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ABOUT THE COMPOSER

Carl Schroeder (b. 1982) of Minneapolis, Minnesota, composes music for concert band, orchestra, choir, chamber ensembles and solo piano that often draws inspiration from American history, current events, natural surroundings and memories. His large ensemble music has been performed by nearly 50 concert bands, orchestras and choirs, including the Air Force Band of Mid-America, Minnesota Youth Symphonies and Ukraine’s Chamber Choir Kyiv. He has written commissioned works for the City of Lakes Community Band, Cornell University Symphonic Band, Minnesota State Band, Minnesota Symphonic Winds, Southwest Wind Ensemble, Three Rivers Conference Honor Band, Valley Winds, Wells Fargo Chorus and other ensembles and individuals. His published compositions include the concert band work Spin, the choral work Two December Carols and the piano solo 88 Keys, and six CDs of his music have been released. He is also the author of two books in the Fenn and Zorro series of novels told through correspondence. A 2005 graduate of St. Olaf College, he studied composition primarily with Timothy Mahr and Peter Hamlin. He composed The Minnesota Portraits during the summer of 2003 and adapted the work for orchestra the following summer. In 2006 he adapted the third movement, "Mississippi River," for solo piano and also completed a revised version of the original concert band version. In 2015 he adapted the first movement, "Historic Fort Snelling," for flute ensemble and snare drum.

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MORE ON THE MINNESOTA PORTRAITS

A NOTE FROM THE COMPOSER
I wrote the three-movement suite The Minnesota Portraits in 2003 for the Calhoun-Isles Community Band (now known as the City of Lakes Community Band), which commissioned the work using funds from an anonymous donor. After settling on the idea that the piece would depict various Minnesota landmarks, I brainstormed a number of possible directions and settled on the three movements of "Historic Fort Snelling," "Lake Calhoun Sunrise" (later renamed "Bde Maka Ska Sunrise") and "Mississippi River."

With the opening movement, "Historic Fort Snelling," I tried to depict Minnesota's Fort Snelling in both its original form as a bustling center for lodging and trade, and in its current form as a cemetery for U.S. Armed Forces veterans. The music has a pretty simple A-B-A structure, with the fast-paced "A" section depicting the pioneer days, and the slower "B" section being a salute to those buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, including my grandfather.

The second movement, originally titled "Lake Calhoun Sunrise," was inspired by my impressions of the Minneapolis lake (now known as Bde Maka Ska) a few blocks from where I grew up. These include memories of biking around and swimming in the lake, having dinner and popcorn at the Refectory, and checking out sand castles and milk carton boat races during the Aquatennial, to name a few. The music emphasizes rising melodies and motifs (especially the rising minor second interval) to go with the "sunrise" in the title, and there are some "mirror image" melodies where the same sequence of pitches is played forward, then backward, like a reflection on the water's surface. The first few measures of the piece have a series of staccato pitches timed to mimic the rhythm of a rock skipping across water, with one more "rock skip" coming back as the movement's final chord. In 2018 Lake Calhoun was renamed Bde Maka Ska, so I chose to rename the movement title "Bde Maka Ska Sunrise."

The concluding "Mississippi River" movement was inspired in part by my family's annual childhood trips to Itasca State Park in northwestern Minnesota that always included a stop at the Mississippi River headwaters. There the mighty Mississippi River starts out as a small, tranquil stream running through a stretch of rocks which you can skip over and truthfully claim that you "walked across the Mississippi River." While composing "Mississippi River," I structured it to start softly like the river, with a gentle oboe solo, and then gradually include more instruments to show the river growing and picking up speed. The middle section has some fast, tricky "mixed meter" rhythms that aren't in the familiar 3/4 or 4/4 meter of most music—but instead switch from 7/8 to 2/4 to 3/8, and so on. These rhythms were inspired by the children's rhythmic chant where the letters of Mississippi are spelled out quickly, with irregularly-placed emphasis on first M and the last three I's like so: M-i-s-s-I-s-s-I-p-p-I. The opening oboe theme returns at the end, now played by the brass section, and the music ends abruptly, as if to show that the river has exited Minnesota at full strength.

– Carl Schroeder, October 2019

FURTHER INFORMATION ON FORT SNELLING AND BDE MAKA SKA

For more information about the history of Fort Snelling and Bde Maka Ska, please see the links below prepared by the City of Lakes Community Band with information to about the complicated history of the state of Minnesota and two of the specific places being honored in The Minnesota Portraits.

