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commissioned by the Wantagh Bandwagon Association and |
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Reflections This piece happened because of the vision (...and great patience...) of one person: Mindy Dragovich. Mindy is the head of instrumental music and conductor of both the Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble at Wantagh High School on Long Island (just a short distance from New York City). Mindy, having conducted a couple of my pieces previously, contacted me about writing a new piece for her wind ensemble at Wantagh High School. I agreed and we decided to plan on Spring of 2007 for the premiere. Winter of 2007 rolled around and I had nothing written. In fact, I had no idea what I was going to write, but one day I was watching the History Channel and got my inspiration. There was a show on mountain men in the old American West, and they spoke of how these self-reliant men were some of the first people to set eyes on the Yosemite Valley in California - widely considered one of the most breathtaking places in the world. My imagination was captured by the idea of being the first to see such an amazing place, so I went to my computer and searched for information on Yosemite. What I found were hundreds of pictures of the place and especially of the incredible granite rock formation which towers over it - called El Capitan. I knew the piece I was going to write. But I had to find the right notes first - and, for me, that can be difficult. I knew what the tone of the piece would be, and I even had a sense of the kinds of harmonic structure it would take on, but I couldn't find the right melodic material in my brain. I did finally come up with some material and was able to send some pages to Mindy; but I was in the midst of the toughest creative block I had ever experienced, and I simply was not able to sufficiently complete the piece in time for a performance in the spring of 2007; so we pushed it back to December. (I guess this would be where Mindy's great patience came into play.) I found the rest of the piece later in the year, and was really pleased to have written something that didn't sound as much like "me" as my other pieces. Yes, there are elements that are similar to earlier work I had done, but this had a different quality. I was extremely excited to have made some strides down the road of "finding my voice." Mindy worked very hard on the piece with the musicians in her band and I was so pleased to have been able to visit for a few days and hear the premiere performance (December 20, 2007). I was very gratified to see that my imagination had helped to inspire the imagination of the students in the Wantagh Band. It was truly a worthwhile experience to be there and it was so good to see such commitment from Mindy and her cohort Dan Aviles; they are tireless, energetic educators. And it was a real pleasure to work with the musicians in the band. They did a great job with a very challenging piece of music.
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Some Pictures from the December, 2007 trip to Wantagh, NY for the premiere of El Capitan. Program Notes El Capitan, located in the Yosemite National Park in the northern part of California, is a 3,000 foot rock formation which overlooks the scenic Yosemite Valley. This piece presents some images of the great El Capitan, personified here as the Master of Yosemite. The piece begins in the early morning. A thunderstorm has just rolled through the Yosemite Valley and the air still smells of rain. We hear the rumbling of thunder in the distance as wind washes through the valley. We see a large, mostly nondescript silhouette to the west, largely obscured in the shadow of early morning and the insistent cloud cover. Suddenly, the sun bursts forth and we see El Capitan. The colors and contours of his enormous rock face are now clearly visible as the sunlight dances over the surface of it. He is majestic and even fearsome, lording over the splendid natural wonder that is Yosemite. We survey the scene. Clear water flows freely and large pines dot the landscape climbing to the foot of El Capitan's granite face. Morning gives way to the full light of day and we now follow birds flying through the valley and dancing over the mountain. They dive and climb with ease on the wind, surveying the valley and its master, “El Cap.” Later, we descend once more to the valley to as the bright colors of day slowly change to the more muted tones of evening. The sun sets in the west with colors so brilliant they are barely to be believed. El Capitan and the valley below, for one final moment, are illuminated before the sun finally descends below the horizon. As the light fades from the sky, El Capitan, dark as pitch, drifts off in slumber, a hulking shadow under a clear sky full of stars. Duration: approximately 10 minutes
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Wind Band Instrumentation
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Woodwinds Piccolo 1st Flute 2nd Flute Oboe +2nd Oboe (opt.) Bassoon +2nd Bassoon (opt.) 1st Clarinet in Bb 2nd Clarinet in Bb 3rd Clarinet in Bb Bass Clarinet in Bb Contra-Alto Clarinet in Eb Contra-Bass Clarinet in Bb 1st Alto Saxophone in Eb 2nd Alto Saxophone in Eb Tenor Saxophone in Bb Baritone Saxophone in Eb |
Brass 1st Trumpet in Bb 2nd Trumpet in Bb 3rd Trumpet in Bb 4th Trumpet in Bb 1st Horn in F 2nd Horn in F 3rd Horn in F 4th Horn in F 1st Trombone 2nd Trombone 3rd Bass Trombone Euphonium T.C. or B.C. Tuba |
Percussion (5 or 6 players) Timpani Percussion includes: glockenspiel crotales (opt.) vibraphone chimes mark tree triangle suspended cymbal crash cymbals tam-tam sleigh bells temple blocks woodblock snare drum bass drum |