Everything Beautiful

From Wind Repertory Project
Samuel Hazo

Samuel Hazo


General Info

Year: 2015
Duration: c. 8:40
Difficulty: IV (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Hal Leonard
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $135.00; (digital) - $135.00   |   Score Only (print) - $25.00


Movements

1. The Stillness of Remembering
2. Irish Tune
3. While I Think on Thee, Dear Friend


Instrumentation

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

  • Bass Drum
  • Bells
  • Chimes
  • Gong
  • Suspended Cymbal
  • Wind Chimes
  • Xylophone


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

Everything Beautiful was commissioned by "The Charles F. Campbell Jr. Memorial Consortium," in memory of Charles (Chuck) Campbell, Jr., a respected music educator, conductor and mentor to young music teachers, and 2012 posthumous inductee of the Bands of America Hall of Fame. The work was premiered by Maestro Eugene Migliaro Corporon conducting the National Honor Band of America.

- Program Note from publisher and YouTube


Chuck Campbell was my friend. I could end these notes with that one sentence, but the greatness of Chuck’s spirit and the breadth of his legacy demands so much more. What I can’t say in these words, I hope I have said, more poignantly, in my music.

The Title

There was a line from the movie Sleepless In Seattle when Tom Hanks’ widowered character is describing his wife. About her, he said, “She made everything beautiful.” That IS Chuck Campbell. I often heard Chuck humbly say about himself that he was not the greatest teacher or conductor or musician, even though he truly was top-shelf in all of those categories. What I can say, unequivocally, is that Chuck Campbell was the greatest at making everyone feel like their whole selves in his presence. I have thought for a long time, and I cannot define a better quality for a music educator than that precise one. His students would perform beyond themselves. Under his direction, two bands from two separate schools (George Rogers Clark HS and North Hardin HS) were invited to present concerts at the prestigious Midwest Clinic. Then, the Midwest Clinic invited his former student, Teresa Effiott, to bring her Beaumont Middle School Band. As impressive as that is, it is just a small piece in the inspiring story of Charles Campbell.

Movement I — The Stillness of Remembering

I distinctly remember learning of Chuck’s passing in an email from Jacqueline Metr, a dear friend of mine from college who now teaches at Assumption High School in Louisville. The grief was great enough that I immediately went to my piano and began to play. The notes matched my feelings so perfectly that I sketched out exactly what I played, never knowing I’d be asked to compose Chuck’s requiem. There are very few textures that express pain and joy simultaneously; holding that balance between the optimism of open voicing and the introspection of subtle note clusters. My fingers just happened to land in the perfect places. Months later, I was able to find my sketch and, beginning to end, it is the first movement. I am convinced Chuck was with me.

The title of this movement is taken from the poetic song Dreams, penned in 1976 by Stevie Nicks in Sausalito, Calif. The verse reads:

Like a heartbeat drives you mad
In the the stillness of remembering
What you had and what you lost,
And what you had, and what you lost.

Movement II -Irish Tune

This movement is not the “Irish Tune” we often think of in the wind band genre. It is an original Irish melody I composed, but this second movement is based on a story that involves the Grainger classic.

In May of 2011, Chuck gathered enough strength to conduct it at an alumni event at North Hardin HS, leaving the audience and the band in tears. Under new director Brian Froedge, the North Hardin High School Band was accepted to perform at the 2012 Kentucky Music Educators’ convention. It was decided that Chuck Campbell would guest conduct Percy Grainger’s Irish Tune from County Derry at that performance because the piece meant a lot to Chuck and was even played at his father’s funeral. With half a year until he was to conduct at the Kentucky state convention, Chuck’s cancer took him. The North Hardin Band did perform Grainger’s Irish Tune at the 2012 Kentucky state convention ... with no conductor.

Movement III - While I Think on Thee, Dear Friend

The title of Movement III is from the final couplet of William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30. Shakespeare, eternity’s foremost master of the art of language, writes of grief and loss that can only be countered by the warmth and hope brought by thoughts of his dear friend. Everything Beautiful ends in hope. It is sorely ironic that we smile less when we lose those who made us smile most. It is the last thing they would want for us, but yet we allow part of our joy to be taken. For all of Chuck Campbell’s family and friends, this final movement is the permission to feel the joy he absolutely wishes for each of us; to be our whole selves.

Sonnet3o

‘When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long since canceled woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanished sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.

— William Shakespeare

Media


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project


Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music


All Wind Works


Resources

  • Hazo, S. (2015). Everything Beautiful [score]. Hal Leonard: Milwaukee, Wisc.
  • Samuel Hazo website
  • Talbert, Matthew D. "Everything Beautiful." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 11, Compiled and edited by Richard Miles, 349-356. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2018.
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