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Instant Production Music, Volume 2: Bicentennial Production Aids

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Instant Production Music, Volume 2: Bicentennial Production Aids --- 1976

ABOUT THE RECORD Here is a record of band music for use during America's Bicentennial Celebration, as requested by many stations. Naturally, a live concert band was a much more appropriate medium for this type of production than a synthesizer. The University of Minnesota Concert Band was chosen for several reasons. First, it has the reputation of being one of the country's finest university bands. Second, Frank Bencriscutto, the band's director, also has consideralbe reputation as an outstanding director, performer and composer. He insists on a professional level of performance from his players at all times. I was told that if Frank Bencriscutto accepted the invitation to participate in the production of this record, I could expect complete cooperation from him. This certainly proved to be true. Not only did I receive complete cooperation from Frank, but from the entire musical organization. In Minneapolis, then, I had not only a university band of professional stature with a highly qualified director; I also had available to me some of the finest recording studios in the country in the "Sound 80" facilities. ABOUT THE MUSIC The recording offers several traditional melodies associated with the growth of our nation. We have recorded not only the full versions of this music, but also short "lifts" from this material which we hope you will find useful as production aids. Recorded, too, are two contemporary pieces by Frank Bencriscutto and three marches of the 1800's from the J. C. Penney Library. We are indebted to the J. C. Penney Co. for permission to use this material which we do not believe has been previously recorded. ABOUT THE BAND Public recognition of the high quality of the University of Minnesota's Concert Band has long been an established fact. Diplomatic recognition came in 1968 when the USSR Deputy of Culture, Vladimer Golovin, chose this band from five groups recommended by the U.S. State Department to represent the United States in a cultural exchange program. The trip took place in the spring of 1969. The seven-week Soviet Tour was of great national and international significance, with the band making literally tens of thousands of friends for America. It ended with a command performance in the Rose Garden of the White House. In the spring of 1975, the band made an East Coast Bicentennial tour, culminating in a Carnegie Hall performance. ABOUT THE DIRECTOR Frank Bencriscutto has studied at the University of Wisconsin, Northwestern University and the Eastman School of Music where he received his D.M.A. in Performance and Composition. His principal composition teachers were Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson. As a result of the unusual success of the Soviet Tour, Dmitri Shostakovich, in behalf of the Soviet Government, invited Dr. Bencriscutto to be honored guest of the Soviet Union during the International Tschaikowsky Competition in Moscow in June 1970. His background includes a great deal of professional performing, conducting, arranging and composing. Dr. Bencriscutto has been director of bands at the University of Minnesota for the past fifteen years. Restricted to use by and for public (non-commercial) radio or television production facilities.