A Tuning Piece: Songs of Fall and Winter

A Tuning Piece: Songs of Fall and Winter2017-03-13T19:14:26+00:00

Project Description

Wind Ensemble
1995
18 min.

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Instrumentation

Picc Fl-3(1»AFl) Ob-2(2»EH) BbCl-3 BCl CbCl Bsn-2(2»Cbsn) ASx-2 TSx BSx | Hn-4 Tpt-3(1»CTpt; 2»FgHn) Tbn-2 BTbn Euph Tuba DB | Pno Timp Perc-4

  • Piccolo 
  • Flute (3) (1 player doubles Alto Flute)
  • Oboe (2) (2 doubles English Horn)
  • Clarinet in B♭ (3)
  • Bass Clarinet in B♭
  • Contrabass Clarinet in E♭
  • Bassoon (2) (2 doubles Contrabassoon)
  • Alto Saxophone (2)
  • Tenor Saxophone
  • Baritone Saxophone
  • Horn in F (4)
  • Trumpet in B♭ (3) (1 player doubles C Trumpet; 1 player doubles Flugelhorn)
  • Trombone (2)
  • Bass Trombone
  • Euphonium
  • Tuba
  • Double Bass
  • Piano
  • Timpani
  • Required Percussion (4 players)
    • Vibraphone
    • Glockenspiel
    • Crash Cymbals
    • Marimba
    • Xylophone
    • Bass Marimba
    • Bass Drum (2)
    • Tenor Drum
    • Gongs (1 sm., 1 med., 1 lg.)
    • Tam-tam (2)
    • Suspended Cymbal (lg.)
    • Bell Plate
    • Triangle (lg.)
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.

Written for

James Croft

Commissioned by

Kappa Kappa Psi, National Band Fraternity, and Tau Beta Sigma, National Band Sorority

Program Note

The title A Tuning Piece: Songs of Fall and Winter needs a bit of explanation. “Tuning” refers first to extended passages built around a single pitch, allowing the opportunity for carefully heard intonation. “A Tuning” reads also as “Attuning,” suggesting a kind of music that brings mind and heart to a point of rest; “A Tuning Piece” is also filled with tunes from start to finish! “Songs of Fall and Winter” … the surprising realization in passing age 50 that my life was more than likely a good deal closer to the end that the beginning. And so this is a piece for the second half of life, a time in which the attitude of “attuning” has become very important for me. It is reflective of a growing awareness of my own religious nature, an awareness which has as its core a deeply felt sense of the soul connection of human life with all of earthly nature, and with the whole of the cosmos. The result, in this piece, is a very interior music.

A Tuning Piece: Songs of Fall and Winter is in five sections. The first is a gentle, reflective music. It is followed by a bold and bursting music which quotes and expands on the hymn tune Lobt Gott ihr Christen Allzugleich from the 371 Four-Part Chorales by J.S. Bach. The third section is impassioned and has the quality of a spiritual, though it is newly composed. The fourth section is very intimate and reflective. It is a setting of Jesu, Jesu, du bist mein (also from the Chorales), and is given a medieval flavor by a consistent “open fifth” harmonization. The final portion of music is a partial recapitulation of the opening. It is ethereal and transcendent in nature.

Program note by David Maslanka

Further Reading

Maslanka Weekly: Best of the Web – No. 48, Water Music

20 May 2019|0 Comments

Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we continue to look at more of David's music that uses water as a symbol or motif: A Child's Garden of Dreams, Sea Dreams: Concerto for Two Horns and Wind Ensemble, and UFO Dreams: Concerto for Euphonium and Wind Ensemble, Movement II - "The Water is Wide."

Maslanka Weekly: Best of the Web – No. 39, Dreams & Meditations

18 March 2019|0 Comments

Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature three compositions that specifically mention "dreaming" or "meditation" in their title: A Child's Garden of Dreams, Movement I, Sea Dreams: Concerto for Two Horns and Wind Ensemble, Movement III, and Recitation Book, Movement I, "Broken Heart: Meditation on the chorale melody Der du bist drei in einigkeit."