My Eyes Are Full of Shadow

From Wind Repertory Project
Joel Puckett

Joel Puckett


General Info

Year: 2016
Duration: c. 7:15
Difficulty: III (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Bill Holab Music
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $175.00   |   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
Euphonium
Tuba
Percussion, including:

  • Marimba
  • Suspended Cymbal (large)
  • Vibraphone I-II


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

“My eyes are full of shadow, and my part
Of life is yesterday.”

— Edith Nesbit

“I’ve always been a person prone to melancholy. My mother used to say that I had periods of sadness interrupted by periods where I was happy about being sad.

As an adult, I’ve learned to be contented in these low periods, and in those moments I seek out the healing power of music and poetry. Edith Nesbit’s Age to Youth, from which this work’s title is taken, describes looking back on a moment of pain in the past and an inability -- an unwillingness? -- to move beyond it. Finding this poem brought me great joy in connecting to its sadness.

My Eyes Are Full of Shadow opens with an optimism of a new day, but as the cadences are consistently left largely unfulfilled, we realize something is amiss. Each attempted restart of the opening results in another aborted cadence, and now they are frequently interrupted by a simple, sad chaconne. Reflecting the poem’s insistence on living in the past, this interrupting chaconne grows more insistent and eventually gives way to a return to the opening, but now colored by the assertions of the chaconne.

- Program Note by composer


My Eyes Are Full of Shadow was commissioned by the SEC Band Directors Association.


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

  • The Ohio State University (Columbus) Collegiate Winds (Phil Day, conductor) - 23 April 2023
  • University of Delaware (Newark) Wind Ensemble (Lauren Reynolds, conductor) – 6 December 2022
  • University of Texas at Arlington Symphonic Winds (Christopher Evans, conductor) - 9 May 2021
  • Texas Tech University (Lubbock) Concert Band (Ryan Smith, conductor) – 25 February 2020
  • Pacific Symphony (Costa Mesa, Calif.) Youth Wind Ensemble (Gregory X. Whitmore, conductor) – 17 November 2019
  • Northern Illinois University (DeKalb) Wind Symphony (Thomas Bough, conductor) – 9 October 2019
  • Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.) Symphonic Band (Shawn Vondran, conductor) – 15 March 2019
  • University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) Symphonic Band (Jerry Luckhardt, conductor) – 5 March 2019
  • Indiana University (Bloomington) Concert Band (Jason H. Nam, conductor) – 30 October 2018
  • University of Kansas (Lawrence) Symphonic Band (Matthew O. Smith, conductor) – 8 October 2018
  • University of Texas (Austin) Symphony Band (Tiffany Galus, conductor) – 4 December 2017
  • Shenandoah Conservatory (Winchester, Va.) Wind Ensemble (Timothy Robblee, conductor) - 4 November 2017
  • Illinois State University (Normal) Symphonic Winds (Gavin Smith, conductor) – 8 October 2017
  • University of Colorado Boulder Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band (Donald J. McKinney, conductor)- 19 September 2017
  • University of Arkansas (Fayetteville) Symphonic Band (Jamal Duncan, conductor) – 30 April 2017
  • University of Florida (Gainesville) Symphonic Band (John M. Watkins Jr., conductor) – 2 March 2017 *Premiere Performance*
  • Palmetto Concert Band (Columbia, S.C.) (Cormac Cannon, conductor) - 15 December 2016 (2016 Midwest Clinic) *Premiere Performance*


Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources

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