Tribute: Those Who Serve

SKU: P2.W0004

Tribute: Those Who Serve, scored for Grade 4/5 band, is dedicated to the bravery, heroism and sacrifice of First Responders. The music is based on an earlier work for orchestra, called Tribute, commissioned by conductor Michael Gagliardo and the Etowah Youth Symphony Orchestra to commemorate the events of September 11, 2001. I composed the original Tribute in the spring of 2002 while in residence at Copland House in Cortlandt Manor, NY, where Aaron Copland lived and worked the last thirty years of his life. With gratitude to Copland House and as my own tribute to Mr. Copland, the orchestral version of Tribute opened and closed with the composer's initials A.C. featured in the strings as major chords on A and C. Mercifully, the current version for band has been transposed up a half-step to the key of B-flat. A central section in D-flat features robust quotes from Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, a work that is at the spiritual core of Tribute: Those Who Serve.Tribute: Those Who Serve invites us to pause and reflect on the daily acts of valor exhibited by the many First Responders in our local communities--law enforcement officials, firefighters, search and rescue teams, emergency medical technicians and citizen volunteers, to name but a few. My hope is that Tribute: Those Who Serve will inspire community and school bands nationwide to hold events to honor the brave women and men who serve with consummate commitment and determination in our local communities, selflessly standing tall in times of local and national crisis.