• Instrumentation: picc, 2 fl, 2 ob, bsn, ebcl, 3 cl, bcl, AATB sax, 4 hn, 3 tpt, 3 tbn, euph, tuba, timp

• Duration: 3'

• Grade IV

Program Note

After graduating from high school, I began composing in earnest, focusing on the things I new best - saxophones and wind ensemble.  I wrote a series of short saxophone quartets and a large band piece, which I spent hours and hours copying the score and parts by hand. Many years later, I returned to the band medium after a decade writing music for the voice, happy to find that the sounds of the wind orchestra were still ensconced in my brain and my ears. Written in 2009 in Hyde Park, Massachusetts, Autumn Music was prepared for a call for new band scores, and later folded into a my multi-movement Divertimento under the title "Impropmtu."  

The piece develops in two sections, which are then combined in the final strain. In the first section, a harmonically crunchy syncopated figure evolves underneath an arching lyric melody in the upper winds.  Later, the melodic character takes on a bouncy, jubilant shine.  Both aspects are combined in an engaging counterpoint, and rush into a broad climax, which quickly settles into a quiet coda.