Works for Band,
Wind Ensemble & Brass Band Band
My Life with the Band
Even though I began my study of piano in 1982 and consider this to be the
beginning of my life with music, it wasn’t until I joined the school band
in 1986 that I began to hear the siren song of music, and many of my first
independent ideas about composition were couched in terms of the concert band. I am, at heart, a bandsman, and the bulk
of my performing experience lies in this area: I have played nearly continuously in
school and community bands since beginning to play the trombone, and I have
taught and directed band on the middle school, high school and collegiate
levels.
I once went through a period of several years (about 1995 through 2000)
when I felt that my best musical “hat” was as an arranger for
concert and marching band. For its
2001 marching season, the
For a long time, I have also had something of a “love-hate”
relationship with the band or wind ensemble. In 1997-98, I took Rodney Winther’s Survey of Wind Literature class at CCM, my
undergraduate institution. I became
a convert to the idea of the wind ensemble, and determined to promote this
wonderful organization. Since then,
I have swung back and forth between favoring the band or the orchestra. I think my problem isn’t so much
with one or the other, it is, on the one hand, with band repertoire (is it me,
or are we back in a rut during this decade?) and on the other, with the
near-complete impossibility of getting orchestral performances
(Beethoven’s music is great, but he’s dead, dead, dead!).
So what does the emerging composer do? I make my wind music as authentic to my stylistic
and artistic principles as I can. I
am not an aspiring composer of music for the “educational”
market. At various times, I have
incorporated jazz, rock, serialism, and hymn tunes
into my band/wind ensemble music, but never in the completely overt manner of
some composers, and always alongside my own voice. My favorite composers for band/wind
ensemble are Persichetti, Hindemith, Grainger, Colgrass, Husa, and James Bonney. I
believe every band concert should incorporate a march and an orchestral
transcription alongside only the best in new and classic original works. I believe that community-based bands
(and orchestras and choruses) represent the best hope for concert music in our
country and that they should be fostered for both their musical and social
worth.
Please sample my original works for band, wind ensemble and concert band.
Spaghetti Western for classical guitar and wind ensemble
(10 minutes) (in progress)
Commissioned by Petar Jankovic
Anticipated premiere Spring 2011
Petar has asked for a
work that pays homage to the sights and sounds of the American West while
incorporating the classical guitar in a concertante-style
piece. Having never written for
guitar before, this will be a major challenge, but I look forward to the piece,
and have been “pumping nylon” in order to get ready! I am honored to get to fill a gap in the
repertoire—there is very little music for classical guitar and winds.
Daytime Drama for clarinet and wind ensemble (10
minutes) (in progress)
Commissioned by Magie Smith and Milton
Allen
Anticipated premiere Spring 2011, Eastern Illinois University
Ever since Magie
and Milt got jobs at the same school, I’ve been thinking about writing a
piece for them, and we’ve decided that 2011 will be the year to play
it. I’m thinking of a piece
inspired by the American radio and TV programs known as “soap operas,”
and the various sections will allude to common plot devices in that media.
Progress through Knowledge for chorus with band (6 minutes)
Commissioned by the
Poem by Elaina Stewart, Winner, OPSU Centennial Poetry Contest
Premiered October 2009 by Oklahoma Panhandle State University Music
Department
This work is a centennial celebration of
my current employer,
Aggie Songs for concert band (5 minutes)
Premiered October 2009 by the
Every college or university needs a
concert band medley of its school songs, and as a 100th birthday
present to OPSU, I decided to create just such an arrangement, which we did not
have before. The piece consists of
the state song of
Ode for concert band (6 minutes) (2008)
Commissioned by the Upper
Arlington High School Band Boosters
Premiered May 21, 2008 by the Upper Arlington High School
Symphonic Band, Matthew Saunders, conducting, Columbus, Ohio
This piece was commissioned and composed
to celebrate the career of John P. Blevins, long-time director of bands at
Listen to a sample—This variation features a strong flute player, backed up by
the rest of the flute section and the percussion battery.
Homo sapiens trombonensis
for trombone and wind ensemble (10 minutes) (2005)
Premiered March 2006 by Matthew Saunders (soloist) with the Ohio State University Wind
Symphony, Dr. Russel Mikkelson, conductor,
This piece was my first concerto-style
composition, and the first piece I was able to write with a real
“Cadillac” of bands in mind, the Ohio State Wind Symphony. When my graduate advisor, Donald Harris,
suggested a composition for wind ensemble as my master’s thesis, I was
initially hesitant, as I was then in a bit of a “down” state of
mind regarding the medium. The
piece turned out tremendously, however, and it is one of my favorites. It is usually the first or second piece
I play for people who ask to hear my music, in a close tie with the first
movement of my Five Rhythmic Etudes
for orchestra.
