MC3Band plans a ‘Heart-Breaking’ performance for annual spring concert
A quick glance at the title alone might make one think Maryville College’s MC3Band intends to break some hearts during its April 21 spring concert at the Clayton Center for the Arts.
However, the program’s title — “Heart-Breaking” — isn’t necessarily on the nose, according to Dr. Eric Simpson, the band’s conductor and an associate professor of music at the College.
“Every piece that we’re playing has some element of tragedy attached to it, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the music is sad — it just has this emotional connection,” Simpson said. “A lot of people assume the program might have been inspired by COVID, but I actually planned it before the pandemic, and in reality, it’s a fun program with some really challenging pieces for the musicians.
On the bill: “Trio” from Act III of “Der Rosenkavalier,” by Richard Strauss; “Cordoba,” by Julie Giroux and featuring guest piano soloist Jennifer Olander Anderson ’05; “But Beautiful,” by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke; “Variations on a Korean Folk Song,” by John Barnes Chance; music from the film “The Cowboys,” composed by John Williams; and “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You),” a song by pop artist Kelly Clarkson.
Needless to say, Simpson said, it’s a challenging program for the musicians. Case in point: the Williams score, designed to evoke the windblown vistas of the Old West.
“If you’re going to involve the Old West and Western elements, you imagine horses running, water flowing or a cattle drive — and what that translates to musically is a lot of notes,” Simpson said. “The musicians have to play a lot of fast, rhythmic patterns to put the audience in the mind of being able to see the horses, to see the cowboys driving the cattle. It’s a lot of work to play so many notes so quickly to convey that sort of mood and idea.”
And then there are selections that don’t seem, on the surface at least, to be material suited for a concert band. Adapting such pieces, however, is a challenge Simpson relishes, and an opportunity to elevate the potential of the players in the ensemble.
“For example, ‘Trio’ is an operatic piece for three vocalists, yet we are doing it for a band, completely transcribed in a new format,” he said. “At the other end of the spectrum is ‘Stronger,’ by Kelly Clarkson, which is for a pop vocalist and a pop band, yet here we are playing it as a concert band.
“As you can see, there’s a lot of variety, and even for a concert where it sounds like it’s going to be a sad and melodramatic experience, it’s not really that at all.”
Now in its 30th year, the Maryville College-Community Concert Band, or MC3Band, is composed of community, faculty, staff and student musicians, from College undergraduates to working professionals who perform repertoire from the wind band spectrum in a symphonic band format.
“Heart-Breaking” will be performed at 7 p.m. April 21 in the Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre of the Clayton Center for the Arts. Admission is free, and the concert is open to the public. For more information, call the Clayton Center box office at 865-981-8590.