Comments on the Music

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"A great selection to work on beautiful tone, blend, and balance. Nice!" Doug Nordquist (Band Director, California High School)

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"Beautiful and dramatic, Stephen." Craig Jordan (Band and Orchestra Director - Hutchison Middle School).

 

Program Notes

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Lacrimosa - (Latin for weeping, tearful, used in the Requiem Mass)

 

“By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.” (Psalm 137:1,2)

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In life, there are certainly moments of great joy. Yet, by contrast, there are also accompanying moments of sorrow. In moments of joy and sorrow, we find the lessons that can help us grow stronger in faith, hope, and love and meet the challenges that will come our way.

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The text recalls William Walton’s usage in “Belshazzar's Feast” and in W. Francis McBeth’s “They Hung Their Harps in the Willows”.

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Written over two late evenings of August 28-29, 2020, Lacrimosa, is meant to be an expressive, emotional, harmonically, and orchestrally colorful piece within a limited Grade 2/3 scope regarding instrument ranges and carefully written passages for easier fingerings.