California

Wind Ensemble
2015
10 min.
Grade 5

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CBDA All-State Wind Symphony

CBDA All-State Wind Symphony, Mallory Thompson, cond.
live recording

Preview Score

Instrumentation

Picc Fl-2 Ob-2 E♭Cl B♭Cl-3 BCl CbCl Bsn-2 SSx ASx TSx BSx | Hn-4 B♭Tpt-3 Trb-2 BTrb Euph Tuba | DB Pno Timp Perc-5

Details

Piccolo
Flute (2)
Oboe (2)
Clarinet in E♭
Clarinet in B♭ (3)
Bass Clarinet in B♭
Contrabass Clarinet in B♭
Bassoon (2)
Soprano Saxophone
Alto Saxophone
Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone
Horn in F (4)
Trumpet in B♭ (3)
Trombone (2)
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
Double Bass
Piano
Timpani
Required Percussion (5 players)
- Vibraphone
- Orchestra Bells
- Crotales
- Xylophone
- Suspended Cymbal (1 sm., 1 lg.)
- Snare Drum
- Tenor Drum
- Anvil (lg.)
- Crash Cymbals
- Bass Drum
- Tam-tam

About part assignments

For wind ensembles and concertos, please use one player per part. For symphonies and concert pieces, more players may be used as desired. David’s full statement.

Commissioned by

Commissioned by the California Band Directors Association for the 2016 Wind Symphony, Dr. Mallory Thompson, Conductor. Dedicated to California Music Educators that have weathered the storm, with spirits set on new beginnings and the strongest times to come as the California All-State Music Education Conference moves to San Jose, CA in 2016.

Premiere

13 February 2016 by the CBDA All-State Wind Symphony, Dr. Mallory Thompson, conductor, at the California All-State Music Education Conference, San Jose, CA.

Errata

91-2: Hn 3.4 should be unison with Hn 1.2.

Program Note

Music is wonderful. It lets us tell ourselves things we can’t speak out in words. It opens the dream space and lets us dream together. It lets us imagine the world as it really is, a place of vitality, power, and possibility.

We live in fear of destruction, from climate change, nuclear bombs, increasing population, vanishing resources, continuous war. When the troubles are listed like this it is hard to know what we think we are doing with our seemingly simple and innocent music making.

California has always been a place of big dreams. The music of California celebrates the California dream space. There is tremendous beauty here – the forests, deserts, mountains and valleys, the ocean – and also the strength within the people and in the earth to meet the times that are upon us. Music lets us dream, and in that dream is the possibility of a new world, one in which humans live in harmony, within themselves, with all other people, with all other species, with the planet. Is this dream impossible? Are circumstances too complex? Will human nature never change? My answer to these questions is no. The dream starts somewhere. Let our music making be one such place.

Program note by David Maslanka (September 2015)