The Music of Don Gillis II; In Memoriam

You're listening to music by Don give us music brought to you each week with a national educational radio network. This is done give us saying welcome for on this broadcast we're going to hear two of my favorite works. I can't explain exactly why they are favorites but I do know that each time I hear the music I'm proud to have been their creator. The first is from my fifth symphony the slow movement called In Memoriam and the second is a symphonic poem The Alamo done at Interlochen by the National High School orchestra the Fifth Symphony was completed 1945 and is dedicated to the memory of three young men who had been members of my band at Texas Christian University. All three of them had been flute players and strangely enough all three were B-24 pilots and all died in service to their country during World War Two. The score had its premiere by Dr. Frank Black in the NBC symphony orchestra and has had many performances since on a worldwide basis. The music begins

with a solemn sound of horns and timpani and mourns along with the composer. The tragedy of the brave young men who died for their nation in wartime in the performance would be here now. Henri and Ali is conducting the National High School orchestra of Interlochen In Memoriam from Symphony Number 5.

Hmm.

It was. When I was. Young.

In memoriam from Symphony Number Five played by the National High School orchestra of Interlochen conducted by Henri and Dolly. You're listening to music by Daniel us and our music continues now with my symphonic poem The Alamo. This is also music a memory of heroic deeds and courageous people and it's dedicated to the valiant band of defenders of the Alamo. When Texas was struggling for independence from Mexico in the 1830s in my original program notes for the premiere of the score by Dr. Max writer in the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra I wrote the Alamo as a tribute to those people who traded life for belief and established themselves through their brave decision as heroes of a nation and some rules of the eternal faith that is America. The music of The Alamo is not descriptive in any sense but rather an introspective exploration of thoughts that passed through my mind as I saw the monument for the first time one evening at dusk. Long ago in San Antonio I will hear it now on a recording which I made with the National High School orchestra at

Interlochen the Alamo.

Was. It.

Plane. Panel Alabama and. Ill. Ill at. The End of. Us. Will ever live. In. Illinois. I am. Ill.

Was. Was. Was. Was. Was.

With through. Her.

You're. With this performance of the Alamo by the National High School orchestra the interlocking conducted by the composer. We've come to the end of another broadcast of music by Don DeLillo's Earlier we heard in memoriam from my symphony number five. A few moments ago I mentioned that these two works were favorites in that I had special regard and fondness for them. For they were written to express deeply felt emotion about people and events which had moved me greatly. There's also another reason I believe for these two works marked the end of a creative style for with the appearance of my Symphony Number Five and a half. My music became less subjective and I truly think more representative of the gregarious and outgoing me as it were true I listened to my pre 947 music with a great deal of nostalgia as if the million important scenes and friends were being revisited. But viewing them now from this point in time as Through A Glass Darkly for they are no longer a part of the

present here and now. Time alone will tell what the departure from the style of writing was the right thing to have done. But I did it. And the fact that I did it without planning a philosophical change indicates that it was inevitable. And so therefore I presume logical. It is curious as I have entered into my 50s that I find myself once again using stylistic phrases of my earlier writing. Perhaps this itself is an indication that one does indeed return to the scenes of his youth more and more frequently as one grows older. I've often said that I'd rather write a good hymn tune or a popular song that the whole world could sing than all of the computerized symphonies and electronic operas that have ever been written. For me posterity would be a picture of a kid walking down the street in the year 20 to 65 whistling one of my melodies and who knows it just might happen. Next week our will move once again back to 1947 and program Symphony Number Five and a half and so you can see for