David

Web Portfolio - CONCERT

The monarch butterfly is the most widely known and recognized butterfly in North America.  Its complete metamorphosis is a remarkable display of Nature's creativity.  First, the tiny monarch caterpillar (barely visible to the naked eye) hatches from an egg.  This caterpillar will shed its skin several times as it continues to eat and grow.  When the caterpillar reaches its full growth, it will hang upside down and shed its skin one final time, leaving it encased in a shell called a chrysalis. An extraordinary transformation takes place inside the chrysalis and, at last, a beautiful monarch butterfly emerges. 

The first of two sections in Monarch Metamorphosis and Migration aims to sonically illustrate this complete metamorphosis.  Musical motives, themes, and instrumentation all grow in complexity until reaching a final transformative stage.  Once the monarch butterfly develops and emerges, it majestically spreads and expands its wings... then takes flight!

The second section is dedicated to the annual migration unique to the monarch butterfly.  To avoid a cold and deadly winter, the monarchs traverse south and west for up to 2,500 miles.  While one generation with a life span of seven months or more will complete this trek, it will take three different generations to make the return trip - each with a life span of fewer than two months.  The music calls back on metamorphosis motives, representing the repeated life cycles within the greater migration.  A climactic finish paints a picture of millions of monarch butterflies flooding the sky.  They are en route to somewhere they have never been, but this destination is where their journey once commenced over a generation ago.

Monarch Metamorphosis and Migration || Wind Ensemble/Band

(0:00) Early morning.  Some images of a quiet neighborhood. Cut to the house.  Dissolve inside the house...
(0:18) A middle age woman walks inside the living room of her house.  She’s carrying a cup of coffee and her cell phone.  She just woke up and yet she’s still not completely awake.
(0:36) As she walks near the table where she's going to have her breakfast, she realizes that there's a note on top of the chair where she's about to sit.
(0:50)  She sits, grabs the note and begins to read it.
(1:00)  Her expression becomes "dark" and little by little she begins to cry, although it's a repressed crying.
(1:22)  Suddenly, her twelve-year old daughter walks in and the woman tries to dissimulate her sorrow and make as if nothing happens.
Her cell phone rings (1:30) MX OUT.

The Morning Note

Chivalry dates back to the medieval institution of knighthood.  While its meaning has changed over time, Of Chivalry and Valor celebrates some of the central tenets deeply rooted in the original chivalric code.

The militaristic beginning of the composition depicts a courageous battle during war time, where knights would demonstrate their loyalty, bravery, and valor.  Following the battle, the music portrays the softer values of generosity and selflessness.  The inspiration for this middle section, full of honor and gallantry, was my dear friend Melany Felsen.  The main thematic material for this middle section pulls heavily from one of her favorite themes as a clarinetist, found in the second movement of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2.  For the finale, we return to the battlefield to witness the heroic triumph for the chivalrous warriors.

Of Chivalry and Valor was commissioned and premiered by Anthony Rivera (Eastern Technical High School, Baltimore County Public Schools) in 2013.

Of Chivalry and Valor || Wind Ensemble/Band

A love that can never be... || Harp Quintet

Trbn 1: Kirk Ferguson, Assistant Principal Trombone, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
Trbn 2: Mark Hetzler, Professor of Trombone, University of Wisconsin-Madison (former Empire Brass and former Principal Trombone of Hartford Symphony)
Trbn 3: Dylan Chmura-Moore, Assistant Professor of Trombone, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
Bass: Alan Carr, Professor of Low Brass, Concordia University Wisconsin

City of Arts and Sciences || Trombone Quartet

ACCBDA 2017

A Martyred Village || Brass Quintet

Commissioned by Jeremy Wilson, available on his album "Perspectives"

A LIMINAL SPACE:  neither here nor there, after "what was" but before passing that threshold of "what's next".  A Liminal Space can be a time and place of paralyzing unknowns, and there is no way to easily navigate such indeterminate change.  What lies past the threshold is not simply a concealed or obscured future for one's self, but rather a new version of one's self about to be defined.  Although this state of unpredictable transformation can be threateningly mysterious, there is a beauty and power to the endless possibilities of "what will be".

A Liminal Space || Trombone Solo & Piano

This work was written in memory of a former roommate and dear friend, Ben Petty, who passed away just under three weeks before his 21st birthday.  His close friend, Michael Kelly, read a poem of his at the funeral.  As I listened to Mike read, I could not help but feel the most heartbroken I had ever felt in my own short twenty years of living.  This was due not so much to my own sense of loss, as much as to the pain that was evident in Mike’s voice.

EVEN IN THE END, by Benjamin Petty
“We wander slowly through the trees,
Each embrace brings stifled pleas,
My fingers linger on your wrist,
My thoughts are captured, bound in twist,
I miss you though you’re at my side,
I want to know that you’re my guide.
It stands to reason you’ll move on,
We’ll part so soon, and you’ll be gone,
For me the ferry stays the course,
I know my heart will miss you worse,
It’s coming down, this sorrowed day,
I need this in an ache-filled way:
Just promise me at the end of time,
We’ll say good-night, but not good-bye,”

I began working on this piece one year after Ben’s death and it was premiered in April 2004 by members of the Boston College Bands Program.  It was written not only as a tribute to Ben, but also to Mike, whose reading provided some closure to me.  While death is painful and is a part of life, "We’ll Say Goodnight, but not Goodbye" tries to focus on another truth: When someone is taken from us, they never really leave us.

Further notes about the music itself: The main ascending three-note motive is based off of composer Eric Whitacre's setting to the E.E. Cummings poem, "i thank you God for most this amazing".  At the end of We'll Say Goodnight, but not Goodbye, I went on to briefly quote the specific portion of Whitacre's work from which the motive was pulled.  This quote from Whitacre's work also has textual significance as his female voices finish singing the phrase, "and this is the birthday of wings".

We'll Say Goodnight, but not Goodbye || Brass Ensemble

He fumbles at your Soul
As Players at the Keys
Before they drop full Music on --
He stuns you by degrees --
Prepares your brittle Nature
For the Ethereal Blow
By fainter Hammers -- further heard --
Then nearer -- Then so slow
Your Breath has time to straighten --
Your Brain -- to bubble Cool --
Deals -- One -- imperial -- Thunderbolt --
That scalps your naked Soul --

When Winds take Forests in the Paws --
The Universe -- is still --

--Emily Dickinson

Monarch Metamorphosis and Migration || Wind Ensemble/Band

David Faleris