Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature three recent extraordinary performances of Symphony No. 7.
Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature two new performances of favorite symphonies: Symphony No. 4, Symphony No. 7, and the recording of the premiere performance of "Allegro Molto" from Symphony No. 2.
From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature pictures from the World Premiere of David's Symphony No. 7 by Stephen K. Steele and the Illinois State University Wind Symphony on March 10, 2005.
From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature a video of David conducting his own Symphony No. 7 in a live performance from April 28, 2005.
Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature three of David’s compositions (of which there are literally dozens to choose from) that highlight some of his most beautiful writing in slower tempi: "Movement I" from Recitation Book, "Slow" from Symphony No. 7, and "Slow" from Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano.
Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature performances of three of David's works inspired by folk songs: Symphony No. 7, "Johnny Get Your Hair Cut" from A Carl Sandburg Reader, and The Seeker.
Lane Weaver’s doctoral dissertation on David’s Symphony No. 7 provides an analysis of each movement while providing an inside look into the creation of this symphony. The author also provides thorough biographical information and an extensive discussion of the “Maslankian” approach to composition.
Abstract:
With a composition career spanning from the early 1970s to the present, David Maslanka (b.1943) has earned wide recognition as an important and respected composer of music for nearly every setting. While he has contributed significantly to chamber music, solo literature, vocal settings, and works for symphony orchestra, his compositions for percussion and wind band have arguably provided his most universal acclaim. All six of Maslanka’s band symphonies are considered noteworthy compositions. His distinctive musical voice emerges in each of these works as he explores the gamut of emotional impact from the darkest pain to the most euphoric joy. Such wide ranging scope is not limited solely to the musical moods Maslanka paints, but also includes the means he employs to paint them.
Maslanka’s compositional method is rather unique and quite spiritual in nature as each work is produced through a great deal of subconscious exploration and meditation. His meditations often result in dream images that he translates into musical material. These translations typically are not a moment-by-moment, image-by-image retelling of the meditation, but instead are musical impressions motivated by the impulses of energy Maslanka perceives. Maslanka takes great interest […]