John Philip Sousa and the Wagner Overture: A New Transcription of the Overture to Der fliegende Holländer for Wind Orchestra

This research examines John Philip Sousa’s 1893 wind band transcription of Richard Wagner’s overture to Der fliegende Holländer, and focuses specifically on how Sousa reconceived orchestral sonorities and solved particular problems posed by Wagner’s complex orchestrational textures. Findings include that, while appropriate for the era and instrumentation of Sousa’s band, his transcription contains certain limitations for the twenty-first-century wind orchestra. Due to the fact that Sousa’s compositions, arrangements, and transcriptions were written to accommodate frequent outdoor performances, Sousa’s transcription uses more doubled voicings than would be necessary in an indoor concert hall setting. Further, while Sousa’s instrumentation approximates that of the modern wind orchestra, there are notable differences that must be resolved. For these reasons, an update to Sousa’s transcription is needed. As a culminating product of this research, I am including my transcription for wind orchestra of Wagner’s overture to Der fliegende Holländer. In this transcription, I have taken great care to maintain the spirit of Sousa’s while bringing more relevance to the concert hall wind orchestra approach popular in the twenty- first century. I have restored the overture to its original key; maintained the original wind, brass, and timpani parts of Wagner’s orchestral score; and, as often as possible, eliminated doubling of voices unnecessary in the concert hall. I have also updated the instrumentation to today’s needs and added a cello, double bass, and a full complement of harmony clarinets to accentuate a sonic landscape that uses the various colors and timbre possibilities of the modern wind orchestra

Frequencies of peripheral immune cells in older adults following seasonal influenza vaccination with an adjuvanted vaccine

As age increases, immune responses and consequently protection following vaccination to seasonal influenza is commonly believed to decrease. Possible drivers of this immune dysfunction include immunosenescence, repeated exposure to the same seasonal influenza antigens, and prior infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV). Here, to determine immune parameters distinguishing vaccine humoral responders (R) from non-responders (NR) following vaccination, we surveyed broad peripheral blood “cellular immune correlates” of older adults vaccinated with Fluad® (an adjuvanted subunit influenza vaccine containing strains H1N1, H3N2 and B). Phenotyping included αβ-T-cells, γδ-T-cells, B-cells and myeloid cells. The frequencies of most of these lymphocyte phenotypes were found to be similar in R and NR, although perhaps counterintuitively, one of the few differences seen between the two groups was higher frequencies of regulatory T-cells in R. These differences were more prominent for responses to the vaccine strains H1N1 and H3N2 than to the B strain, and in CMV-seropositive than CMV-seronegative elderly. Further, frequencies of early-differentiated CD4+ T-cells tended to be higher and frequencies of memory CD4+ T-cells tended to be lower in R than NR. There were also differences in B-cells, with higher frequencies in R compared to NR. To the best of our knowledge, these results are the first to report such differences in elderly people responding or failing to respond to adjuvanted seasonal influenza vaccination. © 2017 Elsevier Lt