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Acadiana

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Frank Ticheli

Frank Ticheli


General Info

Year: 2016
Duration: c. 16:10
Difficulty: V (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Manhattan Beach Music
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $325.00   |   Score Only (print) - $95.00


Movements

1. At the Dance Hall - 3:45
2. Meditations on a Cajun Ballad - 7:32
3. To Lafayette - 3:55


Instrumentation

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

  • Bass Drum
  • Bongos
  • Chimes
  • Crash Cymbals
  • Crotales
  • Glockenspiel
  • Shaker or Maraca
  • Slapstick
  • Snare Drum
  • Suspended Cymbal (small and medium)
  • Tambourine
  • Tam-Tam
  • Tom-Tom
  • Triangle
  • Vibraphone
  • Washboard
  • Wood Block
  • Xylophone


Errata

  • B-flat Tenor Saxophone, mvt.3, m.61: Remove the indication of “open”.
  • Tuba, mvt.3, m.48, beats 1-3: Notes should be a whole step lower (should be G-F-D-G-F-D-G F).
  • Percussion I, m.1: The instrument playing is not indicated; xylophone is probably intended.


Program Notes

The composer shares this description:

The word acadiana refers to a region comprising much of the southern half of the state of Louisiana, where Cajun culture and heritage are most predominant. Acadiana honors that heritage, and completes a trilogy of Cajun inspired works I have composed for concert band over a twenty-five year period. The trilogy, comprised of Cajun Folk Songs (1989), Cajun Folk Songs II (1996), and the present work (2015), draws from personal childhood memories growing up in South Louisiana, and captures in music my lifelong love of Cajun music and culture.

Acadiana is composed in three movements. The first is a bright and lively dance that makes use of two different Cajun rhythmic features: 1) un valse in deux temps (a waltz in two times), a Cajun dance rhythm that alternates between triple and duple meters; and, later in the movement, 2) a lively Cajun two-step dance.

The second movement, composed in memory of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, serves as the emotional heart of the entire work. It is constructed as a set of six variations on an ancient Cajun ballad, La fille de quartorze ans, (The fourteen-year-old-girl). The melody, which doesn’t appear until about ninety seconds into the movement, is first stated by the piccolo and tuba four octaves apart from each other. As the variations unfold, the music slowly grows in volume and speed, finally bursting out into a wildly chaotic climax. Amidst this chaos, several old Cajun folk songs make short, cameo appearances, and combine with original music to create a complex, frenzied texture that reminds me of some of the wonderful melodic pastiches of American composer Charles Ives. The energy eventually collapses into dark and powerful sustained brass chord, which in turn slowly gives way to a final, prayer-like statement of the melody.

Beginning without a pause, the final movement is an exalted dance that makes use of a variant on an old Cajun folk melody whose origins are clouded by history (as is the case with so many folksongs). The tune may have first appeared in the folksong Jeunes gens campagnard (Young Country Gentlemen); however, many years later, in the late 1920s, a variant of the tune was used for the song Allons a Lafayette (Let’s go to Lafayette). My own melodic variant is quite removed from either of these ascendants, while still upholding their inherent joie de vivre. From beginning to end, the finale is an exuberant celebration of life. Laissez les bon temps rouler (“let the good times roll!”)

Frank Ticheli’s latest work, Acadiana, was commissioned by these groups: Metropolitan Wind Symphony (Lewis J. Buckley, Music Director), New England Youth Wind Ensemble at UMass Lowell (Deb Huber, Music Director), and MIT Concert Band (Thomas Reynolds, Music Director).

- Program Note from Metropolitan Wind Symphony concert program, 6 November 2016


Media


State Ratings

  • Texas: IV. Complete


Performances

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Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music


All Wind Works


Resources

  • Frank Ticheli at Manhattan Beach Music
  • Frank Ticheli errata
  • Frank Ticheli, personal correspondence, July 2018
  • Frank Ticheli website Accessed 6 July 2020
  • Schwartz, Robert M. "Acadiana." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 12, Compiled and edited by Andrew Trachsel, 705-719. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2021.
  • Ticheli, F. (2017). Acadiana: For Concert Band [score]. Manhattan Beach Music: Brooklyn, N.Y.
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