(my favorite part of the tune starts around 5:55)
I composed this piece in February 2020 as a high school graduation present for my younger brother who graduated that May. He played alto sax in the band and I had coordinated with the North Kansas City High School band director (the same person as when I attended) for them to play it at their final concert.
Then c19 happened.
Fast forward two years to the linked video.
My brother is a sophomore at William Jewell College just north of Kansas City and is playing in the video. Their band director and I attended North Central College simultaneously around 2014, and he was more than happy to have the band play.
The piece chronicles the journey of the adolescent Spirit, from joyful innocent beginnings, to the existential crisis of the teenage years, back to reclaiming a positive outlook on the vastness of life.
I used the iPad notation app SymphonyPro, which allows you to write in notes and then immediately converts the writing to digital notation. That process took about 40 hours. I then imported that file to Sibelius where I did the more detailed editing, about another 20 hours.
I learned so much in this composition process, and plan to write another large scale piece next year when my youngest sister graduates from the same school.
I'll admit the ensemble's performance isn't perfect.
Regardless, I'm so very happy to close the book on this journey.
Here's the score