The structure of this piece is that of a
fantasia, with the sections of music delineated by timbre and by stylistic
reference. Some moments are very
much indebted to Stravinsky, while others have overt jazz or rock origins. There are a few inside jokes, which
shall remain so, and other not-so-inside jokes, including a section of
quotations of great concerto themes for composers who never wrote trombone
concerti but should have.
When I showed a draft of this piece to
Dr. Russel Mikkelson, he
immediately offered to program it, and asked who I would like to see as
soloist. I said that I would
approach Joseph Duchi, thinking that someone of
stature would do the piece justice and be a thrill to listen to, but when I
did, Joe suggested that I learn the part, and I spent the better part of six
months doing just that. I have been
looking for a chance to play the piece again since then, and I am in the
process of creating a version for trombone and piano.
Listen to a sample—From the beginning of the piece
Read the program note from the
premiere
The First Day of Our Life for brass quartet (3
minutes) (2004)
Premiered July 2004,
Performed June 2006,
Arranged for concert band, August 2004
I wrote this short march as a
recessional for what was really the first day of a new life—the life I
have shared with my wife, Becky, since July 31, 2004. The original version was for two
trumpets and two trombones, and once we were back from the honeymoon and Becky
had started work, I had a few weeks to kill before I began full-time graduate
work. The result was an arrangement
for concert band. Perhaps
I’ll find a performance some time.
Becky also wrote a poem with the same title that we included in the
program for our wedding:
The First Day of Our Life
By Rebecca Lynn Briley
Walking through darkness and shadows and storms,
I traveled alone without you by my side,
And then I met you, and my tears were all dried.
We’ve asked for God’s wisdom and
guidance for us.
We’ve prayed with each other for His loving
grace
And I see answered prayers at the sight of your
face.
Together, we celebrate all that we have.
God brought us together as husband and wife,
And we give this to Him, the First Day of Our
Life.
Recommendation Fanfare for brass ensemble (4
minutes) (2004)
Premiered May 2004 by the Lorain
County Community College Civic Concert Band, Mark Wainwright, conductor,
Elyria, Ohio
This fanfare for three trumpets, four
horns, three trombones, euphonium and tuba is dedicated to the five mentors and
friends who wrote letters of recommendation for me when I applied to graduate
school. They were: Dr. Kenneth Kohlenberg
of
Psalm 57 for concert band (7 minutes) (2003)
Premiered November 2003 by the Lorain
County Community College Civic Concert Band, Matthew Saunders, conducting,
This is piece was to be the pride of my
portfolio for admission to graduate school. I recognized that my career to that
point had strongly emphasized band and that to include a band composition would
only highlight my musical strengths.
So, in June 2003, while recovering from double hernia surgery, I began
work on this piece, based on the eponymous passage of scripture. The form of the piece follows the form
of the Psalm, with sections that correspond to each of the ten verses, and a
repeated refrain representing the obscure instruction Selah. After the
premiere, I became somewhat disenchanted with the work, and left it “in
the desk drawer,” so to speak, except to include it as part of my
application, as planned. I’m
certain that other composers have felt this way. Luckily, I recently pulled out the
recording, and pleasantly realized that I had been wrong—this piece is
once again permitted to leave the house!
Listen to a sample
Variations on a French Carol for concert band (8
minutes) (2001)
Premiered December 2001 by the Northeastern High School Concert
Band, Matthew Saunders, conductor, Springfield, Ohio
Anticipated performance December 2008 by the Satanta High School Band, Satanta,
Kansas
Anticipated publication Summer 2009 by Imagine Music.
In the summer of 2001, my parents, my
brother and I visited
Listen to a sample
March: Dreams of
This little march has a convoluted
story, but like so many of my pieces, it was inspired by a person. An old and dear friend of mine went to
See No Evil, Hear No Evil for brass band (6 minutes)
(2000)
This piece began life as a meditation for piano, but I soon
realized that a larger medium was needed, so I hit upon the idea of the British
brass band. The brass band
tradition is filled with hymn tunes, marches, folk-song arrangements and
orchestral transcriptions, but the movement has very few original compositions
in a post-tonal style. This piece
was a conscious effort to develop a feeling for the level of dissonance with
which I was comfortable in my music, a question I think every twenty-first
century composer must answer, probably multiple times through his or her
career. In addition, the hymn-tune
“What Wondrous Love is This?” makes an appearance—it was a
bit of an idée fixe for me in that year as I struggled with personal
setbacks and questions about my place in the world, the Universe and
Eternity. I have answered some of
those questions, and others will have to wait.
Graduation Fanfare for concert band (1 minute) (1999)
Premiered June 2001,
Performed at high school and university commencement ceremonies in
Ohio and Oklahoma
I received the first version of Sibelius
for Christmas 1998, and that is where all this began. I had composed before, but never had I
had the power to create legible copies at the press of a button, and it changed
my point of view entirely. This was
my first effort, written as much to learn the software as to compose, and it
turned out rather nicely. I have
pulled it out for high school and college commencements, where it fits right in
as no one in the audience listens.
