Ballet Sacra

David Holsinger

General Info

Year: 1990
Duration: c. 15:00
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: TRN Music Publishing Co.
Cost: Score and Parts - $120.00 | Score Only - $14.00

Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
Bassoon I-II
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
E-flat Alto Clarinet
Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Cornet I-II-III
B-flat Trumpet I-II
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Euphonium
Trombone I-II-III
Tuba
Piano
Timpani
Percussion (12 players), including:

Anvil
Bar Chimes
Bass Drum
Chimes
Cowbell
Crash Cymbals
Finger Cymbals
Gong
Marimba
Orchestra Bells
Snare Drum
Suspended Cymbal
Tambourine
Temple Blocks (5)
Triangle
Vibraphone
Wood Block
Xylophone

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

Ballet Sacra is intended as a concert piece based on universally known texts utilized in not only the Roman Catholic Mass, but also the Anglican Mass, the Lutheran Service, and the Methodist Communion Service. Although envisioned as a liturgical collaboration between dance company and symphonic band, Ballet Sacra can stand alone without the visual element.

Preceding the entry of the ballet corps, the composition opens with fanfares and flourishes in the brass and percussion pressing forward to culminate in large organ-like tuttis. As the tempo explodes to an ebullient Presto, the dancers are invited to enter the stage. The dance variations are presented over many meter changes and displaced accents, typical of the composer's style. As an unusual accompaniment to an art form that usually choreographs in groups of eight counts, "home meter" during this opening portion is four-five [sic].

The "B" section of the piece features dances for three individuals and couples, the "Pas de trois" and "Pas de deux". Both these dance events are performed over slow, harmonically-minimalistic music variations. This middle section features both a solo trumpet line and singing within the ensemble. Reminiscent of early liturgical chants, the composer asks the singers to intone two phrases from the Gloria of the Mass Ordinary, "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" and "Quoniam tu solus sanctus" (Glory to God in the Highest / For You Alone are Holy). In the final Presto section, the entire dance company is involved as the music unfolds an agitated tapestry where bits and pieces of the first two sections reappear and reassemble into a closing recapitulation of the primary themes, with "home meter" being abridged to four-four. Great organ-like chords sound through the busyness, allusions of the opening "liturgical fanfares" climb upward, and the listener is pounded by terse spikes of sound. The ballet concludes in quiet benediction as voices intone a final prayer: Grant Us Peace ("Dona nobis pacem").

- Program Note by publisher

Media

Audio: Reference recording. University of North Texas Symphonic Band (Dennis Fisher, conductor)
Audio CD: Tokyo Geidai Wind Orchestra (Masaharu Yamamoto, conductor) – 2019

State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

Works for Winds by This Composer

Abram’s Pursuit (1998)
Adagio (2000)
The Adventures of Kid Cam, the Rocketman! (2014)
American Faces (1996)
Ancient Dances (2020)
The Armies of the Omnipresent Otserf (1981)
Army Ants March and Boogie (2005)
At the Strongholds of En Gedi (1996)
Ballet Exaltare (1999)
Ballet Sacra (1990)
Battle Music (1990)
A Call to Celebration (2012)
Canticles! (2001)
The Case of the Mysterious Stranger (1990)
The Chase (2003)
A Childhood Hymn (as arranger) (1862/1991)
City Symphony
- Cityscape I (Festive Hours Neon Night) (2001)
- Cityscape II (Lonely Hours Anguished Night) (2004)
- Cityscape III (Morning Hours Salvation Light) (2008)
The Cluster Bluster Fluster March (1991)
Connacht Rhapsody (2017)
Consider the Uncommon Man (1992)
Deborah's Triumph/Jael's Revenge (2016)
Deerpath Dances (1996)
Divertimented Dances (2006)
The Easter Symphony (1986-1997)
Elegy on an American Folk Tune (2006)
Elegy on an Evening Hymn (2013)
Every Morning New (2002)
Falcon Attack! (2002)
Fanfare for Brass and Timpani (2003)
Fanfare for Such a Time as This (2007)
Fanfare for the Glorious Naycart (2001)
Fantasy on a Gaelic Hymnsong (1999)
Fantasy on Old Hundred (2019)
Festiva Jubiloso (2000)
Festival Music for a Silver Celebration
Fort Canterbury March (1989)
The Gathering of the Ranks at Hebron (1988)
Gears Pulleys Chains (2006)
Gmyway’s Revenge! (1994)
Graysondance (1993)
Gypsydance (1994)
Havendance (1985)
The Helm Toccata (1991)
Hero Music (2005)
Homage: Three Tapestries (1999)
Hopak Raskolniki (1980)
If You Must Doodle, Doodle Somewhere Else (1990)
In Praise of Gentle Pioneers (1996)
In the Spring at the Time When Kings Go Off to War (1991)
A Jolly Walk in Hibbertland (1991)
Kaylen Dreaming (2006)
Kansas City Dances (1978)
L'Arco della Vita (2021)
Lake Canterbury Regatta (1993)
Last Run (2020)
A Little Adventure Music (2002)
Little Fantasy on an American Hymn (2009)
A Little Mystery Music (1996)
Liturgical Dances (1984)
The Maelstrom (2009)
The March of the Combat Patrol (1991)
March of the Grand High Poobah (2006)
March on a Russian Hymnsong (2003)
Mobbusters! (1994)
Nilesdance (1987)
On a Childhood Sunday Song (2004)
On a Hymnsong of Lowell Mason (1990)
On a Hymnsong of Philip Bliss (1989)
On a Hymnsong of Robert Lowry (1993)
On a Southern Hymnsong (1993)
On an American Spiritual (1991)
On Ancient Hymns and Festal Dances (1988)
On the Cul-de-sac, Three O’clock, Friday Afternoon (1999)
On the Grand Prairie Texas (1989)
On the Overland Stage to El Paso (2006)
One Day in a Small Town (2004)
Otserf II : Revenge of the Warrior Prince (2009)
Partita Allegro (1997)
The Peasant Village Dance (1990)
Praises! (2001)
Prairie Dances (1998)
Prelude and Presto (2018)
Prelude and Rondo (1976)
The Pride of Buxmont (2000)
Providence Unfinished (2002)
Quiet River (2011)
Reagan of Illinois (2011)
Reagan of Illinois Part II (2013)
Riding With the Frontier Battalion (2000)
Scaling the North Wall (1990)
Scootin’ on Hardrock (1999)
Scrappy Bumptoe’s Picture Cards and Ragtag Diary (1981)
Sinfonia Voci (1993)
Solemn Hymn & Rowdy Dance (2010)
Soliloquy (2020)
Some Give All (2016)
A Song of Moses (1999)
Summer to Fall: A Love Song (2006)
Symphonia Glorioso (2006)
Symphonic Movement (2000)
Texas Promenade (1999
Til His Hand Grew Tired and Froze to the Sword (2004)
To Live a Life Triumphant (2007)
To Tame the Perilous Skies (1990)
Von Grrrhart’s 613th Regimental March (1994)
The War Trilogy: 1971 (1999)
The White Rose (as arranger) (1917/)
Zinphonia (2017)

Resources

David Holsinger website Accessed 29 August 2021
Girsberger, Russ. Percussion Assignments for Band & Wind Ensemble. Volume I: A-K. Galesburg, MD: Meredith Music Publications, 2004, 152. Print.