Thursday evening's concert of the FHSU Symphonic Winds and Wind Ensemble met the mark of excellence the FHSU choirs had set Tuesday.

The Symphonic Winds, conducted by Lane Weaver, got the concert going with "Polka and Fugue" from the opera "Schwanda the Bagpiper" by Jaromir Weinberger, a lively piece in Czech nationalistic style.

After that, Michael Colgrass's "Old Churches," an ultramodern take on Gregorian chant, provided a complete change of pace. After this, though, the Winds played another polka, this time "Italian Polka" by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Unusually tuneful for Rachmaninoff, this sounded just like an Italian melody as transcribed by a Russian.

One of the highlights of the evening was Frank Ticheli's arrangement of "Amazing Grace" by John Newton, which student conductor Benjamin Galloway interpreted as Ticheli intended, "to be sincere, to be direct, to be honest" (program note). The Winds ended their part of the program on a cheerful note with "The Hounds of Spring" by Alfred Reed. An appreciative audience rewarded them with enthusiastic applause.

Under the baton of Jeff Jordan, the Wind Ensemble gave a fine performance of compositions by two resident composers. One of them, "Elegy of the Hunter" by student composer Makenzi R. Johnson, was a world premiere. The other, "Oligopoly," by faculty member Timothy M. Rolls, received its first local performance. Each in its own way was outstanding.

Johnson says in the program note that she wrote "Elegy" in memory of her grandpa, Herb Glick. The music, which Jordan described as "Romantic, with unusual tone colors and harmony," depicts the mixed emotions of a hunter as he stalks and shoots his prey in order to feed his family. Johnson's work was commissioned by the FHSU Music Department and supported by a grant from the Student Government Association.

Rolls titled his composition "Oligopoly" because he intended it to show what happens "when a small group controls all essential elements of its organization" (program note). He might as well have called it "power struggle" because it depicts an altercation between two groups, the brass loud and pugnacious, and the woodwinds, somewhat more reasonable in volume and attitude. The wit and humor of the piece, present throughout, becomes explicit in its circular form -- the end is like the beginning -- neither faction makes any progress.

In addition to these selections, the Ensemble treated us to a journey down memory lane with the suite "Old Home Days" by Charles Ives, arranged from a collection of Ives's songs by Jonathan Elkus. The suite incorporates popular music from the 1890s with Ives's additions relating it to his own experiences, real or imagined. Ives was a talented maverick whose compositions often seem bizarre--someone once told me, "You either love him or you hate him." But there's nothing not to love about "Old Home Days." And, as with Rolls's work, the Ensemble brought out all of its intrinsic wit and humor.

The Ensemble ended the concert with Robert Jager's "Shivaree," then brought down the house with an encore, Henry Fillmore's "His Honor."

The next event in the FHSU series is a guest concert by the Luther College Orchestra, March 24, 7:30 p.m., in Beach/Schmidt.

Ruth Firestone is a supporter of music and theater in Hays. rfiresto@fhsu.edu