Drifting from Midnight
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
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- Central East High School (Fresno. Calif.) Wind Ensemble (Jack Frank, conductor) – 22 April 2022 (2022 San Joaquin Valley (Calif.) Concert Band Invitational)
- Oakland University (Auburn Hills, Mich.) Wind Ensemble (Gregory Cunningham, conductor) – 22 February 2018 (CBDNA 2018 North Central Conference, Kalamazoo, Mich.)
- Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah) Symphonic Band (Kirk Saville, conductor) – 7 November 2017
Works for Winds by This Composer
- Corrida! (2009)
- Drifting from Midnight (2014)
- Three Visions of El Greco (2014)
Resources
- Ethan Wickman website Accessed 7 November 2017
- Perusal score