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Through Countless Halls of Air
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Contents
General Info
Year: 1995
Duration: c. 13:00
Difficulty: V (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Southern Music Co.
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $250.00 | Score Only (print) - $20.00
Movements
1. First flight: Daedalus and Icarus – 2:37
2. Kitty Hawk: Orville and Wilbur – 5:50
3. High flight: The BeeGee and the Blackbird – 4:50
Instrumentation
(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
This is an expansive, bravura showcase written for the U.S. Air Force Band. Composed in three movements, each evokes an aspect of flight. First Flight is a brilliant, fanfare-like opening; Kitty Hawk explores the anticipation of discovery and its triumph; High Flight concludes the work with virtuosic displays worthy of the modern Air Force.
- Program Note by publisher
Through Countless Halls of Air was commissioned by and is dedicated to L. Col.
Alan L. Bonner and the United States Air Force Band, Washington, DC. The title is
taken from the poem High Flight, and specifically from the line “I fling my eager
craft through footless halls of air and touch the face of God.” The work was written in
the summer of 1993 and premiered on March 27, 1994 at the American Bandmasters
Association convention in Honolulu, Hawaii, by the Air Force Band with the
composer conducting.
Each movement conveys a specific moment in the history of flight. The opening tense fanfare celebrates the courage and fear of first light as seen in the mythical flight of Daedalus and Icarus. The second movement expresses the grand serenity of soaring over the dunes of Kitty Hawk. The last movement, named after two of the most famous and fastest planes ever to fly, the BeeGee and the Blackbird, expresses the combination of flight and speed. The movement uses two themes, one denoting tension and the other exhilaration.
- Program Note from Brigham Young University Symphonic Band concert program, 28 February 2017
Commercial Discography
- Audio CD: U.S. Air Force Band (Dennis W. Layendecker, conductor) - 2008
Media
State Ratings
- Alabama: Class AA
- Indiana: ISSMA SENIOR BAND GROUP I
- Louisiana: III
- North Carolina: VI
- Virginia: VI
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah) Symphonic Band (Kirk Saville, conductor) – 28 February 2017
- Cypress Symphonic Band (Houston, Texas) (Clancy Weeks, conductor) – 25 June 2016
- McGill Wind Symphony (Montreal, Que.) (Vicky Shin, conductor) - 2009
Works for Winds by this Composer
- Air and Dance
- Annabel Lee
- Beowulf (1966)
- Canto (1977)
- Capriccio Concertant
- Cavata
- Chant and Jubilo (1963)
- Divergents
- Drammatico
- Dream Catcher
- Estampie (1999)
- Flourishes (1982)
- Grace Praeludium (1982)
- Joyant Narrative
- Kaddish (1976)
- Land of El Dorado, The
- Lauds and Tropes
- Masque (1968)
- Of Sailors and Whales (1989)
- Praises
- The Sea Treaders (1996)
- Symphonic Dance No. 1, "Comanche Ritual" (as transcriber) (1965/2013)
- They Hung Their Harps in the Willows (1988)
- Through Countless Halls of Air (1995)
- To Be Fed By Ravens
- When Honor Whispers and Shouts
- When Rossi Strikes
- Wine From These Grapes (1992)
Resources
- McBeth, W. (1995). Through Countless Halls of Air: For Symphonic Band [score]. Southern Music Co.: San Antonio, Texas.
