Machu Picchu - City in the Sky

From Wind Repertory Project
Satoshi Yagisawa

Satoshi Yagisawa


Subtitle: Mystery of the Hidden Sun Temple


General Info

Year: 2005
Duration: c. 10:30
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Bravo Music
Cost: Score and Parts - $145.00   |   Score Only - $15.00

Instrumentation

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

  • Bass Drum
  • Crash Cymbals
  • Bird Call
  • Bongos
  • Chimes
  • Glockenspiel
  • Gong
  • Hi-Hat
  • Marimba
  • Ratchet
  • Suspended Cymbal
  • Temple Blocks
  • Tom-Tom
  • Triangle
  • Vibra-slap
  • Whip
  • Wind Chimes


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

Explaining the significance of Machu Picchu begins with remembering the Incan empire at its zenith, and its tragic encounter with the Spanish conquistadors. The great 16th century empire that unified most of Andean South America had as its capital the golden city of Cuzco. Francisco Pizarro, while stripping the city of massive quantities of gold, in 1533 also destroyed Cuzco’s Sun Temple, shrine of the founding deity of the Incan civilization.

While that act symbolized the end of the empire, 378 years later an archaeologist from Yale University, Hiram Bingham, rediscovered “Machu Picchu,” a glorious mountaintop Incan city that had escaped the attention of the invaders. At the central high point of the city stands its most important shrine, the Intihuatana, or “hitching post of the sun,” a column of stone rising from a block of granite the size of a grand piano, where a priest would "tie the sun to the stone" at winter solstice to ensure its seasonal return. Finding the last remaining Sun Temple of a great city inspired the belief that perhaps the royal lineage stole away to his holy place during Pizarro’s conquest.

After considering these remarkable ideas, I wished to musically describe that magnificent citadel and trace some of the mysteries sealed in Machu Picchu’s past. Three principal ideas dominate the piece: 1) the shimmering golden city of Cuzco set in the dramatic scenery of the Andes, 2) the destructiveness of violent invasion, and 3) the re-emergence of Incan glory as the City in the Sky again reached for the sun.

- Program Note by composer


Commissioned by the Ensemble Liberte Wind Orchestra, Kawaguchi City, 2004

- Program Note from score


Media


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • Arkansas Tech University (Russellville) Symphonic Band (Jonathan Nash, conductor) - 3 October 2023
  • Culver-Stockton College (Canton, Mo.) Wind Ensemble (Trent Hollinger, conductor) - 25 March 2023
  • The Naperville (Ill.) Winds (Sean Kelley, conductor) - 23 February 2023
  • Dallas (Tx.) Asian Winds (Jung-Moo Lee, conductor) - 29 January 2023
  • James Madison University (Harrisonburg, Va.) Concert Band (Amy Birdsong, conductor) - 4 December 2022
  • University of Toronto (Ont., Can.) Wind Symphony (Pratik Gandhi, conductor) - 15 October 2022
  • Lamar University Wind Ensemble (Andrew McMahan, conductor) - 6 October 2022
  • Colorado Christian University (Lakewood) Symphonic Band (Mark S. Dorn, conductor) - 13 April 2022
  • University of North Texas (Denton) University Band (Luslaida Barbosa, conductor) - 24 February 2020
  • Vassar College and Community Wind Ensemble (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) (James Osborn, conductor) – 10 November 2019
  • Washington Wind Symphony (Redmond) (Jacob Scherr, conductor) – 27 October 2019
  • Antelope Valley College (Palmdale, Calif.) Symphonic Band (Gary Heaton-Smith, conductor) – 5 May 2019
  • University of Oregon (Eugene) Wind Symphony (Jason Silveira, conductor) – 30 April 2019
  • Northern Illinois University (DeKalb) Wind Symphony (Thomas Bough, conductor) – 27 February 2019
  • Lawrence University (Appleton, Wisc.) Symphonic Band (Matthew Arau, conductor) – 26 May 2018
  • Cerritos (Calif.) College Concert Band (David Betancourt, conductor) -18 March 2018 (2018 Sutherland Wind Festival (Fresno, Calif.)
  • Banda Sinfónica Escuela de Formación Artística y Cultural de Chía (Cundinamarca, Colombia) (Jesús Orielso Santiago Jácome, conductor) - 23 December 2017 (2017 Midwest Clinic)
  • University of Iowa (Iowa City) Concert Band (Kevin Kastens, conductor) – 5 October 2017
  • Greater Miami (Fla.) Symphonic Band (Robert Longfield, conductor) – 4 May 2017 (ACB 2017 Annual Convention (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.))
  • Iowa State University (Ames) Wind Ensemble (Rod M. Chesnutt, conductor) – 31 March 2017
  • California State University, Fresno, Wind Orchestra (Gary P. Gilroy, conductor) - 25 March 2017 (2017 Sutherland Wind Festival (Fresno, Calif.)
  • University of Nebraska (Lincoln) Symphonic Band (Anthony Falcone, conductor) – 28 April 2016


Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music


All Wind Works


Resources

  • Satoshi Yagisawa website
  • Williams, Nicholas Enrico. "Machu Picchu." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 6, edit. & comp. by Richard Miles, 509-514. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2007.
  • Yagisawa, S. (2005). Machu Picchu - City in the Sky: Mystery of the Hidden Sun Temple [score]. Bravo Music: [s.l.]
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