Composition of the Week

#189– March 06, 2023 I.Birth and Death https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZjoAfWrzQQ II.The Poem of Ecstasy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQIfAh3Hgsw III.The Song of love https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_YAyt9k7_I Life Variations, Op. 50 by Japanese composer and conductor Eiji Suzuki is our Composition of the Week. Life Variations was written in 2003, and first performed by the Hamamatsu Symphonic Winds during the same year. The work is descriptive and has a large symphonic scope, with a marked taste for lyricism and dramatic sense. It is structured in three movements, Birth and Death, Poem of Ecstasy and Song of Love. It has an overall duration of 13 minutes. It is scored for a [...]

#188– February 27, 2023 I.Praying for Rain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viJ2-8GPm3M II.Song of the Chu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB0PjKH7FhM III.Shifan Gong and drum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HskbXldS-s Ba Yin, by Chinese – American composer Chen Yi is our Composition of the Week. Ba Yin was composed in 2001 for Saxophone Quartet and Chamber Orchestra and adapted by the composer for chamber winds in 2015. The premiere performance in the Chamber Orchestra version took place in Stuttgart, Germany, on October 27, 2001, by the Rascher Saxophone Quartet and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. The version for Wind Ensemble was premiered by the Prism Quartet and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Wind Symphony [...]

#187– February 20, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMvotx87rNI Danzas, by Hispanic American composer and conductor Giovanni Santos is our Composition of the Week. Danzas was written in 2022 and premiered on April 20, of the same year by the Florida State University Wind Orchestra, in Tallahassee, with Giovanni Santos conducting. The work has a duration of about 12 minutes and pays tribute to Cuban music. It is scored for standard wind band setting including a large percussion section, contrabassoon, as well as piano and string bass. “Danzas takes a journey through the colorful and unique musical traditions in Cuban folklore. Heavily influenced by Afro-Cuban [...]

#185– February 06, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES2Q5UF97Fk Stratoscape, by Swiss composer and conductor Gauthier Dupertuis is our Composition of the Week. It was composed in November 2020 and profoundly revised in early 2022. It was premiered on December 8, 2022, in Switzerland by the Civica Filarmonica of Lugano, conducted by Franco Cesarini. With the subtitle "Methaphorical Views on Planet Earth", Stratoscape is “a colorful and contrasting work for intermediate wind band, depicting the view of our earth as seen from the stratosphere. This voyage into the sky is pictorial, but also metaphoric, as it reflects on our world.” The work is divided into [...]

#184– January 30, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTmnqMOkJqA Iracuandia, by Spanish composer and conductor David Rivas Dominguez is our Composition of the Week. Iracundia (anger or wrath, in English) was written in 2022. It was commissioned by both the city council of Madridejos and the Banda Sinfónica Municipal, who premiered the work on November 19, 2022, in Casa de la Cultura of Madridejos, under José Antonio Blasco Lambíes. “The work follows, as an extra-musical idea, the myth of Pandora's jar, but without being a descriptive piece as such. It is divided into two parts, generated from a melodic cell of three notes. I try [...]

#183– January 23, 2023 https://youtu.be/kNWodK9ZNuQ Swiss composer, conductor and teacher Jost Meier passed away on December 5, 2022. We respectfully dedicate this obituary to his memory. Meier’s work Himmel und Haus is our Composition of the Week. Written in 1996 and premiered in September of the same year, during the “Internationalen Festlichen Musiktage Uster, in Switzerland, who had commissioned the work. Himmel und Haus is scored for orchestral winds, 3232/4331.P(3), and it has a duration of around 12 minutes. It is structured in five movements. I. Bauelemente II. Treppenhaus III. Leuchtende Fassade IV. Fensterluke V. Blauer Himmel, rotes Dach Jost Meier's [...]

#182– January 16, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD9JPwPuQ8E Flying Jewels by American composer and educator James David is our Composition of the Week. The work was written in 2021 after a commission by The United States Air Force Band, Col. Don Schofield, commander, and conductor. Flying Jewels is entitled after Brian Doyle’s essay “Joyas voladoras”, the name the first Spanish explorers gave to hummingbirds. This very short and intense “prose poem” is a lyrical look into matters of the heart of living creatures, ranging from animals to humans. Flying Jewels has a duration of 9 minutes, and it is scored for standard wind ensemble [...]

#181– January 09, 2023 https://youtu.be/O1X2fvX9wu0 Symphonic Suite “Gaia” for Wind Orchestra by Japanese composer, conductor and arranger Masamichi (Masamicz) Amano is our Composition of the Week. This very large scaler work was completed in 2008 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Hamamatsu Symphonic Wind Orchestra, who released it in 2020 for CAFUA records with conductor Tohru Asada, bringing the work to a wider audience. The score is structured in four movements, titled in French in the album’s release. De la naissance de la Terre au commencement de civilisation du monde. (From the birth of the Earth to the beginning of [...]

#180– January 02, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ao0DVz1vvI Keystone, by French composer and conductor Thierry Deleruyelle is our Composition of the Week. “Keystone tells the story of the Odeon of Vriezenveen, a town in the Netherlands. “Odeon” is the name of ancient Greek and Roman buildings used for activities such as singing, music and poetry. This was the name chosen in 1998 by several members of the ‘Vriezenveense Harmonie’ for the cultural center they decided to build. The piece starts slowly with the bass instruments, then speeds up in a counterpoint passage where the main motif moves from one set of instruments to another. [...]