Give Us This Day: Short Symphony for Wind Ensemble (David Maslanka) - UNT Concert Band

Performed by the University of North Texas Concert Band, under the direction of Slade Denman. Recorded on 24 February 2021.
Program notes:
David Maslanka (1943-2017) pursued musical studies at the New England Conservatory, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, Oberlin Conservatory, and he received a Ph.D. in music theory and composition from Michigan State University. His principal composition teachers were Joseph Wood and H. Owen Reed. Maslanka served on the faculties at the State University of New York at Geneseo, Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, and Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York. He received grants, fellowships, and commissions from ASCAP, and from the New York State Arts Council, American Music Center, MacDowell Colony, and National Endowment for the Arts.
Although Maslanka wrote a great many orchestral and choral works, he had a special affinity for winds. His most noted works for band or wind ensemble include Concerto for Piano, Winds, and Percussion, A Child’s Garden of Dreams, Symphony No. 2, In Memoriam, Golden Light, Concerto for Marimba and Band, and Symphony No. 3. His music has been widely performed in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan, and recordings are available on the CRI, Crest, Mark, UMass, and Klavier labels. David Maslanka passed away during the night of August 6, 2017, at home, after having been diagnosed with a severe form of colon cancer in June.
Give Us This Day (2005) was premiered by Rancho Buena Vista High School in Vista, California. The composer notes:
The words “give us this day” are, of course, from the Lord’s Prayer, but the inspiration for this music is Buddhist. I have recently read a book by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh entitled For a Future to be Possible. His premise is that a future for the planet is only possible if individuals become deeply mindful of themselves, deeply connected to who they really are….For me, writing music and working with people to perform music are two of those points of deep mindfulness….Give Us This Day…Give us this very moment of awakeness and aware aliveness so that we can build a future in the face of dangerous and difficult times.
The piece is subtitled “Short Symphony for Wind Ensemble” and is not programmatic in nature. The slow drama of the first movement is contrasted with the joyful and exciting second movement. The piece ends with a setting of Vater unser im Himmelreich (Our Father in Heaven), by Johann Sebastian Bach.