High Flight
General Info
Year: 2008
Duration: c. 12:15
Difficulty: V (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes
Cost: Score and Parts - $195.00 | Score Only - $25.00
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
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III-IV-V-VI
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Harp
Piano
Timpani
Percussion I-II-III, including:
- Bass Drum
- Bells
- Chimes
- Crash Cymbals
- Snare Drum
- Suspended Cymbal
- Triangle
- Wood Block
- Xylophone
Cello I-II
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
A monumental work from the pen of Joseph Turrin, High Flight was commissioned by the United States Air Force Band and is dedicated to the American pilots who fought in the Spanish Civil War (1937-1939). Stunning passages and masterful orchestrations characterize this multifaceted composition as motifs are developed and the emotional pacing unfolds. Inspired by the poem High Flight by pilot Gillespie Magee.
- Program Note from publisher
This multifaceted work is characterized by stunning beauty blended with masterful orchestration, which exemplifies the unfolding and emotional pacing of the developing motifs. The inspiration for this work originates from the poem High Flight by officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., an American pilot who served with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and who was killed at the age of 19 when his aircraft collided with another plane. His poem reads:
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds,—and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor ever eagle flew— And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
- Program Notes by Jennifer Daffinee for the 2016 Texas All-State Concert Band concert program, 13 February 2016
Media
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- University of Colorado Boulder Symphonic Band (Michael Roeder, conductor) – 19 April 2017
- Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah) Wind Symphony (Donald L. Peterson, conductor) – 7 April 2016
- Texas All-State High School Concert Band (Kevin Geraldi, conductor) - 13 February 2016 (2016 TMEA Conference, San Antonio)
- University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Symphonic Band (Kevin M. Geraldi, conductor) – 17 November 2015
- Georgia Music Educators Association All-State 11/12 Symphonic Band (Larry Gookin, conductor) - 2014
- Liberty University (Lynchburg, Va.) Wind Ensemble (Stephen P. Kerr, conductor) – 24 March 2012 (CBDNA 2012 Southern Division Conference, Kennesaw, Ga.)
- California State University Long Beach Wind Symphony (John Alan Carnahan, conductor) – 24 March 2011 (CBDNA 2011 National Conference, Seattle, Wash.)
- University of Kentucky (Lexington) Wind Ensemble (John C. Birdwell, conductor) – 26 February 2010 (CBDNA 2010 Southern Division Conference, Oxford, Miss.)
Works for Winds by This Composer
- and yet your touch upon them will not pass (2021)
- Arabesque (1990/2004)
- Celebration (2010)
- Ceremonial Prelude for Brass Choir (2010)
- Chronicles (2000)
- Concert Processional (2011)
- Concertino for 11 Instruments and Wind Ensemble (2011)
- Dedication for Band (2009)
- Equinox (2010)
- Fandango: For Solo Trumpet, Trombone and Wind Symphony (1999)
- Fanfare and Prelude (2008/2010)
- Hemispheres (2002)
- High Flight (2008)
- Hope Alive (2000)
- Illuminations (2004)
- Invocation (1992)
- Jazzalogue No 1 (1997/2002)
- Labyrinth (2011)
- Lullaby for Noah (2008)
- Masquerade (2012)
- Monologues (2010)
- Nessum Dorma (as arranger) (1926/2010)
- Quadrille (2002)
- Regiment of Heroes March (2016)
- Ritual. See: Soundings for Band (1997)
- Sandia Crest (2013)
- Scarecrow Overture (2009)
- Serenade Romantic (1982)
- The Sounding of the Call (2014)
- Soundings for Band (1997)
- Ritual (2011)
- Triptych for Trumpet and Trombone (2023)
- Two Sketches for Band (1998)
- Zarabanda (1998)
Resources
- Joseph Turrin website Accessed 12 September 2021
- Turrin, J. (2008). High Flight [score]. Boosey & Hawkes: New York.