Outcry and Turning

From Wind Repertory Project
Evan Chambers

Evan Chambers


General Info

Year: 2003 / 2012
Duration: c. 10:00
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Evan Chambers
Cost: Score and Parts (print) – Rental   |   Score Only (print) - $20.00; (digital) - $10.00


Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II-III
Oboe I-II (II doubles English Horn)
Bassoon I-II
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
C Trumpet I-II-III-IV-V
D Trumpet (optional)
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II
Bass Trombone
Euphonium I-II
Tuba I-II
Timpani
Percussion I-II-III-IV, including:

  • Bass Drum, large and small
  • Bells, large (2)
  • Bongos
  • Chimes
  • Conga
  • Crash Cymbals
  • Djembe
  • Floor Tom
  • Gong, large
  • Hi-Hat
  • Pang Cymbal
  • Roto-toms
  • Snare Drum, small
  • Suspended Cymbal, large and small
  • Tam-Tam, small
  • Temple Blocks
  • Thunder Sheet
  • Tom-Tom, medium (2)
  • Wood Block, long
  • Wood Box


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

Outcry: a wailing or howling against what should not be; a call sent out to touch the unspeakable and to change it by marking that which is unbearably wrong with the sign of our grief and rage.

Turning: the movement of becoming something else (a turning leaf); similarly, a process of change in the course of events (the tide is turning); to change direction by shifting momentum away from an obstacle or toward a new goal. An act of creation, especially in the case of the making of something extraordinary (as in turning out great work, or a finely turned phrase). A slow and inexorable rotation of heavenly bodies or circling dancers around a center.

In the face of war, disaster, or death, we often feel helpless -- it seems that all we can do is to cry out from our weakness and from our sense of injustice. And yet there is a tremendous power in our outcry. A wail breaks from our lips in our grieving, untangling over time a knot of tightly coiled pain. It not only expresses our loss, but also stands as a form of tangible protest against what cannot or will not be reconciled.

We cry out alone, but we dance together, taking up that fallen sound and turning it into collective motion, transforming space with energy as we move through it. In our turning we gather strength and send it spiraling up and out through our bodies in the hope of redeeming loss or healing what is broken -- in the hope of changing direction and restoring a balance that has been destroyed.

The music is a response to the onset of the 2002 war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq that begin in 2003. I am deeply saddened that, as I update these program notes for the revised work in 2012, United States troops are still at war in Afghanistan and daily violence continues in Iraq. It is my prayer that humans might someday learn to live in peace with each other on the earth without continually resort to killing each other. May all beings be at peace.

- Program Note by composer


Commercial Discography


Media


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project


Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources

  • Evan Chambers, personal correspondence, May 2020
  • Evan Chambers website Accessed 20 June 2018
  • Mast, Andrew. "Outcry and Turning." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 10, Compiled and edited by Richard Miles, 986-992. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2015.