2021

Duration: 7:30

Grade 4.5

Arranged for Wind Ensemble, this piece highlights the power and control of wind instruments.

A mirage is an illusion that leads us in one direction only to deceive us with a false reality. I’d been thinking about how, in many ways, the way we view ourselves is a mirage. Our self-image is tainted by the ideas of who others say we are and the person we think we have to be. Yet when we allow these influences to guide us, the end result isn’t always what we imagine. Mirage follows the reflective process of discovering who we actually are and the journey to loving ourselves.

Mirage (2021) for band is an adaption of a work for woodwind ensemble by the same name. The abundance of colors available in a woodwind only ensemble was suddenly expanded when put into a full band setting. I created choirs within the ensemble to make use of the variety of timbres and layered them slowly. The piece moves through simple progressions and melodies that layer and expand until everyone is playing together at the climax. Echoes of melodies from earlier in the piece bring the music to a close as if to say that learning to love ourselves is a journey and that we are a product of how far we’ve come.

Commissioned by the Kansas State University Bands.