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Machu Picchu - City in the Sky
Subtitle: Mystery of the Hidden Sun Temple
Contents
General Info
Year: 2005
Duration: c. 10:30
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Bravo Music
Cost: Score and Parts - $145.00 | Score Only - $15.00
Instrumentation
Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
English Horn
Bassoon I-II
Contra-Bassoon
Eb Clarinet
Bb Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
Eb Alto Clarinet
Bb Bass Clarinet I-II
Eb Contra Alto Clarinet
Eb Alto Saxophone I-II
Bb Tenor Saxophone
Eb Baritone Saxophone
Bb Trumpet I-II-III
Flugelhorn
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Euphonium I-II(Bass Clef & Treble Clef)
Tuba
String Bass
Piano (and Celesta)
Harp
Timpani
Percussion I-II-III-IV-V, including:
- Bass Drum
- Crash Cymbals
- Bird Call
- Bongos
- Chimes
- Glockenspiel
- Gong
- Hi-Hat
- Marimba
- Ratchet
- Suspended Cymbal
- Temple Blocks
- Tom-Tom
- Triangle
- Vibra-slap
- Whip
- Wind Chimes
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Explaining the significance of Machu Picchu begins with remembering the Incan empire at its zenith, and its tragic encounter with the Spanish conquistadors. The great 16th century empire that unified most of Andean South America had as its capital the golden city of Cuzco. Francisco Pizarro, while stripping the city of massive quantities of gold, in 1533 also destroyed Cuzco’s Sun Temple, shrine of the founding deity of the Incan civilization.
While that act symbolized the end of the empire, 378 years later an archaeologist from Yale University, Hiram Bingham, rediscovered “Machu Picchu,” a glorious mountaintop Incan city that had escaped the attention of the invaders. At the central high point of the city stands its most important shrine, the Intihuatana, or “hitching post of the sun,” a column of stone rising from a block of granite the size of a grand piano, where a priest would "tie the sun to the stone" at winter solstice to ensure its seasonal return. Finding the last remaining Sun Temple of a great city inspired the belief that perhaps the royal lineage stole away to his holy place during Pizarro’s conquest.
After considering these remarkable ideas, I wished to musically describe that magnificent citadel and trace some of the mysteries sealed in Machu Picchu’s past. Three principal ideas dominate the piece: 1) the shimmering golden city of Cuzco set in the dramatic scenery of the Andes, 2) the destructiveness of violent invasion, and 3) the re-emergence of Incan glory as the City in the Sky again reached for the sun.
- Program Note by composer
Commissioned by the Ensemble Liberte Wind Orchestra, Kawaguchi City, 2004
- Program Note from score
Commercial Discography
Audio Links
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- University of North Texas (Denton) University Band (Luslaida Barbosa, conductor) - 24 February 2020
- Vassar College and Community Wind Ensemble (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) (James Osborn, conductor) – 10 November 2019
- Washington Wind Symphony (Redmond) (Jacob Scherr, conductor) – 27 October 2019
- Antelope Valley College (Palmdale, Calif.) Symphonic Band (Gary Heaton-Smith, conductor) – 5 May 2019
- University of Oregon (Eugene) Wind Symphony (Jason Silveira, conductor) – 30 April 2019
- Northern Illinois University (DeKalb) Wind Symphony (Thomas Bough, conductor) – 27 February 2019
- Lawrence University (Appleton, Wisc.) Symphonic Band (Matthew Arau, conductor) – 26 May 2018
- Cerritos (Calif.) College Concert Band (David Betancourt, conductor) -18 March 2018 (2018 Sutherland Wind Festival (Fresno, Calif.)
- Banda Sinfónica Escuela de Formación Artística y Cultural de Chía (Cundinamarca, Colombia) (Jesús Orielso Santiago Jácome, conductor) - 23 December 2017 (2017 Midwest Clinic)
- University of Iowa (Iowa City) Concert Band (Kevin Kastens, conductor) – 5 October 2017
- Iowa State University (Ames) Wind Ensemble (Rod M. Chesnutt, conductor) – 31 March 2017
- California State University, Fresno, Wind Orchestra (Gary P. Gilroy, conductor) - 25 March 2017 (2017 Sutherland Wind Festival (Fresno, Calif.)
- University of Nebraska (Lincoln) Symphonic Band (Anthony Falcone, conductor) – 28 April 2016
- Foothill Symphonic Winds (Palo Alto, Calif.) (David Bruce Adams, conductor) – 13 March 2016
- Carmel (In.) High School Wind Symphony 1 (Michael Pote, conductor) – February 2016
- California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Wind Ensemble (Andrew McMahan, conductor) - 17 April 2015
- Boerne-Samuel V. Champion High School Symphonic Honors Band (Kevin Arnott, conductor) - 16 April 2015
- James Logan High School (Union City, Calif.) Wind Symphony (Adam R. Wilke, conductor) - 21 March 2014 (2014 Sutherland Wind Festival, Fresno, Calif.)
- Contra Costa Wind Symphony (Ben Loomer, conductor) - 9 March 2014
Works for Winds by this Composer
- Alphamonic Overture
- The Bells of Sagrada Familia (2009)
- Cantilena
- Fanfare - Flight to the Unknown World
- Fanfare - The Benefaction from Sky and Mother Earth (2010)
- Fanfare Hayabusa (2011)
- Fanfare Mi-Chi-Bi-Ki
- Hunting Scenes (2013)
- Hymn to the Infinite Sky (2006)
- Hymn to the Sun - with the Beat of Mother Earth (2006/2010)
- Intrada (2001)
- Largo (2010)
- Machu Picchu - City in the Sky (2005)
- March Willing and Able
- March Bou-Chu
- Memory of Our Native Place, The
- Moses and Ramses
- Nazca Lines (2005)
- Perseus (2005)
- Primavera (2008)
- Sentimentale (2015)
- Spring Sketches, The
- Swaying in the West Wind
- Symphonic Episode
- Trumpet Concerto (2013)
- Voyage (Flight to a Hopeful Future)
- Young Pheasants in the Sky
References
- Williams, Nicholas Enrico. "Machu Picchu." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 6, edit. & comp. by Richard Miles, 509-514. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2007.
- Yagisawa, S. (2005). Machu Picchu - City in the Sky: Mystery of the Hidden Sun Temple [score]. Bravo Music: [s.l.]
