SKU: A0.870388

Incorporated in 1869, the city of Des Plaines, Illinois grew from its early beginnings as a rail station and mill town along the Des Plaines River. Located just northwest of Chicago, this small town of over 58,000 residents has seen many changes during its 150 year history. Interesting city facts include the very first McDonald’s restaurant opened in 1955, the boyhood home of Brady Bunch actor Robert Reed, film location for the movie The Breakfast Club, and location of the Methodist Camp Ground, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A great place to work and raise a family, the city continues to grow and its motto of City Of Destiny truly represents great things coming from its small town roots. It is that reality to which this fun piece for Concert Band is dedicated.

SKU: A0.1240842

Great for high school or other intermediate level concert bands!
Approx 3.5 minutes in duration

Our Destiny in the Stars is a symphonic concert band composition, with the first triumphant fanfares exemplify the joys of exploration, transitioning to the solemn reminder of leaving home behind. 

Cues- Several more challenging phrases in this piece, as well as the bass clarinet solo, may have cues written that may be played instead of the challenging phrases, or to be played by a different instrument, only if absolutely necessary. These cued phrases do not play back in audio playback.

Instrumentation- Two flutes, one doubling as piccolo, two Bb Clarinets, one Bass Clarinet (soloist), one alto, tenor and baritone saxophone, two Bb Trumpets, two Horns in F, two trombones, one euphonium, one tuba, one glockenspiel, one vibraphone, one set of timpani, one snare drum, one bass drum, one crash cymbal and one suspended cymbal.

SKU: A0.1025077

Over the past few years I have become obsessed with Norse Mythology, and I mean real Norse Mythology. I say that with
quotes because in my research I realized that a lot of people tell different stories. This is mainly because back when Christianity was growing,
the Christians saw anything that wasn't Christian as pagan, so they got rid of it all. So that is why Greek, Roman, and Norse religions faded into mythologies, and 
all that was left was passed around in folk tales. And also because Marvel tells a very different tale of the mythology than the research I have collected and I want people to know these stories. 

Now moving passed the history lesson and into the music. This is interesting for me because this is the biggest original piece
 that I've ever made. This is going to be a multimovement piece, and this is the 1st movement, Ginnungagap, the endless void. 
This movement describes The Void, and the two lands of Fire(Muspelheim) and Ice(Niflhiem).

Starting with The Void, it describes the blackness, and I use the absence of instruments to give this feeling, but however to give
2 of the other themes to foreshadow it.  It moves into this wild cascading theme for the Niflheim theme to describe the cold cascading environment of the world.

After that it slows into a dark and ominous theme for Muspelheim(Surtr's Destiny). This was an interesting part to make 
because in mythology, Surtr, also referred to as Surt,  is the fabled fire giant who destroys Asgard. No one knows where he
comes from, but from the moment of his creation, he knew of his destiny to destroy Asgard so he spent all of his time 
forging his sword to burrow into Asgard.  I used a break drum to symbolize a hammer hitting an anvil to forge a sword,
a lingering sound of Surtr's destiny.

After this, I brought both themes together to resemble The Clash of the two worlds to create the Norse universe.

The final theme in this first movement is entitled I am Ymir. In myhtology, Ymir is the father of everything. Created from the 
clash, he gave creation to all the gods, humans, giants, elves, and dwarves. This final theme takes Surtr's theme and flips
it to be mo.