Maze of 1000 Mirrors
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Style: concert march
Duration: 4 minutes Grade: 3 Commissioned for the 29th annual Southern Indiana Festival of Bands, including ensembles from the following high schools: Barr-Reeve, Loogootee, Mitchell, North Daviess, North Knox, Shoals, and South Knox. |
The University of Illinois Wind Orchestra conducted by Sean Dennison Smith
PERUSAL SCORE
| mazeof1000mirrors_perusal.pdf |
Program Note
“What if you could write a piece of music where you play the page as usual, then flip it upside down and play it again?” This question was the genesis of the primary ingredient to Maze of 1000 Mirrors, namely that of flipping musical ideas over. I am certainly not the first one to tackle this compositional question. Bach wrote a duet that he called a Table Canon where two players stand on opposite sides of the table and read the same line of music. Thus, one player is reading all the notes upside down. However, to my best knowledge, Maze of 1000 Mirrors is the first work for concert band that has players flip their page of music over and play the same passage in reverse and upside down! Directly inspired by the marches written by John Philip Sousa, this work contains all of the typical elements of a march, including a lighter “Trio” section featuring the woodwinds, and a “Dogfight” refrain focusing on the brass and percussion. This work was commissioned for the 29th annual Southern Indiana Festival of Bands. It is with much gratitude that I dedicate this work to the wonderful students and talented directors from ensembles at the following schools: Barr-Reeve, Loogootee, Mitchell, North Daviess, North Knox, Shoals, and South Knox.
“What if you could write a piece of music where you play the page as usual, then flip it upside down and play it again?” This question was the genesis of the primary ingredient to Maze of 1000 Mirrors, namely that of flipping musical ideas over. I am certainly not the first one to tackle this compositional question. Bach wrote a duet that he called a Table Canon where two players stand on opposite sides of the table and read the same line of music. Thus, one player is reading all the notes upside down. However, to my best knowledge, Maze of 1000 Mirrors is the first work for concert band that has players flip their page of music over and play the same passage in reverse and upside down! Directly inspired by the marches written by John Philip Sousa, this work contains all of the typical elements of a march, including a lighter “Trio” section featuring the woodwinds, and a “Dogfight” refrain focusing on the brass and percussion. This work was commissioned for the 29th annual Southern Indiana Festival of Bands. It is with much gratitude that I dedicate this work to the wonderful students and talented directors from ensembles at the following schools: Barr-Reeve, Loogootee, Mitchell, North Daviess, North Knox, Shoals, and South Knox.
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