Program Notes
In the Nick of Time
Fornine Music
2024 • Grade 3 • 2:15
There you are fast asleep, when the alarm clock slowly pulls you out of your dreamy slumber. You roll over to hit snooze, and it’s in that moment you realize through groggy eyes that you set your alarm for the WRONG time. PANIC!!
The next several minutes are a blur as you frantically get ready, and race out the door. A phrase repeats in your head, “I must get there on time…I must get there on time…”
The world flies by around you as you sprint to your destination. You finally slide through the door at the last minute… whew!! Just in the nick of time…
In The Nick of Time was commissioned by the Cedar Park Winds (Jeremy Spicer, Director) for their performance at the 2024 Midwest Band & Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Illinois.
This Night
Murphy Music Press
2020 • Grade 3 • 4:00
The original version of This Night is a Christmas hymn that was written for Minneapolis-based choir VocalEssence. This arrangement for band was created for Alex Kaminsky and the VanderCook College of Music Symphonic Band. The text for the choral version is a setting of the text Dies ist die Nacht, da mir erschienen, (“This Night a Wondrous Revelation”), which was written in 1683 by Caspar Friedrich Nachtenhöfer. I used an English translation of the original German poem by Anna B. Hoppe from 1922, which also serves as the text for the Christmas hymn of the same name, commonly set to the tune O Dass Ich Tausen Zungen, written by Johann B. König in 1738. I chose this text because of the beautifully vivid imagery and metaphors for light in the poetry, and because I really enjoy the simple, common rhyme and phrase structure that encouraged me to write simple, clear music.
There are also arrangements for saxophone quartet and saxophone choir.
A Place in the Stars
Longitude 91 Publications
2024 • Grade 3 • 3:00
I composed Tears of St. Lawrence the summer before our oldest daughter started kindergarten. This work is inspired by the Perseids meteor shower, which is arguably the best of its kind. This past summer, our just turned five-year-old was gearing up to begin school. Once again, our family spent many late evenings stargazing. One of these nights, in addition to falling stars, we were fortunate enough to see the northern lights! It was truly spectacular.
A Place in the Stars references Perseus. In Greek mythology, this son of Zeus was a great hero and slayer of monsters. Perseus has a constellation named after him. According to legend, he was given a place in the stars forever for his bravery in rescuing the beautiful Andromeda from Cetus, a huge sea creature.
In Living Color
Katahj Copley Music
2021 • Grade 5 • 4:30
In 2020, the world had to pause as the global pandemic of COVID-19 entered all of our lives. So many events and so much of life’s simple joys were taken from us including for many the opportunity to perform music. Music is one of the greatest means of communication and when taken away, the language of music becomes foreign and for some the passion for music is lost.
Now as the world slowly begins to turn again, the passion of music and the passion to hear live music has grown. Through separation, we have grown stronger. This is why I wrote this piece. In Living Color is an ode to live music and the return to the wind band stage. This piece was inspired by the different colors of modern jazz like Snarky Puppy to the likes of George Gershwin to hits like Estelle’s American Boy in order to create a kaleidoscope of colors and energy. This is a celebration of life and all the small things that lead to the big things. This is In Living Color.
Aloft
Steven Bryant Music
Hal Leonard
2023 • Grade 2 • 3:30
Aloft evokes the relentless pursuit of powered flight by the Wright Brothers at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, as well as the broader sense of persistence and elation during any creative act.
Aloft is meant to be truly accessible to a very wide range of musicians, conforming to the North Carolina Bandmasters Association MPA grade 2 guidelines, and thus playable by young and inexperienced musicians everywhere.
I am grateful to Danny Green, the Wachovia Winds Youth Wind Ensemble, and all the members of the consortium for creating this unique project for so many North Carolina composers. The complete Special thanks to Philip Riggs for additional consultation on making the work’s technical demands accessible to young musicians.
Hymnsong
Apollo Studios
2023 • Grade 3 • 6:15
Commissioned by the Grandville Calvin Christian School Music Department, in memory of Jeff Looman. Jeff was the 5th-12th Grade Band Director at Calvin Christian for 23 years, and was tragically killed in a car-bicycle accident in 2013. He left a lasting legacy as a master-teacher and valued colleague, largely because of his ability to live life to its fullest in his faith, his relationships, and in his love for music education. Jeff was known for his enthusiasm and zest for life, but he will always be remembered for his strongly-rooted faith and the deep impact he had on everyone who knew him. Jeff was also an avid church musician as a trombone player, a church choir director, and a lover of traditional hymns which he loved singing with his family and church community. Nearer, Still Nearer was one of his favorites.
