Severance

From Wind Repertory Project
David Biedenbender

David Biedenbender


General Info

Year: 2019
Duration: c. 21:50
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Bent Space Music through Murphy Music Press
Cost: Score and Parts (print) – Rental ($400.00)   |   Score Only (print) - $85.00


Movements

1. Clouds of Remembering – 4:36
2. Every Way Through Hurts– 10:15
3. Follow the Threads – 6:17


Instrumentation

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

  • Bass Drum, large
  • Crotales
  • Glockenspiel
  • Marimba
  • Mark Tree
  • Sandpaper Blocks
  • Shakers
  • Sizzle Cymbal
  • Snare Drum
  • Suspended Cymbal
  • Tambourine
  • Tam-Tam, large
  • Triangle, small mounted
  • Vibraphone
  • Whip


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

Severance was commissioned by the United States Navy Band. The title for the piece and for the second and third movements come from a linked collection of poetry called Severance by my friend Robert Fanning, who has been the muse for several of my recent works. Robert’s poetry often gives voice to my own emotional world in a way that is deeply important to me. In Severance, the main characters, two marionettes, Professor and Grief, sever their wires and escape the play and the theatre in Winterland in “search for a life untethered and authentic, crossing from day into night, from wood into flesh, from wakefulness into dream, from ice into thaw. Severance sings of a way—through the narrows of time and body—toward healing.” (Severance by Robert Fanning, Salmon Poetry).

In the first movement, Clouds of Remembering, I introduce all of the musical material for the piece, but it is often shrouded and ephemeral, always fleeting, like the distant memory of something or someone lost.

The second movement, Every Way Through Hurts, is dedicated to my friend Jovanni-Rey Verceles de Pedro. Jovanni and I met at the University of Michigan while completing our graduate work. He was a pianist, professor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. After graduation, we both moved to Idaho -- Jovanni taught piano at the University of Idaho, and I taught music composition and theory at Boise State University. He recorded my Rhapsody for solo piano on his first studio album, and I had planned to write him a new piece, but Jovanni died suddenly in the summer of 2019 while traveling with the global nonprofit organization he founded. When I heard about his passing it took my breath away. At 36 years old -- a young, hopeful, energetic musician, a person with whom I felt a kinship and a related musical path -- it just didn’t seem possible that he was gone. The outpouring of grief from his friends and family was extraordinary -- he had connected with so many people through music. There is no way around grief -- every way through it hurts -- but very gradually the waves of grief become smaller and grow farther apart, and we come to know that we can weather them. This music is for Jovanni, and the piano plays a prominent role, often gently tracing the saxophone solo lines like some strange shadow or echo.

The third movement, Follow the threads: Unstrung, begins with metaphorical darkness. The saxophonists play slow melodic lines – threads -- that are passed around the quartet and are eventually passed to the ensemble as the quartet’s music transforms into raindrops and then into a peculiar dance. I imagine the marionettes dancing, awkwardly at first, recently untethered and free from their strings, but becoming assured and ecstatic as they dance through grief, through their scars, through the waves, and toward healing.

Robert Fanning’s Severance is published by Salmon Poetry and you can find out more about his work at www.robertfanning.wordpress.com.

- Program Note by composer


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

  • Ithaca (N.Y.) College Wind Ensemble (Daniel Cook, conductor) - 6 December 2023
  • United States Navy Band (Washington, D.C.) II (Kenneth C. Collins, conductor; Navy Band Saxophone Quartet) - 19 December 2022 (2022 Midwest Clinic)
  • Michigan State University (East Lansing) Symphony Band (David Thornton, conductor) - 28 October 2022
  • University of Indianapolis (Ind.) Symphonic Wind Ensemble (Jon Noworyta, conductor) - 31 October 2021
  • United States Navy Band (Washington, D.C.) (Kenneth Collins, conductor) – 10 January 2020 (Fairfax, Va.) *Premiere Performance*


Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources

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