As a composer, musical ideas pop into my head every day. Most of them are entirely unrelated to any piece I am currently working on, and I manage to write some of them down for future reference. The theme of Morning Sunrise is one of those ideas. When I wrote it down, I had no idea that I was ever going to create a piece from it, so I just wrote it down for strings.
Several months later, however, I had decided that I wanted to write a piece to thank those who have made my high school music life great. I spent weeks developing 4 or 5 themes and even had half of a piece done at one point, but none of them worked. I then remembered this one from and realized that it was the perfect theme.
The result of taking so long to complete this piece is that it is a compelling piece where there are no extraneous notes, and no missing ones either. It is one where every detail matters.
Completion date
December 2015
Awards
3rd place: Corwin Award for large ensembles, 2016
Instrumentation
- Piccolo
- Flute
- Oboe
- Bassoon 1-2
- Contrabassoon
- Bb Clarinet 1-3
- Bass Clarinet
- Alto Sax
- Tenor Sax
- Baritone Sax
- Bb Trumpet 1-3
- F Horn 1-4
- Trombone 1-3
- Euphonium
- Tuba
- Double bass
- Timpani