Schedule of Events

Vashon Island is a large island in the Puget Sound with views of Mt. Rainier and many scenic roads. Residents enjoy a rural atmosphere, with several small towns and schools. This new piece for wind ensemble offers an impressionistic view of island life, with four movements, Sealth, Milky Way, Lisabeula, and Fall, serving as distinct sound-paintings of different aspects of the island. The composition process can be broken into four stages, consisting of sketching, writing short scores, orchestrating and engraving. Sketching was the initial stage of writing. It involved notating any harmonies, textures, structural ideas, or melodic fragments that came to mind. Once sketches for each movement were complete, they were refined into short scores, which are versions of the final music reduced to around 4 staves. The staves were separated by layers of harmony, melody, and textural devices so that they could easily be isolated and refined during orchestration. Through the orchestration stage, each voice was assigned to an instrument. Careful consideration of instrument ranges, timbre, transpositions, and overall color and balance of the ensemble took place in this step. Engraving was done in MakeMusic’s Finale software. Engraving results in the production of a score, which the director will conduct from, and parts, which each player will receive.