Midnight Skyline

Josh Trentadue

This work is the third piece of the triptych "Of Day and Night."

General Info

Year: 2019
Duration: c. 10:00
Difficulty: V (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Murphy Music Press
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $200.00 | Score Only (print) - $35.00

Instrumentation

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

Bass Drum (regular and small)
Brake Drum (or Anvil)
China Cymbal
Crash Cymbal
Crotales
Glockenspiel
Hi-Hat
Marimba
Snare Drum
Splash Cymbal
Surdo Drum (or large Floor Tom)
Suspended Cymbal (large)
Tambourine
Tam-Tam (large)
Tom-Toms (4)
Triangle
Vibraphone
Whip
Xylophone

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

The moment I first met composers Kevin Day and Quinn Mason, and the moment I listened to their music, I knew that I wanted to collaborate with both of them on a new project. These two are such extraordinary artists and human beings, with an incredibly high level of passion and dedication to their craft. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had this opportunity to be able to work with them on forming Of Day and Night, the triptych this piece is a part of.

When I approached Kevin and Quinn about this collaboration, I knew that the project needed to have a thematic and overarching idea present throughout all three intended works -- something that would contain some sense of continuity expressed through three very different, and unique, compositional voices. What better form could this triptych take on than the progression of time? The idea of nature always evolving, and change over time, is something that I had begun exploring very recently in my own music. Thus, all three works in Of Day and Night explore this concept over the progression of a single day, each of them depicting a specific moment in that length of time. While Kevin's piece Shimmering Sunshine explores the exuberant joyfulness of daylight, and Quinn's work Across a Golden Sky depicts the magical wonders of the "golden hour" during sunset, Midnight Skyline thus takes on the thrilling, chaotic experiences one could endure throughout the nighttime.

I tend to think of Midnight Skyline as a pure road-trip piece -- one that never stays on the same route for too long, with plenty of adventures to experience (whether alone or with friends) and a ridiculous amount of shenanigans in between. Sometimes, they're more chaotic than necessary, and sometimes they have just the right amount of thrills. The piece immediately takes off and shouts with all of this in mind, and while it experiences a number of different events throughout its journey, it never intends to stray from this path altogether. Midnight Skyline is for those thrill-seekers, a celebration of life and love along with the youthfulness and joy of human nature.

My sincerest thanks and appreciation goes to Kevin and Quinn for their wonderful friendship and brilliant creativity; to all of the consortium members who made this piece, and the triptych, possible; and finally, to Salvador Alan Jacobo for a brilliant and lovely title for this piece.

- Program Note by the composer

State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Media

Audio: Reference recording. MIDI realization

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

California State University, San Bernardino, Symphonic Band (Nicholas Bratcher, conductor) – 17 November 2021 *Premiere Performance*

Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music

Comets Ablaze! (adaptable ensemble) (2020/2022)
Dancing Fire (Flex instrumentation) (as arranger) (2016/2020)
Ember Skies (Flex instrumentation) (as arranger) (2020/2022)
The Floodgates of the Sky (adaptable ensemble) (2016/2021)
The Golden Pier (adaptable ensemble) (2019/2020)
The Great River Rapid Chase (adaptable ensemble) (2018/2020)
Havana (Flex instrumentation) (as arranger) (2018/2020)
Kaleidoscopic Dances (adaptable ensemble) (2020/2021)
Lightning Round (Flex instrumentation) (as arranger) (2022)
Meditation and Hymn to Nature (Flex instrumentation) (2021)
O rose of May (Flex instrumentation) (as arranger) (2018/2020)
Raindrops in an endless sea of stars (adaptable ensemble) (2020)
Seven Islands (adaptable ensemble) (2020/2022)
Splendid Ridges (adaptable ensemble) (2020/2022)
The Straits of Mackinac (adaptable ensemble) (2017/2020)
To Right Our Wrongs (Flex instrumentation) (as arranger) (2021)

All Wind Works

Anthem for Doomed Youth (2018)
Celestial Voyage (2015)
Comets Ablaze! See: The Grand Ledge Triptych
Concerto for Double Bass and Chamber Ensemble (2018)
Crystal Oscillation (2022)
Dancing Fire (Flex instrumentation) (as arranger) (2016/2020)
Ecstatic Samba (as arranger) (2017/2022)
Electric City (as arranger) (2019/2022)
Ember Skies (Flex instrumentation) (as arranger) (2020/2022)
enter data sequence (as arranger) (2022)
The Floodgates of the Sky (tr. Collins) (2016/2020)
The Floodgates of the Sky (adaptable ensemble) (2016/2021)
The Golden Pier. See: The Michigan Triptych
The Great River Rapid Chase. See: The Michigan Triptych
Havana (Flex instrumentation) (as arranger) (2018/2020)
Hilltop Run (2022)
Kaleidoscopic Dances (2020)
Kaleidoscopic Dances (adaptable ensemble) (2020/2021)
Lightning Round (Flex instrumentation) (as arranger) (2022)
The Grand Ledge Triptych
- Splendid Ridges (2020)
- Splendid Ridges (adaptable ensemble) (2020/2022)
- Seven Islands (2020)
- Seven Islands (adaptable ensemble) (2020/2022)
- Comets Ablaze! (2020)
- Comets Ablaze! (adaptable ensemble) (2020/2022)
The Michigan Triptych
- The Great River Rapid Chase (2018)
- The Great River Rapid Chase (adaptable ensemble) (2018/2020)
- The Golden Pier (2019)
- The Golden Pier (adaptable ensemble) (2019/2020)
- The Straits of Mackinac (2017)
- The Straits of Mackinac (adaptable ensemble) (2017/2020)
Midnight Skyline (2019). See also: Of Day and Night
O rose of May (Flex instrumentation) (as arranger) (2018/2020)
Nature's Light (2019)
Raindrops in an endless sea of stars (adaptable ensemble) (2020)
Seven Islands. See: The Grand Ledge Triptych
Splendid Ridges. See: The Grand Ledge Triptych
The Straits of Mackinac. See: The Michigan Triptych
Summertime Echoes (2019)
Tango Oscuro (as arranger) (2020/2022)
The Undiscovered Country (2018)
A Wild Christmas Nightcap (2020)

Resources