Alafaya

Christopher Marshall

Subtitle: A Suite for Wind Ensemble

General Info

Year: 2018
Duration: c. 19:30
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Unpublished
Cost: Score and Parts (digital) - $150.00 | Score Only (digital) - Free

Movements

1. Counter-Currents
2. Reflection
3. Life Force
4. Transcending

Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
English Horn
Bassoon I-II
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Contrabass Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Saxophone
E-flat Alto Saxophone
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III (I doubles Piccolo Trumpet)
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Timpani
Percussion (5 players), including:

Bass Drum
Chimes
Crash Cymbals
Glockenspiel
Maracas
Marimba
Ride Cymbal, small
Suspended Cymbal
Tambourine
Tam-Tam
Tom-Toms (5)
Triangle
Vibraphone
Wind Chimes
Wood Block, high

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

Alafaya Trail is a busy, though otherwise unremarkable thoroughfare near my home in Orlando, Florida. However, from the start the word ‘alafaya’ has intrigued me. Is it from Spanish, or from the Timucuan or Seminole languages? My research has yielded nothing. Whatever its origin, to me the word sounds mysterious and beautiful. It conjures up various images and feelings.

Four of those impressions inspired the music in the movements that carry these titles:

Counter-currents, where contrasting rhythms suggest the flow of water.

Reflection, where a lyrical melody hints at courtly rituals of a bygone age.

Life Force, where a vigorous incantation summons the forces of the natural world.

Transcending, where all sound and meaning are subsumed in an atmosphere of utter calm. To transcend means to surpass, to go beyond. One may transcend the joys and sorrows of this life through the attainment of inner peace. Eventually the soul will break free and drift unencumbered on the serene breezes of the universe. There can be few sounds so conducive to a transcendent state as that of waves lapping upon the shore. It is possible to calculate the interval between those waves, and so much more in the natural world, by means of the Fibonacci series. Accordingly, the overlapping chords in this music are built around durations of 2, 3, 5 and 8 beats – the opening values of that series.

- Program Note by composer

For John Lynch and the Sydney Conservatory Wind Ensemble, February 2019

- Program Note from score

Awards

NBA/William D. Revelli Memorial Band Competition Contest, 2021, runner-up

Media

Audio: Reference recording. MIDI realization

State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) Wind Ensemble (Travis J. Cross, conductor) – 5 February 2020
Grand Symphonic Winds (Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.) (Matthew J. George, conductor) - 20 December 2019 (2019 Midwest Clinic)
Brooklyn (N.Y.) Wind Symphony (Jeff W. Ball, conductor) – 14 December 2019
Sydney (Aus.) Conservatorium of Music Wind Symphony (John P. Lynch, conductor) – 11 July 2019 - WASBE Conference (Buñol, Spain) *Premiere Performance*
Sydney Conservatorium of Music Wind Symphony (John P. Lynch, conductor) – 24 May 2019

Works for Winds by This Composer

Alafaya (2019)
- Transcending (2019)
The Audacity of Hope (2008)
Aue! (2001)
An Emily Dickinson Suite (2009)
For What Is Lost. See: Renascence
L'homme armé (2003)
Light (2010)
The Lost (2022)
Méndez (2015)
Okaoka (2005)
Pulse (2020)
Renascence (2007/2016)
- For What Is Lost (2016)
Resonance (2006)
Rondorlando (2007)
Rust Belt (2017)
Song of Hope (2020)
Thenody (2021)
U Trau (2004)

Resources

Christopher Marshall, personal correspondence, July 2019
Christopher Marshall website Accessed 19 July 2019
Marshall, C. (2019). Alafaya: A Suite for Wind Ensemble [score]. Vaia'ata Print: Orlando, Fla.