SCORE & SET OF PARTS PDF - 

SCORE PDF - 

I heard this “dancing” motive in my head that had a weird off-beat feel to it. When I went to put this thought to paper I had found that the ‘groove’ I was feeling was 9/8 with an asymmetric beat grouping which makes up the bulk of this piece. This idea sat for a while until I was reading the following poem:

between green

                        mountains

sings the flinger

of

fire   beyond the red rivers

of fair perpetual

feet   the

sinuous

       riot

the

flashing

bacchant.

partedpetaled

mouth,face

delirious. indivisible

grace

          of dancing

-        e.e. cummings

The music was now representative of two things: Mountains and Dancing. The opening is looking upon a grand mountain range, specifically seeing what looks like stacks and layers of mountains stretching into the horizon. We then arrive at the 9/8 section where the woodwinds and percussion give us the rhythmic and tonal basis for our dance, and the low brass and winds help us climb the mountain.

The middle sections of music are a sort of struggle, the things that hinder us on the way up. This abstraction is cleared as the full ensemble returns in the tonic key as we drive the last section of the mountain until slowly taking our final steps to the peak and celebrate as we arrive together.

Premier and recording performed by the UTSA Wind Ensemble
Ron Ellis, Conductor
March 6, 2024, UTSA Recital Hall