This Peaceful Little One - For concert band
At the time of this composition I was enrolled in a work study through Shepherd University. I was tasked with setting up chairs in the band hall and other rooms in the music building everyWednesday for the community ensembles that would rehearse on Wednesdays after university classes were finished.The community music director, Heather Wilson, was in charge of overseeing my work study.The community groups would rehearse late so I would spend wednesday evenings writing or chatting with Heather.When she found out that I was a composition major she approached me and asked me to write a concert band work as a gift for a friend who had recently suffered a miscarriage.
We brainstormed and decided that rather than writing about sadness and devestation, I would write about what could've been. Heather showed me clips of her own two children playing and running in a field on a beautiful summer day and told me the story of the couple who had lost their child and asked me to put the story to music.
"This Peaceful Little One" is built upon dissonance and resolution.The work opens with a playful dance and expands into a driving fanfare. Just as the final chord of the fanfare should resolve it doesnt. It isn't given the chance, like a couples building excitement being suddenly brought to a hault at the loss of a child.The music continues to a section of small ensembles with lines and harmonies that never quite resolve. Eventually the music moves to a brighter theme that mimics the mood of a song the mother described as "Someone going away forever, but it's ok". Once again the music builds up and right as it should resolve it doesn't, reminding us that things will never quite be the same. A melancholy piano solo ends the work reminding us that while things will never be quite the same, we can still find good in the future and the work ends with a satisfying resolution.
At the time of this composition I was enrolled in a work study through Shepherd University. I was tasked with setting up chairs in the band hall and other rooms in the music building everyWednesday for the community ensembles that would rehearse on Wednesdays after university classes were finished.The community music director, Heather Wilson, was in charge of overseeing my work study.The community groups would rehearse late so I would spend wednesday evenings writing or chatting with Heather.When she found out that I was a composition major she approached me and asked me to write a concert band work as a gift for a friend who had recently suffered a miscarriage.
We brainstormed and decided that rather than writing about sadness and devestation, I would write about what could've been. Heather showed me clips of her own two children playing and running in a field on a beautiful summer day and told me the story of the couple who had lost their child and asked me to put the story to music.
"This Peaceful Little One" is built upon dissonance and resolution.The work opens with a playful dance and expands into a driving fanfare. Just as the final chord of the fanfare should resolve it doesnt. It isn't given the chance, like a couples building excitement being suddenly brought to a hault at the loss of a child.The music continues to a section of small ensembles with lines and harmonies that never quite resolve. Eventually the music moves to a brighter theme that mimics the mood of a song the mother described as "Someone going away forever, but it's ok". Once again the music builds up and right as it should resolve it doesn't, reminding us that things will never quite be the same. A melancholy piano solo ends the work reminding us that while things will never be quite the same, we can still find good in the future and the work ends with a satisfying resolution.
At the time of this composition I was enrolled in a work study through Shepherd University. I was tasked with setting up chairs in the band hall and other rooms in the music building everyWednesday for the community ensembles that would rehearse on Wednesdays after university classes were finished.The community music director, Heather Wilson, was in charge of overseeing my work study.The community groups would rehearse late so I would spend wednesday evenings writing or chatting with Heather.When she found out that I was a composition major she approached me and asked me to write a concert band work as a gift for a friend who had recently suffered a miscarriage.
We brainstormed and decided that rather than writing about sadness and devestation, I would write about what could've been. Heather showed me clips of her own two children playing and running in a field on a beautiful summer day and told me the story of the couple who had lost their child and asked me to put the story to music.
"This Peaceful Little One" is built upon dissonance and resolution.The work opens with a playful dance and expands into a driving fanfare. Just as the final chord of the fanfare should resolve it doesnt. It isn't given the chance, like a couples building excitement being suddenly brought to a hault at the loss of a child.The music continues to a section of small ensembles with lines and harmonies that never quite resolve. Eventually the music moves to a brighter theme that mimics the mood of a song the mother described as "Someone going away forever, but it's ok". Once again the music builds up and right as it should resolve it doesn't, reminding us that things will never quite be the same. A melancholy piano solo ends the work reminding us that while things will never be quite the same, we can still find good in the future and the work ends with a satisfying resolution.