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CONCERT PERFORMANCES concert band version unless otherwise noted
Nov. 13, 2003: City of Lakes Community Band; Richard Raaen, conductor - Minneapolis, MN premiere
Mar. 21, 2004: City of Lakes Community Band; Richard Raaen, conductor - Edina, MN
May 15, 2004: St. Olaf College Valhalla Band; Haley Clark, conductor - Northfield, MN
June 8, 2004: City of Lakes Community Band; Josh Anderson, conductor - Minneapolis, MN
June 27, 2004: City of Lakes Community Band; Josh Anderson, conductor - St. Paul, MN
June 29, 2004: City of Lakes Community Band; Josh Anderson, conductor - Bloomington, MN
July 7, 2004: City of Lakes Community Band; Carrie Backman, conductor - Eden Prairie, MN
July 14, 2004: City of Lakes Community Band; Carrie Backman, conductor - St. Louis Park, MN
July 18, 2004: City of Lakes Community Band; Josh Anderson, conductor - Edina, MN
Nov. 21, 2004: St. Olaf Philharmonia; Jo Ann Polley, conductor - Northfield, MN premiere (orchestra arrangement)
Jan. 30, 2005: Nebraska Wind Symphony; Erica Neidlinger, conductor - Omaha, NE VIDEO LINK Listen to this performance on YouTube
Mar. 4, 2005: Cornell University Symphonic Band, Robert Whalen, conductor - Ithaca, NY ("Bde Maka Ska Sunrise") VIDEO LINK Listen to this performance on YouTube
Apr. 4, 2005; Paynesville High School Band; Ken Vork, conductor - Paynesville, MN
June 5, 2005: Minnesota Symphonic Winds; Jeffrey Ruhnke, conductor - Edina, MN
Nov. 10, 2005: Southwest High School Wind Ensemble; Keith Liuzzi, conductor - Minneapolis, MN
June 4, 2006: City of Lakes Community Band; Paul Kile, conductor - Minneapolis, MN
June 18, 2006: City of Lakes Community Band; Paul Kile, conductor - St. Paul, MN
July 16, 2006: City of Lakes Community Band; Paul Kile, conductor - Edina, MN
July 18, 2006: City of Lakes Community Band; Paul Kile, conductor - Bloomington, MN
Nov. 19, 2006: Star of the North Concert Band; Wayne Feller, conductor - Red Wing, MN
Dec. 5, 2006: Edina High School Varsity Band; Paul Kile, conductor - Edina, MN
May 11, 2008: City of Lakes Community Band; Paul Kile, conductor - Minneapolis, MN ("Historic Fort Snelling" and "Mississippi River")
Apr. 19, 2009: MBDA 9-10 State Honor Band, Tim Diem, conductor - Red Wing, MN ("Historic Fort Snelling") VIDEO LINK Watch this performance on YouTube
Mar. 21, 2010: Saint Mary's University Concert Band; Janet Heukeshoven, conductor - Winona, MN
Nov. 13, 2010: Rochester Community Band; Mike Mangan, conductor - Rochester, MN
Dec. 18, 2012: City of Lakes Community Band; Tedd Gullickson, conductor - Minneapolis, MN ("Historic Fort Snelling")
June 4, 2013: Minnesota Symphonic Winds; Paul Kile, conductor - Bloomington, MN
May 18, 2014: Northeast Orchestra; Jeffrey Stirling, conductor - Fridley, MN (orchestra arrangement)
July 20, 2015: Flute Cocktail; Cindy Farrell, conductor - Edina, MN premiere ("Historic Fort Snelling" flute ensemble arrangement)
Nov. 7, 2015: Flute Cocktail; Cindy Farrell, conductor - Minneapolis, MN ("Historic Fort Snelling" flute ensemble arrangement)
Nov. 15, 2015: Nebraska Wind Symphony; Keith Michael Davis - Omaha, NE VIDEO LINK Watch this performance on YouTube
Sept. 24, 2016: Minnesota State Band; Keith Liuzzi, conductor - Litchfield, MN
Oct. 14, 2016: Minnesota State Band; Keith Liuzzi, conductor - Iron, MN ("Historic Fort Snelling" and "Mississippi River") VIDEO LINK Watch this performance on Facebook
Nov. 9, 2016: Minnesota State Band; Keith Liuzzi, conductor - Minneapolis, MN
June 24, 2017: Minnesota State Band; Keith Liuzzi, conductor - Minneapolis, MN
Aug. 16, 2017: Minnesota State Band; Keith Liuzzi, conductor - St. Paul, MN
June 2, 2019: Hopkins Westwind Concert Band; Mike Anderson, conductor - Hopkins, MN VIDEO LINK Listen to this performance on YouTube
Oct. 24, 2023: City of Lakes Community Band; Maxwell Voda, conductor

NEWS ARTICLES
May 2004: "Student composer hits high note with compositions, leadership" (Anna Palmer, St. Olaf Magazine)
Feb. 9, 2005: "Composer visits PAHS band practice" (Michael Jacobson, Paynesville Press)
Jan. 27, 2005: "Nebraska Wind Symphony sets sights on youths" (Kim Roberts-Gudeman, Omaha World-Herald)

RADIO BROADCASTS
June 28, 2006: Classical Discoveries (Marvin Rosen, host; WPRB 103.3FM, Princeton, NJ) - Calhoun-Isles Community Band; Richard Raaen, conductor

RECORDINGS
The Minnesota Portraits and other music by Carl Schroeder - Nebraska Wind Symphony; Erica Neidlinger, conductor / Cornell University Symphonic Band; Robert Whalen, conductor
88 Keys: Piano Music by Carl Schroeder ("Mississippi River" piano arrangement) - Carl Schroeder, piano