Commissioned by the Wake Forest University Wind Ensemble; Dr. Kevin Bowen, conductor.
When approached to compose a piece for this ensemble, I decided to use the Wake Forest motto 'Pro Humanitate' as the theme and title to make this piece especially significant to this academic institution while still addressing larger and global themes.
The university motto (translated from Latin: 'for humanity') is meant to remind it's students to think of the greater good of humanity, as opposed to just their own lives and personal needs and desires.
Humanity is simply defined as the quality of being human, but in the greater sense the word has come to refer to the benevolence of individuals or the feeling of empathy we have for another of our species.
In musically interpreting humanity I used a basic concept to portray this global sense of family: harmony. In this composition many different individual chords are played together creating new and interesting sororities, much like the mixing of paints to create new, more vivid colors. This musical idea is central in the conception of the musical material. Additionally 2 simple themes (often voiced by the English Horn and Solo Trumpet) comprise the melodic material of the composition and have contrasting moods of painful struggle and dignified nobility.
In a world in which we are constantly reminded of how we are different than each other never forget what makes us all so very similar; this is our humanity.
This composition is published by Murphy Music Press
When approached to compose a piece for this ensemble, I decided to use the Wake Forest motto 'Pro Humanitate' as the theme and title to make this piece especially significant to this academic institution while still addressing larger and global themes.
The university motto (translated from Latin: 'for humanity') is meant to remind it's students to think of the greater good of humanity, as opposed to just their own lives and personal needs and desires.
Humanity is simply defined as the quality of being human, but in the greater sense the word has come to refer to the benevolence of individuals or the feeling of empathy we have for another of our species.
In musically interpreting humanity I used a basic concept to portray this global sense of family: harmony. In this composition many different individual chords are played together creating new and interesting sororities, much like the mixing of paints to create new, more vivid colors. This musical idea is central in the conception of the musical material. Additionally 2 simple themes (often voiced by the English Horn and Solo Trumpet) comprise the melodic material of the composition and have contrasting moods of painful struggle and dignified nobility.
In a world in which we are constantly reminded of how we are different than each other never forget what makes us all so very similar; this is our humanity.
This composition is published by Murphy Music Press
