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Riften Wed

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This work has been identified for inclusion in the Small Band Repertoire Initiative. You may find discussion of the work's challenges and merits under the Discussion tab above. You may also contribute your own thoughts and recommendations by joining the WRP.


Julie Giroux

Julie Giroux


General Info

Year: 2013
Duration: c. 7:00
Difficulty: IV (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Musica Propria
Cost: Score and Parts - $110.00   |   Score Only - $18.00


Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
English Horn
Bassoon I-II
Contrabassoon
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Contra Alto Clarinet
B-flat Contrabass 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
Harp
Organ
Timpani
Percussion I-II, including:

  • Bass Drum
  • Crash Cymbals
  • Orchestra Bells
  • Tubular Bells
  • Vibraphone


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

Composed for Dennis W. Fisher and the University of North Texas Symphonic Band.


Riften is a city in Skyrim located in the expansive world of Elder Scrolls, the fifth installment of an action role-playing video game saga developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Skyrim is an open world game that by any video game standard is geographically massive and more closely related to an online mmorpg (massive multiplayer online role-playing game) than to its console and pc competition.

Skyrim is a beautiful world, from mountainous snowy regions to open tundra plains, sea coasts, beaches, thick woods, lakes and hot spring-fed swamps. Large cities, villages, forts, ancient ruins, caves, lone houses, sawmills and abandoned shacks dot the atlas. One can spend hours just walking or riding horseback from one side of the continent to the other doing nothing but experiencing its wondrous environment and lore. It is truly a game worthy of total immersion. Oh, and I should mention that it is also a deadly world, torn apart by civil war and dragons who have resurfaced after thousands of years, not to mention the cult of vampires that are also threatening to take over the world.

Riften is a seedy, crime-filled and nearly lawless city. Located on a waterfront with skooma-addicted dock workers and corrupt guards, it also boasts the headquarters of the Thieves Guild. Sadly enough, it is also the location for the world's orphanage and the Temple of Mara, the place where the good citizens of Skyrim have to go to get married, you included.

Weddings in Skyrim are about survival as much as fondness or imagined love. Courtship can be as simple a dialogue as “Are you interested in me? Why yes, are you interested in me? Yes. It’s settled then.” Sometimes the dialogue is more along the lines of “You are smart and strong. I would be lucky to have you. I would walk the path of life beside you ‘til the end of time if you will have me.” Although this game feels somewhat like the iron age with magic and dragons, it has a progressive, flourishing society.

In Skyrim, if so desired, your spouse can and will fight beside you. They will die for you or with you. For most of them, that death is permanent. You cannot remarry (not without cheating anyway). What was is over and there will be no other. Being the hopeless romantic that I am, I found the whole situation intriguing and heart wrenching, especially if related or injected into real world circumstances. In one instance while playing the game, I emerged from the chapel with my brand new husband only to have him killed later that evening in a vicious full-on vampire attack right outside the temple. (Hey! No fair! I knew I should have married a warrior and not a merchant. I restarted the game.) Skyrim weddings are happening in the middle of a world full of violence, disease, war and death, something Earth is all too familiar with.

Riften Wed is the music for loves and unions, past and present such as this. A love, a wedding, a lifetime shared by two people in the middle of a storm that threatens to tear them apart. Where “‘til death do us part” is not only a reality, it’s a given. Where love is a gift worthy of all the joy and pain it demands. One life, one love, one ending. This music is for those that are truly Riften Wed.

- Program Note by composer


Awards


Media


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • United States Army Band (Ft. Myer, Va.) (Randall Bartel, conductor) - 28 January 2023 (Winchester, Va.)
  • New York University Wind Symphony (Jason Noble, conductor) - 10 December 2022
  • Sacramento (Calif.) State University Symphonic Wind Ensemble (Matthew Morse, conductor) - 7 December 2022
  • Lamar University (Beaumont, Tx.) Wind Ensemble (Andrew McMahan, conductor) - 22 November 2022
  • Southeastern Louisiana University (Hammond) Wind Symphony (Robert M. Schwartz, conductor) - 5 May 2022
  • Los Alamos (N.M.) Community Winds (Ted Vives, conductor) – 5 May 2022 (ACB 2022 Annual Convention (Santa Fe, New Mexico))
  • Central Washington University (Ellenburg) Wind Ensemble (T. André Feagin, conductor) – 17 March 2022 (CBDNA 2022 Western/Northwestern Conference, Tacoma, Wash.)
  • University of Utah (Salt Lake City) Wind Ensemble (Rebekah Daniel, conductor) - 29 September 2021
  • Texas A&M University (College Station) Symphonic Band (Russell Tipton, conductor) - 6 December 2020
  • University of North Florida (Jacksonville) Concert Band (Erin Bodnar, conductor) - 13 October 2020
  • Northern Symphonic Winds (Potsdam, N.Y.) (Brian K. Doyle, conductor) – 15 February 2020
  • Old Dominion University (Norfolk, Va.) Wind Ensemble (Brian Diller, conductor) – 20 November 2019
  • Michigan State University (East Lansing) Symphony Band (Rebekah Daniel, conductor) – 22 October 2019
  • Concordia University (River Forest, Ill.) University Band (Richard R. Fischer, conductor) – 27 September 2019
  • Ohlone Wind Orchestra (Fremont, Calif.) (Tony Clements, conductor) – 5 May 2019
  • University of North Texas (Denton) Symphonic Band (Dennis W. Fisher, conductor) – 27 April 2019
  • Northern Illinois University (DeKalb) Wind Ensemble (Joseph Manfredo, conductor) –- 18 April 2019
  • United States Army Band (Ft. Myer, Va.) (Andrew J. Esch, conductor) – 12 April 2019 (Manassas, Va.)
  • Indiana University (Bloomington) Symphonic Band (Emily Rodeck, conductor) – 10 April 2019
  • West Virginia University (Morgantown) Wind Symphony (Scott C. Tobias, conductor) – 8 February 2019


Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music


All Wind Works


Resources

  • Creasap, Susan. "Riften Wed." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 11, Compiled and edited by Richard Miles, 613-624. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2018.
  • Julie Giroux website Accessed 10 July 2021
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