The WVU Wind Symphony will present a concert Sunday, Nov. 9, at 3:15 p.m. at the Eiesland Hall Auditorium on the downtown campus. Conducted by WVU Director of Bands Don Wilcox, the concert is titledWind Music-Old and New.

Also conducting will be WVU Associate Director of Bands John Hendricks and Dearl J. Drury, adjunct assistant conductor.

The Wind Symphony will also perform this concert at Nicholas County High School in Summersville on Friday, Nov. 7.

There will be two new works on the program, with both composers present to conduct them.Banddancingwas written by Jack Stamp, director of bands at Indiana University in Indiana, Pa., who is a nationally known band composer.

John Paff, a graduate of the WVU Division of Music with bachelors and masters degrees in music education, is currently a band director and teaches in Summersville. He will conduct his work, titledIn King Arthurs Court(1996).

In keeping with the concerts goal of contrasting the old and the new, the program will open with two versions of our national anthem,The Star Spangled Banner.The first is an arrangement by Civil War bandleader Claudio Graffula, written in 1862. According to the Band Office, this is the oldest instrumental setting for band of the national anthem that they could find during their research for the preparation of this concert. The second is a new arrangement written in 2002 by Johnnie Vinson of Auburn University.

The Wind Symphony will then skip the old version of an overture and go straight to a fairly new one written by Belgian composer Jan Van der Roost. The Nagano Community Band in Japan commissionedOlympicafor their jubilee in 1992.

Representing the dance suite will beTerpsichore,by Bob Margolis, based on dances from the Court of Henry IV of France that were first published by Michael Praetorius in Germany in 1612. This vast collection spirited dances pays tribute to Terpsichore, the Greek muse of dancing. Margolis combined several of these dances into a four-movement work for symphonic dance. The Wind Symphony will perform two of them, conducted by Associate Director of Bands John Hendricks.

Composer Jack Stamp will then conduct his new workBanddancing,which was commissioned by KKY and TBS national band honorary fraternity and sorority for their 2003 national convention. The regional premieres of this work will take place in six sites across the country in November and the WVU performance is the regional premiere for the northeastern part of the United States.

Following intermission will beIn King Arthurs Court,conducted by the composer, John Paff. This work is new, but sounds old. It was inspired by the legendary tales of King Arthur and begins with a fanfare that leads into a mixed meter medieval dance.

As an example of an old military march, the Wind Symphony then performsZapfenstreichby Ludwig van Beethoven. This was an original tattoo march written for wind band in 1809 or 1810. The wordtattoooriginally referred to a military call sounded in the evening to signal the local tavern keepers to close shop so the soldiers would return to their quarters. Over the years, the ceremonial band tattoo in Great Britain, Germany, and other countries developed into an elaborate evening ceremony that completely eclipsed the original function of the call. Jay Drury, adjunct assistant conductor with the WVU Bands, will conduct.

An example of a new military march isCommando March,by Samuel Barber, written for the United States Army Air Corps (now the U.S. Air Force) in 1942 to symbolize the progressive nature of that branch of the service. It was given a highly successful premiere in Atlantic City in 1943.

Mournful Maggie(1923) by Karl King represents old entertainment music and presents a look back into the golden age of the circus and traveling shows of the early part of the past century.Maggiewas a trombone novelty march from the era when King was the conductor of the Barnum and Bailey Circus Band.

The last work on the program, also representing entertainment music, will beHoney Boys on Paradeby E.V. Cupero, who conducted touring minstrel show bands and circus bands for much of his career.Honey Boys on Paradeis a circus march of the type called ascreamer.It was meant to feature the dazzling technique of the circus bands of that era. Cupero wrote this march for GeorgeHoney BoyEvans, the most famous minstrel of his time, a year before his death in 1915.

For tickets to the Wind Symphony Concert, contact the Mountainlair Box Office at (304) 293-SHOW.