Seer, The (Santos)

Erik Santos

Subtitle: For Vocalist and Symphony Band

General Info

Year: 2019
Duration: c. 24:00
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Erik Santos
Cost: Score and Parts - Rental

Movements

1. Lonely Nocturne
2. Circles
3. Beale Street
4. Final Sonnet to Orpheus (by Rainer Maria Rilke)
5. Not What Was
6. Call to Creation
7. Fire
8. Moan
9. Island

Instrumentation

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

Bass Drum
Crash Cymbals
Crotales
Drum Set (kick, snare, 3 toms, cymbals)
Floor Tom, large
Glockenspiel
Marimba
Ratchet
Shakers
Shell Chimes
Triangle
Vibraphone
Xylophone

Vocalist (miked, with echo machine)
Players chanting and stomping

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

A “Seer” is one who, through supernatural insight, can see what the future holds, and see through to unseen truths.

Who is the seer? What does the seer see?

“…I’m sitting here in the center of my house this quiet morning. Through the windows, in the outer corners of my eyes, I can see full moon setting on my left and new sun rising on my right. Both gloriously happening now, however, I can only see one or the other if I turn my head. Can’t see both simultaneously. I sit here trying to sum it all up, and see it all at once, but I can’t. There’s a lesson here somewhere in between. The difference between sleeping dreams and waking dreams is difficult to explain…“

This musical mandala weaves together many disparate strands of creative inspiration -- i.e., the work of Langston Hughes and Rainer Maria Rilke, Nina Simone, Howlin’ Wolf, Killing Joke, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Rod Serling, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, the stories of Parsifal and Ulysses. As much as possible, I let the subconscious lead, as my conscious mind struggled to render dream dictation into a linear language that might resonate with another. In this liminal state, in between both and neither, the answers lie.

- Program Note by composer

Awards

American Bandmasters Association Sousa/Ostwald Prize, 2020, winner

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

Concordia College (Moorhead, Minn.) Band (Peter Haberman, conductor; Ronnie Allen, baritone) - 12 February 2023
Arizona State University (Tempe) Wind Symphony (Jamal Duncan, conductor; Nathan De’Shon Myers, vocalist) - 2 November 2022
University of Texas (Austin) Wind Ensemble (Jerry Junkin, conductor; Scott Piper tenor) – 20 April 2022
Boston (Mass.) Conservatory at Berklee Wind Ensemble (Matthew Marsit, conductor) - 10 March 2022
United States Marine Band (Washington, D.C.) (Jason K. Fettig, conductor; Scott Piper, tenor) - 4 March 2022 (87th Annual ABA National Convention)
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) Symphony Band (Michael Haithcock, conductor; Scott Piper, tenor and actor) – 15 March 2019 *Premiere Performance*

Works for Winds by This Composer

The Seer (2019)

Resources

Erik Santos, personal correspondence, July 2020
Erik Santos website Accessed 15 March 2019
"U-M Symphony Band and vocalist Scott Piper premiere "The Seer", by Erik Santos." YouTube, 12 March 2019. Web. Accessed 3 July 2020