Project Description
Wind Ensemble
1995
18 min.
Listen Now
University of Arizona Wind Ensemble, Gregg Hanson, cond.
Preview Score
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.)
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.
Further Reading
Interview with Tiffany Woods (2003)
In May 2003, Tiffany Woods emailed David a series of questions in the course of writing a paper. She was a student at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and taking a Band Literature course [...]
From the Maslanka Archive – No. 34, Julian Velasco’s Interview of Gary Green
From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature Julian Velasco's interview of Gary Green from the Wharton Center in East Lansing, MI from October 24, 2017.
From the Maslanka Archive – No. 33, John Floridis’s Interview of David
From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature an episode from Montana Public Radio's Musician's Spotlight featuring John Floridis interviewing David about his music and background as a composer.
From the Maslanka Archive – No. 32, Julian Velasco’s Interview of David – Part 2
From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature Part 2 of Julian Velasco's interview of David from his home in Missoula, MT in 2016.
From the Maslanka Archive – No. 31, Julian Velasco’s Interview of David – Part 1
From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature Part 1 of Julian Velasco's interview of David from his home in Missoula, MT in 2016.
Maslanka Weekly: Best of the Web – No. 110, Images of Hell
Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature three of David's works that reference Hell: Hell's Gate, A Child's Garden of Dreams, and O Earth, O Stars.
From the Maslanka Archive – No. 29, David on Dreaming and the Unconscious Mind
From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature a speech David gave on matters of dreaming and the unconscious mind before a performance of A Child's Garden of Dreams by the James Madison University Wind Symphony.
From the Maslanka Archive – No. 15, A Child’s Garden of Dreams
From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature pictures from David's residency with Stephen K. Steele and the Illinois State University Wind Symphony for a performance of A Child's Garden of Dreams in 2012.
Maslanka Weekly: Best of the Web – No. 72, Life
Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature three of David’s compositions that focus on the spirit of life and living: Unending Stream of Life, Traveler, and “Movement 4” from A Child's Garden of Dreams.
Maslanka Weekly: Best of the Web – No. 69, Dream Space
Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature three of David’s compositions (of which there are literally dozens to choose from) that explore a vast array of dream space: A Child's Garden of Dreams, Traveler, and California.
Maslanka Weekly: Best of the Web – No. 66, Vistas
Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature three of David’s compositions that emulate various kinds of vistas: Symphony No. 8, A Child's Garden of Dreams, and Symphony No. 6.
Maslanka Weekly: Best of the Web – No. 63, Malcolm W. Rowell, Jr.
Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature three of David’s compositions that Malcolm W. Rowell, Jr. and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Wind Ensemble championed: A Child's Garden of Dreams, Symphony No. 4, and Tears.
Maslanka Weekly: Best of the Web – No. 48, Water Music
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
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."
David Maslanka: Works for Younger Wind Ensembles
Here are more than twenty works for wind ensemble, arranged in approximate ascending order of difficulty, with commentary by David Maslanka
The Nature of Consciousness: Correspondence
We'd love to encourage you to write to David with questions or comments that you have about his music. He loves hearing your thoughts and feelings. Get in touch on the Contact page. June 6, [...]
Recording the Wind Ensemble Music of David Maslanka
Mark Morette of Mark Custom Recording shares his extensive experience in recording wind ensembles.
Remarks before the premiere of A Child’s Garden of Dreams, Book 2
Remarks made 7 December 2008 in Boone, NC before the premiere of A Child's Garden of Dreams, Book 2, by the Appalachian Symphony Orchestra, James Allen Anderson, conductor. I'm not going to say [...]
Some things that are true: Reflections on being an artist at the end of the 20th century
Society of Composers Incorporated Region VIII Conference, University of Montana at Missoula. Keynote address by David Maslanka – November 20, 1998 As soon as one speaks about “truth” there will be objections. Since we live [...]
An Analytical Study of David Maslanka’s A Child’s Garden of Dreams
The five movements of A Child's Garden of Dreams are inspired by five dreams selected from Carl Jung's Man and His Symbols. Dr. David Booth's doctoral dissertation on A Child's Garden of Dreams provides an analysis of each of the work's five [...]
