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| Afterglow | |
| Date Completed: | July 27, 2000 |
| Duration: | about 3 minutes |
| Instrumentation: | picc2222 percussion |
| First Performance: | Tuscarawas Philharmonic, Eric Benjamin, music director and conductor October 14, 2000 Dover High School Auditorium Dover, Ohio |
| Comments: | commissioned by Eric Benjamin and the Tuscarawas Philharmonic in honor of the hundredth anniversary of Aaron Copland's birth |
| Program Notes: | Afterglow for woodwind ensemble was commissioned by Eric Benjamin and the Tuscarawas Philharmonic in honor of the hundredth anniversary of Aaron Copland's birth. Written between July 24 and 27, 2000, it is scored for piccolo and pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons with suspended cymbal and a low tom. I knew that it would follow Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man and that the requested instrumentation could never compete with the blazing glory of the brass. I chose instead to explore the quietly shimmering qualities of woodwind instruments in a musical unfolding of ripples that fan out from Copland's music and life. My ideas are variations on elements from Copland's style - in each case a smoothing away of sharp edges and a softening of the colors. At the end a trumpeting call is repeated that brings on the gentle sunset of the final bars. |