Cumberland Gap
This work bears the designation Opus 42.
General Info
Year: 1961
Duration: c. 8:30
Difficulty: V (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Schmitt Music Center
Cost: Score and Parts – Out of Print
For availability information, see Discussion tab, above.
Instrumentation
Full Score
D-flat Piccolo
Flute
Oboe
Bassoon
Contrabassoon (or Tuba)
E-flat Soprano Clarinet (or English Horn)
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
E-flat Alto Clarinet
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Contra-Alto Clarinet
B-flat Contrabass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Cornet I-II-III
B-flat Trumpet I-II
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Timpani
Percussion (4 players), including:
- Bass Drum
- Crash Cymbals
- Gong
- Snare Drum
- Suspended Cymbal
- Triangle
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Jenkins won the 1961 ABA Ostwald Award for his Cumberland Gap Overture, inspired by the Cumberland region of the Appalachians between Kentucky and Tennessee. The preface to the score states, “It is a concert overture which conforms to the sonata-allegro form and is mildly descriptive of the Cumberland region. The themes are original although they are in the spirit of the folk music of southern Maryland.”
- Program Note from score
The Cumberland Gap is a pass through the long ridge of the Cumberland Mountains, within the Appalachian Mountains, near the junction of the U.S. states of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. It is famous in American colonial history for its role as a key passageway through the lower central Appalachians.
Cumberland Mountains ridge line looking southwest with Tennessee on the left and Kentucky on the right from Cumberland Gap. Long used by Native American nations, the Cumberland Gap was brought to the attention of settlers in 1750 by Thomas Walker, a Virginia physician and explorer. The path was used by a team of frontiersmen led by Daniel Boone, making it accessible to pioneers who used it to journey into the western frontiers of Kentucky and Tennessee. It was an important part of the Wilderness Road and is now part of the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park.
- Program Note from Wikipedia
Awards
- ABA Ostwald Award, 1961, winner.
Media
State Ratings
- Alabama: Class A
- Georgia: V
- Tennessee: V
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- Mansfield (Penn.) University Concert Wind Ensemble (Adam F. Brennan, conductor) - 20 November 2021
- Indian River High School (Chesapeake, Va.) Symphonic Band (James D. Page, conductor) - 1974
- Stillwater (Minn.) High School Band (George S. Regis, conductor) – spring 1962
Works for Winds by This Composer
- American Overture for Band (1956)
- Arioso for Band (1963)
- Cannonade (1991)
- Charles County Overture (1959)
- Cuernavaca (1969)
- Cumberland Gap (1961)
- In Traskwood Country (1977)
- Pieces of Eight (arr. Neff; ed. Fennell) (1954)
- Purcell Portraits (1963)
- Symphonic Jubilee (1975)
- Symphony No. 5 (1979)
- Tartan Suite (1979)
- Three Images for Band (1962)
- Toccata for Winds (1978)
- Viva Vivaldi (1963)
Resources
- Cumberland Gap. Wikipedia Accessed 20 November 2021
- Girsberger, Russ. Percussion Assignments for Band & Wind Ensemble. Volume I: A-K. Meredith Music Publications, 2004, pp. 168.
- Jenkins, J. (1961). Cumberland Gap: Concert Overture [score]. Schmitt Music Center: [s.l.].