- Sarah Horton (Jeff’s daughter), Director of Bands, Grandville Calvin Christian Schools
Second Nature - Part 3
Blue Dot Composers Collective
2024 • Grade 5 • 6:40
The term “second nature” typically describes a skill that, while baffling at first, becomes effortless once mastered. Naturally, Second Nature calls for a quartet of saxophonists to tackle the virtuosic demands of the piece and make their efforts look easy. But the virtuosity in their music runs deeper than speedy flurries of notes or sky-high belts. The solo quartet must also play with exacting ensemble coordination as they emulate complex electronic delay effects, which, when combined with thumping four-on-the-floor drumbeats, capture the infectious exuberance of House music. If you see the soloists sweat, I hope that it’s at least in some measure because the music inspires them to move. I personally have never danced so much while writing a piece (and fortunately you’ll just have to take my word for it). Written in three unbroken movements, this concerto often exudes pure, unbridled joy.
Indeed, when I think about my own nature as a composer, and the affective inclination of my earlier work, it was at first joy. Improvisation at the keyboard, my first childhood foray into composition, was a happy escape from the labors of piano practice. For many years composition felt like play, and my music was infused with much more whimsy than gravitas. That changed to a great degree in 2020. My compositions, both by intention and the unconscious intrusions of the wider world, became darker and introspective. I had even come to terms with the possibility that my music would remain in this darker place for a very long time. However, with the brightness of its opening and closing C-major chords, Second Nature is me finding my way back. In that way, “second nature” is less of a description of something that has become effortless, but rather something which is relearned, an inclination rediscovered—nature, for the second time around.
It is with tremendous gratitude that I thank Dr. Sarah McKoin and Texas Tech University for leading the consortium of fifteen university wind ensembles and saxophone quartets who commissioned Second Nature. This concerto is dedicated to the sensational Aruna Quartet, who premiered the piece in early 2024 alongside Dr. McKoin and the Texas Tech University Symphonic Wind Ensemble.
Honey Boys on Parade
Edward Victor Cupero
ed. by John R. Bourgeois
Wingert-Jones Publications
2014/1998 • Grade 4 • 2:00
This "screamer" minstrel march, with its optional challenging piccolo-clarinet-cornet feature, was dedicated to George "Honey Boy" Evans and published by Fillmore Brothers Co. of Cincinnati in 1914, one year before the death of the famous minstrel. Evans was born in the little town of Pontytlin, Wales, in 1870. After migrating to the United States, he sang with the Columbia Quartet in Canton, Ohio, in 1891; traveled with medicines for a few months; and then appeared with Haverly's Minstrels in Chicago in the following year.
Evans was always billed as "Honey Boy" because of the popularity of his song I'll Be True to My Honey Boy. Other songs include In the Good Old Summertime, Standing on the Corner, and Down Where the Watermelon Grows.
E.V. Cupero conducted the Honey Boy Minstrels Band and Orchestra from about 1910 until Evans's death in 1915. The march was meant to feature the dazzling technique of the circus bands of that era.
Dancing Kites
Alfred Music
2015 • Grade 1 • 2:00
Dancing Kites is dedicated in memory of Douglas Vermilya Jr., who passed on December 22, 2014, at the age of 3 1/2. He loved music and brought so much joy and happiness to his family.
In dedicating Dancing Kites to the memory of Douglas, I thought about the happiness and playfulness that children bring to us and that I imagined Douglas brought to his friends and family. The stories shared about his life were heroic with his battle against congenital heart defects and a family life filled with lots of laughter, fun and music. He was a bright light in his family, and it was fitting to have a piece that reflected that playful spirit. I also thought that with each clap from the audience, Douglas will be honored and in a new way his memory will bring a smile to many, many faces. For me, to put something in a musical form as a dedication to his life on earth is an honor that I will forever treasure. It is my sincere hope that you smile and enjoy Dancing Kites and clap a little extra for “Junior.”
La Chancla
Manuscript
2024 • Grade 4 • 7:15
La Chancla is Spanish for a slipper - more accurately a flip flop. While Cubans usually say "chancleta", Puerto Ricans refer to it as "chancla." It is a common meme or joke among Hispanics that a mother with a chancla in her hand could get an entire room of unruly kids in line or even chase away a bear (look it up on YouTube – it happened!). It is the Excalibur of Hispanic mothers and grandmothers everywhere and so I thought it would be a fun project to write a piece with this title and play between the mythical and merengue. The mythical element to La Chancla is represented by a combination of whole tone and octatonic collections. The merengue stands in stark contrast to the mythical representing the culture through more conservative functional harmony but intense rhythmic vitality. The piece is not programmatic - just a fun collection of these styles and the interplay between them.
