Diamond Flight (2017)

for brass ensemble and percussion

 

Diamond Flight was composed to celebrate an exciting time in my life: my engagement to my high school sweetheart. And most of the piece was composed on the airplane ride to and from Chicago, the city where I proposed!

 

There are three distinct motifs in the fanfare. One is a rhythmic concept comprised of thirty-second notes and eighth-note triplets first introduced by the trumpets in the opening measure. This idea should permeate the composition and should be brought to the forefront of the texture. The second motif is one of two main melodic ideas, first introduced by the euphoniums in measure 7. This melody is the more prominent of the two, and also serves as a bridge to the other melodic motif, beginning in measure 17. The molto ritardando that occurs in the final four measures should be significant as the second melodic motif is reprised in measure 33 and the horn’s final glissando should be slow and deliberate!

 

*WINNER OF THE 2017 DALLAS WIND SYMPHONY BRASS FANFARE COMPOSITION CONTEST