedish composer Andreas Sandlund, this lovely

song is rather like a blessing: " May peace be with you, may love watch over you,

may God always be on your side."

 

In talking about the recording Bandmaster Ron Waiksnoris shares,

"This recording reflects our visit to Scandinavia but offers a diverse listening experience with new music alongside some classics.

The band worked very hard and the results are in the listening."

 

The NYSB's Glorifico! recording will be available around the world May 2005.

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The New York Staff Band, 440 West Nyack Road, West Nyack , NY 10994 .

Tel: 845.620.7444. Fax: 845.620.7737. Email: avanderweele@use.salvationarmy.org . Web site: www.nysb.org.