Dedication
Dedication is a one-movement piece with a distinct British folksong flavor. It is dedicated to my friend and colleague Don Kimpling. He was the High School Band Director in Jerseyville, Illinois for many years and had a great love for the music of Gustav Holst: the Suites in E-flat and F Major, Moorside March and Mars from the Planets. I worked with Don for 9 years, witnessing and absorbing his appreciation for Holst.* And when it came time to dedicate an instrumental work to him, it only made sense to reflect in it the modal folk style of Holst. The piece features a March with a contrasting folk-sounding theme, a more expansive legato tune, a fanfare with brass and timpani and a return to the first March theme. Though the work is dedicated to an individual, Don Kimpling, his qualities of commitment and resolve and enthusiasm for teaching high school and junior high students are ones he shared with hundreds of music directors in Illinois, around the country and indeed around the world. This piece is secondarily dedicated to them all.
Dedication begins with a modal-sounding March and wends it way through to a secondary march theme, more legato and airy tunes with folk inflections, and on to a fiery brass/percussion section, then gradually back to the first modal March theme. Another way to say this is that the form is episodic, looking something like this:
Form: A B C D C E A Coda A B
Duration: 8:15
Instrumentation: 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets in Bb, 2 Bassoons, 4 Horns in F, 3 Trumpets in C, 2 Trombones, Bass Trombone, Tuba, Timpani, Cymbals, Snare Drum, Bass Drum, Harp, Strings
*Personal note: It was Don Kimpling who started me on French Horn as a freshman, after having attended 8 years of parochial school with no music. He picked me out of a study hall because he knew I had taken piano lessons and had musical parents. Subsequently he made me drum major, had me conduct the pep band at basketball games and the full band in several concerts, as well as a piece of my choice for graduation. He also taught me music theory.
Dedication begins with a modal-sounding March and wends it way through to a secondary march theme, more legato and airy tunes with folk inflections, and on to a fiery brass/percussion section, then gradually back to the first modal March theme. Another way to say this is that the form is episodic, looking something like this:
Form: A B C D C E A Coda A B
Duration: 8:15
Instrumentation: 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets in Bb, 2 Bassoons, 4 Horns in F, 3 Trumpets in C, 2 Trombones, Bass Trombone, Tuba, Timpani, Cymbals, Snare Drum, Bass Drum, Harp, Strings
*Personal note: It was Don Kimpling who started me on French Horn as a freshman, after having attended 8 years of parochial school with no music. He picked me out of a study hall because he knew I had taken piano lessons and had musical parents. Subsequently he made me drum major, had me conduct the pep band at basketball games and the full band in several concerts, as well as a piece of my choice for graduation. He also taught me music theory.
| dedication.pdf |