Turbine

Wind Ensemble/8'30"/Difficulty - Really hard/2006

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Full Score (11x17 paper)

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Turbine

performed by the Florida State University Wind Orchestra
conducted by Richard Clary

View the score

I’m afraid of flying. This piece was my way of dealing with that.

The first three minutes are rough, grinding, and tense, as the jet engine builds up speed (through texture, not tempo), and eventually goes racing down the runway. Once the jet takes off, though, the music changes, and we realize that flying really isn’t so bad. In fact, it can be beautiful once the plane is airborne. But in the back of my mind, I’m always aware that we’re up quite high — and our lives (and that beauty) depend on these massive pieces of machinery. If that machine (in this case, the percussion) should fail, we’d all be in serious trouble, so I just keep my knuckles gripped to the armrest, look out at the clouds, think pretty thoughts, and hope that the pulse of that engine never lets up.

Premiered

February 24, 2006

University of Kentucky Wind Ensemble
conducted by Cody Birdwell
Southeast Regional CBDNA convention
on the campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee

Commissioned by

Southeastern Conference Band Directors Association