Snow and Fire

For Wind Symphony - Grade 4

This piece meets all criteria listed for the American Band College’s Grade 3 standard, all except its length.

This is a longer, more musically substantive work than is typically found at Grade 3.

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Instrumentation

Flutes 1-2

Oboe

Bassoon

Clarinets 1-3

Bass Clarinet

Alto Saxophones 1-2

Tenor Saxophone

Baritone Saxophone

Trumpets 1-3

Horns 1-2

Trombones 1-3

Euphonium/Baritone

Tuba

Double Bass

Timpani

Percussion 1: Glockenspiel

Percussion 2: Vibraphone

Percussion 3: Marimba

Percussion 4: Triangle, Suspended Cymbals

Percussion 5: 3 Toms, Bass Drum, Mark Tree

Piano

Optimally the piece should be played with full instrumentation. It can be played however with reduced forces, minus one or more of the following: oboe, bassoon, double-bass, percussion 1 (glockenspiel). Solo passages can be played by the full section if warranted, all except the opening trumpet solo and its returns which must be played by a single player.

Program Notes

This two-movement work explores themes of grief and love. It draws inspiration from three sources: 1) the grandeur of the Pacific Northwest, 2) reflections on my recent retirement from teaching: remorse for things left undone and gratitude for supportive friends and colleagues, and 3) a work that Renaissance composer Orlando di Lasso wrote at the end of his life exploring similar themes, his Lagrime di San Pietro - Tears of Saint Peter. The first movement (“Tears of Snow”) captures the poetic image of melting snow as a metaphor for sadness and remorse experienced alone. The second movement (“Embrace of Fire”) captures the image of a campfire as a metaphor for the sacredness of friendship. It is musically based upon a harmonic progression found in the Lasso work. The piece concludes with the first movement’s grieving theme musically transformed into a hymn of gratitude, the sadness of the past embraced in the present by forgiveness and acceptance.

I. Tears of Snow

Madrigal: Come falda di neve

Like a snowflake which, having lain frozen

and hidden in deep valleys all winter,

and then in springtime, warmed by the sun,

melts and flows into streams;

thus the fear which had lain like ice…

melted and was changed into tears.

II. Embrace of Fire

Motet: Vide homo/Viderunt prunas positas

Behold, oh man, what l suffer for you.

(Luigi Tansillo 1510–1568, translated by Sylvia Dimiziani)

When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread….Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.”

(John 21.9,12)