Bandanna Overture

Daron Hagen

This article is a stub. If you can help add information to it,
please join the WRP and visit the FAQ (left sidebar) for information.

General Info

Year: 1999
Duration: c. 9:00
Difficulty: V (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Carl Fischer
Cost: Score and Parts - $95.00 | Score - $20.00

Instrumentation

Full Score
V Piccolo
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
Bassoon I-II
Piccolo Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III-IV
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Timpani
Percussion I-II-III-IV-V

(percussion detail desired)

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

Bandanna is an English-language commission opera by Daron Hagen. Bandanna Overture begins with an introduction juxtaposing two ideas: a recurring rhythmic motive which in the opera is associated with the beating of Mona's heart, and a melody to which the women of the tiny border town cry, 'Santa Maria, Salve!' This is followed by a seven-bar refrain based on music from a fist fight in the opera's first scene during which townspeople are singing things like 'Beat him to death!' and 'Slap on the cuffs!' The introduction is followed by the first major section of the overture which weaves together two melodies -- one to which the character Jake sings, 'Donde está mi querida?' and the other to which the chorus sings, 'To live is to sleep; to die is to awaken.' The refrain is then expanded to include a tune to which the chorus sings the words, 'Day of the Dead: Dia de los Muertos.'

The second section juxtaposes two more themes from the opera -- one to which the character Kane sings 'Off the hook, all of you working the onion fields!' and the other to which the chorus sings 'Dona nobis requiem.' The third section, marked 'Like the Main Title of a '30's Melodrama,' is the melody with which the opera begins, climaxes and ends. The first time it appears, a chorus of migrant workers sing the words 'We strike out across the river, with our lives between our teeth' as they plunge across the Rio Grande from Mexico to the United States; the second time we hear the melody it underpins the scene in which Morales 'crosses over' from jealousy to madness; we hear the melody a final time at the opera's close, immediately after Mona's death, when her soul is passing from this world to the next across a metaphorical River Styx.

The overture ends as the opera opens and closes, with the recurring chorale melody whose words at the beginning of the opera, 'To live is to sleep; to die is to awaken' and 'Dona nobis pacem' have returned at the opera's end with greater, sadder significance.

It is important to note that Bandanna Overture was composed especially for the concert hall; it is not performed as part of the staged opera. Commissioned by the College Band Directors National Association in 1998 as a derived work from the commissioned opera Bandanna, the overture was first performed 24 February 1999 by the Small College Intercollegiate Band conducted by H Robert Reynolds, as part of the CBDNA 1999 National Convention.

- Program Note by composer

Media

Audio CD: Baylor University Wind Ensemble (Michael Haithcock, conductor)
Audio CD: North Texas Wind Symphony (Eugene Corporon, conductor)

State Ratings

Texas: V

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

Texas Tech University (Lubbock) Symphonic Band (Joe Pagan, conductor) - 21 November 2021
Racine (Wisc.) Concert Band (March Eichner, conductor) - 22 May 2018
Butler University (Indianapolis, Ind.) Wind Ensemble (Michael Colburn, conductor) – 28 September 2017
1999 CBDNA Small College Intercollegiate Band (H. Robert Reynolds, conductor) – 24 February 1999 (CBDNA 1999 National Conference, Austin, Tx.) *Premiere Performance*

Works for Winds by This Composer

Agincourt Fanfare (2007)
Bandanna (1998)
Bandanna Overture (1999)
The Banner of My Purpose(2006)
Concerto for Flugelhorn (1994)
Forward! (1998)
The Heart of a Stranger (1999)
Light Fantastic (2004)
Night Again (1997)
Prelude and Prayer (from Bandanna) (1999)
Sennets, Cortage, and Tuckets (1989)
Suddenly (1999)
Wedding Dances (orch. Spede) (1999)

Resources

Daron Hagen website
Hagen, D. (1999). Bandanna Overture: Medium Band [score]. C. Fischer: New York.
Parsonage, Catherine. Bandanna Winds Magazine.
Powell, Edwin C. (2002). Bandanna, An Opera by Daron Aric Hagen with Libretto by Paul Muldoon, Commissioned by the College Band Directors National Association: The Origins of an Artwork with a Glimpse at its Musical Character Development [Doctoral Dissertation].
Wallace, Jacob. "Bandanna Overture." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 10, Compiled and edited by Richard Miles, 705-714. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2015.