Battle of Manassas
Thomas Wiggins
Orchestrated by Jonathan Bailey Holland
Zenas Hsu, Violin 1
Kiyoshi Hayashi, Violin 2
Daniel Orsen, Viola
Timothy Paek, Cello
John DeMartino, Bass
Allison Parramore, Flute
Andrew van der Paardt, Oboe
Hunter Bennett, Clarinet
Christina Dioguardi, Bassoon
Nick Auer, Horn
About the Composer
Thomas Wiggins was born blind and into slavery in 1849 on the Wiley Edward Jones Plantation in Harris County, Georgia. Not long after his birth, he and his family were sold further south to James Bethune, a journalist, lawyer, and politician in Columbus, Georgia. Bethune had two daughters who were accomplished pianists, and one day, after hearing them, Wiggins slipped unnoticed into the piano room and began to play. He immediately demonstrated exceptional musical prowess; it is reported that he could play almost anything perfectly by ear after only one hearing.
Upon recognizing Wiggins’ immense talent, Bethune both provided him with a room with a piano that was attached to the house and saw an opportunity to make a profit. Wiggins wrote his first work at five years old and by the time he was eight he was being exploited for his talents by Bethune, a fact that would sadly remain true for the rest of his life. In 1857 Bethune exhibited Wiggins throughout Georgia before he hired the young boy out to Perry Oliver, who took Wiggins on an extensive concert tour throughout the Southern states. By the age of ten, the sensation that was “blind” Tom Wiggins had become so well known that in 1860 he was invited to play at the White House by President James Buchanan, making Wiggins the first black American musician to headline at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. His concert programs included works by composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, and Liszt, as well as improvisations on operatic tunes, and popular contemporary ballads.
About the Music
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Bethune exercised his manipulative power over Wiggins and used his talents to raise funds for the Confederacy. During this time, Wiggins composed his most famous work, The Battle of Manassas (1962), which details the story of the Confederate Army’s victory at the Battle of Bull Run. In the work, originally written for piano, Wiggins employs pastiche and imitative devices as rhetorical techniques to memorialize the events of the battle. Throughout the work you can hear excerpts of melodies from “The Girls I Left Behind Me,” “Le Marseillaise,” “Yankee Doodle Dandee,” and “The Star-Spangled Banner,” among others.
Sadly, after the Civil War ended, Bethune continued to exploit Wiggins and his musical abilities. In 1865 the Bethune family successfully pursued a guardianship trial, and after, continued to tour Wiggins around the country and abroad as a novelty act. Wiggins gave his final performances in 1905.
Tonight you will hear the world premiere of Jonathan Bailey Holland’s arrangement of Wiggins’ Battle of Manassas for winds and strings. Phoenix commissioned this arrangement earlier this year. A good phriend of Phoenix, Holland is currently Chair of Composition, Contemporary Music and Core Studies at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Founding Faculty in the Music Composition Low Residency MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Learn more about him at http://www.jonathanbaileyholland.com/.
Note by Christina Dioguardi