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Remember the Molecules

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Michael Markowski

Michael Markowski


General Info

Year: 2013
Duration: c. 6:00
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Markowski Creative
Cost: Score and Parts - $295.00   |   Score Only - $40.00


Instrumentation

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

  • Snare Drum
  • Chimes
  • China Cymbal
  • Concert Tom
  • Glockenspiel
  • Handbells
  • Kick Drum
  • Marimba
  • Ride Cymbal
  • Sizzle Cymbal
  • Slapstick
  • Splash Cymbal
  • Suspended Cymbal
  • Tam-Tam
  • Trash Cymbal
  • Triangle
  • Vibraphone


Errata

The most accurate version of the score and parts is dated March 27, 2014. For earlier versions, please correct the following errata:

  • Flutes, mm. 19-20: Similar to the saxophones in mm. 16 – 18. Slur this similar pattern of 6.
  • E-flat Soprano Clarinet, mm. 19-20: Similar to the saxophones in mm. 16 – 18. Slur this similar pattern of 6.
  • B-flat Soprano Saxophone, mm. 19-20: Similar to the saxophones in mm. 16 – 18. Slur this similar pattern of 6.
  • E-flat Alto Saxophones, mm. 16-18: Slur 16th notes in groups of 6, accenting the first note as currently notated.
  • B-flat Tenor Saxophone, mm. 16-18: Slur 16th notes in groups of 6, accenting the first note as currently notated.


Program Notes

Remember The Molecules borrows its title and much of its musical imagery from Norman Maclean's novella A River Runs Through It, a book that continues to move me in new ways each time I read it. If you're not familiar with the story or the 1992 movie adaptation directed by Robert Redford starring a young Brad Pitt, the scene is this: Montana fly-fishing country, deep in a canyon next to one of the strongest rivers in Montana, the Big Blackfoot River.

The piece is probably my most organic composition for wind band. I say "organic" because the piece is "through-composed," which generally means that it was written without any traditional form or musical structure. The piece also doesn't really have a traditional melody. So what ends up taking the spotlight are the smaller musical ideas. These little motifs, energized with rhythm, combine and entangle themselves, "one rhythm superimposed upon another" to form a larger musical architecture.

Like many great works of art, Maclean's novella is about more than just fly fishing. As a semi-autobiographical narrative, Maclean's own family and his personal relationships with them are woven into the book's subtext. At the heart of the music sprouts a single motivic seed composed of three notes, Ab-Bb-G. When sounded, these pitches imply two significant intervals that appear throughout the piece: a Major second (Ab-Bb) and a Major seventh (Ab-G). These two intervals are both the closest and one of the furthest removed within a diatonic octave. This juxtaposition of neighboring pitches and distant ones suggests a kind of intervallic duality, which is intended to echo an ever-present theme throughout Maclean's story, that "it is those we live with and love and should know who elude us" (Maclean 104).

- Program Note by composer


Media


State Ratings

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Works for Winds by This Composer

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