Tuning Piece: Songs of Fall and Winter
From Wind Repertory Project
Contents |
General Info
Year: 1995
Duration: 18:00
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Carl Fischer
Cost: Rental, contact Publisher for information.
Instrumentation
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Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
The title A Tuning Piece: Songs of Fall and Winter needs a bit of explaining. “Tuning” refers first to extended passages built around a single pitch, allowing the opportunity for carefully heard intonation. “A Tuning” can be read also as “Attuning”, suggesting a kind of music that brings heart and mind to a point of rest. “A Tuning Piece” is also filled with tunes from start to finish! “Songs of Fall and Winter”...the surprising realization on passing age 50 that my life was a good deal closer to the end than the beginning. And so this is a piece for the second half of life, a time in which the attitude of “attuning” has become very important for me. It is reflective of a growing awareness of my own religious nature, an awareness which has at its core a deeply felt sense of the soul connection of human life with all of earthly nature, and with the whole of the cosmos.
The work is in five sections. The first is a gentle, reflective music. It is followed by a bold and bursting music which quotes and expands on the hymn tune Lobt Gott ihr Christen Allzugleich from the Bach Chorales. The third section is impassioned and has the quality of a spiritual, although it is newly composed. The fourth section is very intimate and reflective. It is a setting of Jesu, Jesu, Du Bist Mein – also from the Bach Chorales. It is given a medieval flavor by a consistent “open fifth” harmonization. The final section is a partial recapitulation of the opening.
A Tuning Piece: Songs of Fall and Winter was commissioned by Kappa Kappa Psi, National Band Fraternity, and Tau Beta Sigma, National Band Sorority.
Program Note by David Maslanka
Commercial Discography
None discovered thus far.
State Ratings
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Recent Performances
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Additional Works for Winds by this Composer
- Child's Garden of Dreams, A (1981)
- Concerto for Alto Saxophone (2000)
- Concerto for Marimba (1990)
- Concerto for Piano, Winds, and Percussion (1979)
- Four Pieces for Band (1980)
- Golden Light (1990)
- Heart Songs (1998)
- Hell's Gate (1997)
- In Memoriam (1990)
- Laudamus Te (1995)
- Mass (1996)
- Montana Music: Chorale Variations (1993)
- Morning Star (1997)
- Prelude on a Gregorian Tune
- Sea Dreams for Two Horns and Wind Ensemble (1998)
- Symphony No. 2 (1987)
- Symphony No. 3 (1991)
- Symphony No. 4 (1994)
- Symphony No. 5 (2000)
- Tears (1994)
- Testament (2001)
- UFO Dreams: Concerto for Euphonium (1999)
- Variants on a Hymn Tune (1995)
Additional Resources
