Drifting from Midnight

From Wind Repertory Project
Ethan Wickman

Ethan Wickman


General Info

Year: 2014
Duration: c. 7:40
Difficulty: IV (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Ethan Wickman
Cost: Parts (digital) - $100.00   |   Score Only (digital) - $35.00


Instrumentation

Full Score
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
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-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Piano
Timpani
Percussion I-VI, including:

  • Bass Drum
  • Glockenspiel
  • Gong, large
  • Marimba
  • Snare Drum
  • Suspended Cymbal
  • Tam-Tam, large
  • Tubular Bells
  • Vibraphone


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

Drifting From Midnight
Sleep now, O sleep now,
O you unquiet heart!
A voice crying “Sleep now”
Is heard in my heart.
-James Joyce

All by myself I have to go,
With none to tell me what to do - -
All alone beside the streams
And up the mountain-sides of dreams.
-Robert Louis Stevenson

Save me from curious Conscience, that still lords
Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole;
Turn the dey deftly in the oiled wards,
And seal the hushed Casket of my Soul.
-John Keats

No experience adequately prepares one for the late night rituals of parenthood: the cry in the dark that seizes one from the depths of exhaustion; the lumbering footsteps that make their way cradle-side beneath the dull glow of the moon; tranquility split asunder by the anxiety-inducing cough, fevered skin, and undisclosed aches and tremors. Perhaps we are summoned by no more than the desperate, terrified pining of a tiny soul at once confronting their utter isolation in the profundity of night. In these moments, there are quiet words: stories rendered stream-of-consciously, simple songs, memories from the day, promises for the morning. Miracles transpire that are known only to those awake in these sacred, silent hours. To lull a child to sleep is to witness the crossing of threshold—the abandonment of determined, grasping fear as it acquiesces to surrender and to dreams.

Drifting from Midnight is a sonic exploration of that moment when thresholds are crossed; when anxious wakefulness surrenders to peaceful slumber and the transcendent glories of worlds and horizons known only to dreamers.

- Program Note by the composer


Media


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

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Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources