Stephen

Wind Band

A musical portrait of my brother

This is music that 'breathes' – good phrasing and shaping is essential for bringing it to life

Program note:

I have been writing musical ‘portraits’ for a while now. So far they have mostly been solo piano pieces dedicated to people I know well (but let me know if you’d be interested in commissioning one!). Stephen is my younger brother, and I first wrote his portrait as a piano work in 2019. I sensed from the beginning that its repetitive breath-length phrases would translate well into a wind orchestra arrangement, so here it is.

The way a musical portrait can be said to depict its subject is rather mysterious, and open to interpretation. One image I definitely had in mind at the beginning was my brother slowly waking up (he’s not a morning person). But as I hope you will hear, there’s much more to Stephen than that.

© David John Lang 2022

Performance note:

This piece is intended to have a fair bit of rubato; the conductor is encouraged to be expressive with the phrasing throughout. The breath marks indicated in the score should be heard as definite breaks in the phrasing, slowing down the music as necessary but without interrupting the sense of flow from one section to another. The gradual thinning of the texture in bars 69–72 should sound as smooth as possible, the song bells and vibraphone being heard as the 'afterglow' of the wind instruments as they discreetly drop out.

'Song Bells' give a mellower, rounder sound than a glockenspiel, and their sounding pitch is one octave higher than notated (instead of two octaves higher like the glockenspiel). If you don't have access to Song Bells, this part should be played as though written an octave lower on the glockenspiel (you may leave out the low F if it is out of range). This part is meant to blend with the vibraphone as much as possible.

Stephen was first performed  by the Adelaide Wind Orchestra, conducted by David John Lang, on 26th November 2022 at the St Peter's Girls' College Performing Arts Centre, Stonyfell, SA, Australia.

The above recording was made by the Adelaide Wind Orchestra, conducted by Bryan Griffiths, in April 2023. It was recorded by Ray Thomas.

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Duration: 5 minutes
Grade: 4.5

Instrumentation

Piccolo
Flute 1, 2
Oboe 1, 2
Cor Anglais
Clarinet in E-flat
Clarinet in B-flat 1, 2, 3
Bass Clarinet in B-flat
Bassoon 1, 2
Contrabassoon
Soprano Saxophone
Alto Saxophone
Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone

Trumpet in B-flat 1, 2, 3
Horn in F 1, 2, 3, 4
Trombone 1, 2
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba

Double Bass

Timpani

Percussion 1, 2
(bass drum, tam-tam, suspended cymbal, crotales, song bells, vibraphone)

NOTES:

• The flute and B-flat clarinet parts require at least two players on each part. The remaining parts are intended for one player per part, but doubling some parts is possible if required.
  

this piece also exists in a version for solo piano