JFK: A Profile

In 2016 composer Steven L. Rosenhaus initiated a commissioning consortium to write a work honoring the 100th birthday of the late President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917–1963). The result, JFK: A PROFILE, exists in two forms, narrator and orchestra, and narrator and concert band. The orchestral version was premiered in 2017 by the Carson City Symphony, David Bugli, Music Director/Conductor, with the composer conducting. The band version was premiered the same year by the Virginia Grand Military Band, Loras John Schissel, Music Director/Conductor. (The audio of the band premiere is presented here.) Each version is independent and not meant to be performed together; each is dedicated with gratitude to the premiering ensemble. JFK: A Profile draws on speeches Kennedy gave during his terms as Congressman, Senator, and then President of the United States, on a variety of topics: civil rights, space exploration, peace (and war), the arts, and the nature of democracy and its fragility. From these quotations we get not only a sense of Kennedy's priorities but who he was as a person, someone who took his responsibilities earnestly without taking himself too seriously. Most of the music is original, but there are several quotations of, or allusions to, music associated with Kennedy and his time. The opening "Ruffles and Flourishes" is used by the U.S. military to introduce distinguished people. The highest honor of four ruffles (on drums) and flourishes (on bugles) is played before "Hail to the Chief" (another tune used later in the work) and is reserved solely for the President. (It should be noted that several sets of "Ruffles and Flourishes" followed by "Hail to the Chief" were played during Kennedy's funeral.) Other significant tunes heard in the course of the work include the spiritual "O, Freedom," "The Wearing of the Green," and "Londonderry Air" (aka "Danny Boy"). One final remark: If Kennedy is remembered for anything he said it is for the portion of his inaugural address in which he said: "Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country." The statement has been attributed at times to Oliver Wendell Holmes, President Warren G. Harding, and even the headmaster of the Choate School in Connecticut which JFK attended. Regardless, the statement is a powerful one and still commands attention.