If there ever was a Mount Rushmore chiseled out for band composers, Ron Nelson should join the likes of Percy Grainger, Vincent Persichetti, James Barnes and Alfred Reed.
His instincts for composing impressed his piano teacher at the age of 6. "I was just lazy enough not to learn the pieces that she wanted me to learn, but I made them up and presented her with a new piece every week," Nelson says. "She was wise enough to insist that I write. That started it all."
Nelson's musical interests took him to the Eastman School of Music, where he wrote his sparkling overture Savannah River Holiday, most recently recorded by Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra. But his contributions to the band world are his foremost achievement, including Rocky Point Holiday, a seminal moment in the evolution of wind band composition, Sonoran Desert Holiday and his award-winning Passacaglia (Homage on B-A-C-H).
Dr. Nelson served on the faculty at Brown University upon completion of his studies, from 1956 until his retirement in 1993.
Studies at Eastman and Paris Conservatory
AH: What I want to know more than anything from your studies at Eastman, because I think his music is wonderful, is Howard Hanson. What kind of one-on-one interactions did you have with Mr. Hanson, if any, and what was it like as a student while he was still there?
RN: He was the reason that I was compelled, really, toward Eastman. The first thing I heard of his was the Romantic Symphony [Symphony No. 2]. I just knew I had to study with him.
When I was in high school, I wrote to him and asked if he had a picture, and he signed the picture and sent it back. He was very kind. The band director I had in high school, Bruce Houseknecht, was a graduate of Eastman, so he wrote a letter on my behalf and sent him the piano concerto that I had written [a concerto for piano and band].
What I didn't know was that Hanson was regarded almost as a god-like figure. There was just something about his presence, his demeanor, everything about him, that was just awesome. He really required his students to approach him with a certain amount of reverence, which was fine.
AH: From Eastman, you then went to Paris for more study on a Fulbright Grant.
RN: Well, that was important just to get out of the rigor of graduate work. I was going downhill. The demand of graduate work was so intense, I didn't know whether I'd make it, because everything you had to study took me away from writing. The Fulbright year in Paris saved my career because I got my batteries charged really full.
A "Punk Kid" Meets Vaughan Williams and William Walton
AH: Was it also during that time you got to meet Ralph Vaughan Williams?
RN: Yes. I went over to London and set up an appointment to meet Vaughan Williams and William Walton. Vaughan Williams was ill at the time, and I went over to his home and Mrs. Vaughan Williams met me at the door and she said, "Just a few minutes."
So I went up and he was actually in bed. We talked for a while. He was just a very loving, gentle, huge person. He signed my copy of his Fifth Symphony, which is a piece that I've loved since I was 13, and I still love it. That's a long time to love a piece.
At that time, Walton was preparing for the premiere of Troilus and Cressida, so I got into the rehearsals of that. I had just a short time to talk with Walton. Here I was this punk kid from the states studying in Paris, and I just felt that he kind of put up with me. But I love more of his music than the total amount of Vaughan Williams. I'm still in awe of what Walton was able to do: the violin concerto, the viola concerto.
In my opinion, Walton as a person didn't live up to the image suggested by his music. I remember Laurence Olivier said something about that too. They were good friends, worked together on films and so on. He said something at one time that his music just simply doesn't fit his personality, and I agree. You see this tired-looking guy, not animated, and then you say, "He wrote that?"
Recording with the Dallas Wind Symphony
AH: I was formally introduced to your band music by the Holidays & Epiphanies disc the Dallas Wind Symphony made with Reference Recordings. And to this day I'm so stunned by the powerful sonics of the album and the musicianship that they committed to your works.
RN: I think that's the peak experience of my life. I mean, there's so much of it on that disc. I don't have any qualms about anything that's on that disc. I don't say, "Well, I wish they had done this" or "I wish they had done that." Jerry [Junkin, the DWS director] had prepared them so well. I remember standing on the stage, and I was talking to Tam Henderson, who runs Reference Recordings, and they lit into Rocky Point. My jaw dropped. I'd never heard it played that well.
They did a terrific job on Sonoran Desert, and they played their hearts out for me on Passacaglia and Epiphanies. Even the easy piece, Courtly Airs & Dances. I had to cajole them a little bit to get them to sing. This band did not want to sing. But they came through.
The discussion continues with a more in-depth look at Ron Nelson's music for band.
Alex Hoffman - Alex Hoffman is a graduate of the University of Kansas' journalism school whose credits include Midwest Commercial Journal, Lawrence ...
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