ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

ENDLESS SKY (2023)

for Concert Band

Duration: ca. 3:00

Grade: 1.5-2.0

INSTRUMENTATION

Flute

Oboe

Bassoon

Clarinet in B-flat 1-2

Bass Clarinet in B-flat

Alto Saxophone

Tenor Saxophone

Baritone Saxophone

Trumpet in B-flat 1-2

Horn

Trombone 1-2

Euphonium (BC/TC)

Tuba

Glockenspiel

Vibraphone

Timpani

Tom Toms

Mark Tree

Bass Drum

Tambourine

Suspended Cymbal

Tam-tam

ABOUT THE COMPOSITION

Near the end of the 2020 school year, Katy Abraham approached me to work on a commission project together with her students at École Seven Oaks Middle School (Go, Hawks!) in my prairie hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. As the global pandemic significantly changed how band programs operated the following academic year, this project was set aside as other priorities came forward. Thankfully, we were able to pull the pieces back together in 2023, and Endless Sky was the result.

This rhythmically-driven, energetic piece is structured as an arc, with a bird powerfully rising into flight as the central musical image. Pieces of the main melody were formed long before I met Katy, written when I was a young, 13-year-old band student experimenting with musical notation software for the first time. Thankfully I saved that little sketch (both on paper and in my brain) until the time came to fully realise the idea and its potential.

Endless Sky was premiered on February 21, 2024 by Katy Abraham and the École Seven Oaks Middle School Grade 8 Band at the 2024 Manitoba Band Association Concert Band Festival in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

PEDIGOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

RHYTHMIC & MELODIC CONCEPTS: Endless Sky aims to introduce the tresillo rhythm to developing bands in 4/4 time (3+3+2 rhythm). Percussion 1 (Tom Toms) primarily drive this rhythm through the piece with a subdivided eighth note part, while the band is introduced to this rhythm as a whole in m.12. Syncopation is encouraged as a practice skill in mm.32-34. Rehearsal letters B and I move to a 2/2 feel, giving the listener a short break from the constant quarter note pulse as well as encouraging internal subdivision within the players - these are personally my favourite moments in the piece, where I see a lone bird rising up and up with strong beats from its wings. This idea is further implied by the overall shape of the melodies in these sections. Phrases are typical 4-bar lengths, though the B section phrase lengths at rehearsal letters C and F are borrowed from an expanded and offset tresillo (taken from the mallet parts heard earlier in mm. 13-16).

FORMAL ANALYSIS: Structured as an arc, the piece is in an ABCBA form, with a mirrored introduction/coda. There are slight differences in the second playthrough of each B and A sections towards the end of the piece - encourage players to listen for the differences, both melodically and harmonically, as they progress through the landscape of the music.