Emory's Barcarolle

Joel Puckett

General Info

Year: 2015
Duration: c. 4:35
Difficulty: V (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Bill Holab Music
Cost: Score and Parts (print) – Rental | Score Only (print) - $25.00

Instrumentation

Full Score
Flute I-II
Oboe
Bassoon
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II
Trombone I-II-III
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Piano
Timpani
Percussion, including:

Glockenspiel
Marimba
Suspended Cymbal (large)
Vibraphone I-II

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

Emory’s Barcarolle in many ways is a partner piece to Avelynn's Lullaby. Both are titled after Puckett’s children: Avelynn – his daughter, and Emory – his son. The lullaby is in effect and actuality a “sleep song,” based upon a memory of a tune sung to a young Joel Puckett by his mother, and recast as a slumber song from father to daughter. The barcarolle is a folk melody sung by Venetian gondoliers, characterized by a rolling 6/8 meter at moderate tempo.

Puckett’s work has three major sections that alternate throughout. The first is a refrain of sorts -- a series of ascending waves that build to a surging climax. The second section, heard immediately after the first section, and not again until the very end, is a series of articulated solo statements, themselves alternating between trumpet and flute. The third section is a two-phrase folk-like tune that contains traces of hemiola (the juxtaposition of three against two). In between the phrases, there is a metric juxtaposition of 3/4 meter in the space of 6/8 meter – in itself a written-out hemiola. The second time this music appears, it is in stretto, a staggered imitation between clarinet, trumpet and flute.

- Program Note from the SUNY Potsdam Crane Wind Ensemble concert program, 23 November 2015

Emory's Barcarolle is a composition inspired by a joyful incident involving the composer's one-year-old son. Emory had experienced a classical radio station's back-to-back programming of two unrelated works as a performance of a single piece of music. The result is the barcarolle, which contains elements of Chopin's Barcarolle in F# Major and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5.

- Program Note from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Wind Orchestra, 3 June 2017

Media

(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)

State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) Maroon Campus Band (Cassandra Bechard, conductor) – 7 March 2019
Columbia University (New York, N.Y.) Wind Ensemble (Jason Noble, conductor) – 19 November 2017
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Wind Orchestra (Christopher J. Woodruff, conductor) – 3 June 2017
University of Texas (Austin) Symphony Band (Jerry Junkin, conductor) – 12 October 2016
University of Miami (Fla.) Frost Symphonic Winds (Robert Carnachan, conductor) – 12 October 2016
University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Symphonic Band (Mark A. Norman, conductor) – 19 April 2016
State University of New York, Potsdam, Crane Wind Ensemble (Brian K. Doye, conductor) – 23 November 2015

Works for Winds by This Composer

Asimov's Aviary (2012)
Avelynn's Lullaby (2011)
Blink! (2006)
Concerto for Viola and Wind Ensemble
Emory's Barcarolle (2015)
Fanfare for Chris (2019)
Fanfares for Friends (2019)
15th Night of the Moon (2014)
I wake in the dark and remember (2022)
it perched for Vespers nine (2008)
Knells for Bonnie (2016)
My Eyes Are Full of Shadow (2016)
Piece for Solo Flute and Chamber Winds (2015)
Ping, Pang, Pong
a proper goodbye (2020)
The Shadow of Sirius (2009)
Ship of Theseus (2015)
Short Stories (2012)
Southern Comforts (2008)
that secret from the river (2016)

Resources

Joel Puckett website.
score
Schroeder, Angela L. "Emory's Barcarolle for Band." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 11, Compiled and edited by Richard Miles, 542-548. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2018.