Tuning Piece, A
Subtitle: Songs of Fall and Winter
General Info
Year: 1995
Duration: 18:00
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Carl Fischer
Cost: Rental, contact Publisher for information.
Instrumentation
Full Score
Piccolo
Flute I-II-III
Oboe I-II
Bassoon I-II
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Contrabass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
Eb Baritone Saxophone
Trumpet in Bb I-II-III
Horn I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II
Bass Trombone
Baritone
Tuba
String Bass
Piano
Timpani
Percussion I-II-III-IV, breakdown needed
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
The title A Tuning Piece: Songs of Fall and Winter needs a bit of explaining. “Tuning” refers first to extended passages built around a single pitch, allowing the opportunity for carefully heard intonation. “A Tuning” can be read also as “Attuning”, suggesting a kind of music that brings heart and mind to a point of rest. “A Tuning Piece” is also filled with tunes from start to finish! “Songs of Fall and Winter”...the surprising realization on passing age 50 that my life was a good deal closer to the end than the beginning. And so this is a piece for the second half of life, a time in which the attitude of “attuning” has become very important for me. It is reflective of a growing awareness of my own religious nature, an awareness which has at its core a deeply felt sense of the soul connection of human life with all of earthly nature, and with the whole of the cosmos.
The work is in five sections. The first is a gentle, reflective music. It is followed by a bold and bursting music which quotes and expands on the hymn tune Lobt Gott ihr Christen Allzugleich from the Bach Chorales. The third section is impassioned and has the quality of a spiritual, although it is newly composed. The fourth section is very intimate and reflective. It is a setting of Jesu, Jesu, Du Bist Mein – also from the Bach Chorales. It is given a medieval flavor by a consistent “open fifth” harmonization. The final section is a partial recapitulation of the opening.
A Tuning Piece: Songs of Fall and Winter was commissioned by Kappa Kappa Psi, National Band Fraternity, and Tau Beta Sigma, National Band Sorority.
Program Note by David Maslanka
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
Works for Winds by This Composer
- Alex and the Phantom Band (2002/2015)
- Angel of Mercy (2015)
- California (2016)
- A Child's Garden of Dreams (1981)
- Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble (1999)
- Concerto for Marimba and Band (1990)
- Concerto for Clarinet and Wind Ensemble (2015)
- Concerto for Piano, Winds, and Percussion (1979)
- Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Wind Ensemble (2012)
- Concerto No 2 for Piano, Winds, and Percussion (2002)
- Concerto No 3 for Piano and Wind Ensemble (2016)
- Concerto for Trombone and Wind Ensemble (2007)
- Crown of Thorns (1991)
- Desert Roads (2005)
- Fanfare-Variations on the Chorale Melody "Durch Adams Fall" (Through Adam's Fall). See: Recitation Book
- First Light (2016)
- Four Pieces for Band (1980)
- Give Us This Day (2005)
- Golden Light (1990)
- Heart Songs (2001)
- Hell's Gate (1997)
- Hohner (1999)
- Hosannas (2015)
- Husa (2016)
- Hymn for World Peace (2014)
- Illumination (2013)
- In Memoriam (1990)
- Laudamus Te (1995)
- Letter to Martin (2015)
- Liberation (2012)
- Little Concerto (1990)
- Mass (1995/2005)
- Montana Music: Chorale Variations (1993)
- Morning Star (1997)
- Mother Earth (2008)
- Mountain Roads (1997)
- On This Bright Morning (2013)
- Peace (2012)
- Prelude on a Gregorian Tune (1981)
- Procession of the Academics (2008)
- Quintet for Winds Number 2
- Recitation Book (2006)
- Remember Me (2013)
- Requiem (2013)
- Rollo Takes a Walk (1980)
- Saint Francis (2015)
- Sea Dreams (1998)
- The Seeker (2016)
- Song at the End of Time
- Songs for the Coming Day (2012)
- Song Book (2001)
- Symphony No. 2 (1987)
- Symphony No. 3 (1991/2007)
- Symphony No. 4 (1993)
- Symphony No. 5 (2000)
- Symphony No. 6 (2004)
- Symphony No 7 (2004)
- Symphony No 8 (2008)
- Symphony No. 9 (2011)
- Symphony No. 10 (2018)
- Tears (1994)
- Testament (2001)
- Traveler (2003)
- A Tuning Piece: Songs of Fall and Winter (1995)
- ufo dreams (1999)
- Unending Stream of Life (2007)
- Variants on a Hymn Tune (1995)