#8– September 16, 2019

Luis Serrano Alarcón

Second Symphony for Wind Orchestra

Alarcón’s Second Symphony for Wind Orchestra was written in 2017. The work was commissioned by the University of Saint Thomas (USA) and has a duration of 27 minutes.

This Grade 6 work, uses a large orchestra, including English horn, Contrabassoon, 1st trumpet alternating with piccolo trumpet, as well as String Bass, Harp, Piano and Celesta. The percussion section calls for 5 percussionists, using a large set of small percussion.

Alarcón’s Second Symphony is cast in four movements:

I. Maestoso. Lento espressivo. Allegro ma non troppo.

II. Con vivacità

III. Lento. Moderato. Maestoso. Tempo I

IV. Presto

The first performance took place on Mai 7th 2017, at the O’Shaughnessy Auditorium – Saint Catherine University – Saint Paul, by the University of Saint Thomas Symphonic Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Matthew George.

This music is available only on rental at the composer’s website.

Born in Valencia in 1972, Luis Serrano Alarcón is a Spanish composer and conductor. His works have been performed in more than 30 countries, he has been invited to conduct his own music in Spain, Italy, Singapore, USA, Colombia and Hong Kong and has received commissions from important national and international organizations and groups. Including the Valencian Institute of Music, the International Band Competition of Vila d’Altea, the CIBM of Valencia, the CIM La Armónica of Buñol, the University of Saint Thomas (Minnesota), the Philharmonic Winds (Singapore) and the Hong Kong Band Directors Association. In 2012, the Southeastern Conference Band Directors Association, formed by a consortium of 14 US universities, commissioned the composition of his first Symphony for Wind Orchestra, premiered in October 2013 and, in 2017 he wrote the second of his symphonies commissioned by the University of Saint Thomas, piece which has been premiered in May 2017. His next projects include a new Trumpet Concerto commissioned of a consortium of three US universities: University of New Mexico, University of Kentucky and Vanderbilt University

He has twice won the First Prize of the International Composition Competition for Band of Corciano (Italy), in 2006 with the piece Preludio y Danza del Alba, for brass quintet and symphonic band and in 2009 with La Dama Centinela. In 2010 he won with this same piece the Euterpe Prize from the Federation of Musical Societies of Valencia in the category of Best Symphonic Work and in 2011 his piece Duende won the Best Classical Edition in the Awards of the Music, which annually delivers the Academy of Arts and Sciences of Music and are the most important in the field of music in Spain.

Luis Serrano Alarcón has been, between 2011 and 2013, member of WASBE Board of Directors.

Since 2015, under the Alarcon Music label, he has developed his own publishing project and since January 2017 he is the principal conductor of the UMSC Symphonic Band of Villar del Arzobispo (Valencia).

1st movement
https://soundcloud.com/alarcon_music/second-symphony-for-wind-orchestra-i-maestoso

2nd movement
https://soundcloud.com/alarcon_music/symphony-for-wind-orchestra-ii-con-vivacita

3rd movement
https://soundcloud.com/alarcon_music/second-symphony-for-wind-orchestra-iii-lento-moderato

4th movement
https://soundcloud.com/alarcon_music/second-symphony-for-wind-orchestra-iv-presto

 This symphony was conceived as a work of “tributes” to the Romantic master composers and was especially inspired by their symphonies. These works have had a profound influence on the career of this composer; first as an interpreter and later as a composer: “Although my Second Symphony does not contain explicit musical quotations, any listener will be able to identify this music as relating to these symphonic composers, especially from the 19th century.”

The structure of the Second Symphony resembles that of a Romantic symphony. The first movement is in the form of sonata allegro, albeit reduced, with an initial motive based on an arpeggio of C minor (which subsequently reappears in the final movement, giving the work a cyclical character). The second movement, which is not a “scherzo” in the true classical sense, but which really evokes the “scherzante” character of some Romantic works, also has a structure of sonata allegro form. It is followed by a third movement of a slower character, although characterized by contrasts, written in E flat major as a relative key of main C minor. The symphony culminates with the fourth movement in rondo form. There are 5 sections with 3 refrains and 2 internal verses, inspired especially in harmonic, structural and melodic resources of those aforementioned composers that have made an indelible mark on my own compositional development. The fact that the composer is also a pianist has given him the opportunity to access firsthand the works of these great Russian Romantic composers: As a result, all that I have learned from these masters has allowed me to express my gratitude and pay homage to them through this Second Symphony for Wind Orchestra.