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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

performance at Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts (Boston College Basketball)

The Star-Spangled Banner || Trombone Quartet

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

"Wadi el Natrun, Egypt, January 1936. Renowned investigators Lucius Goldzweig and Benjamin Howe have been sent down to look for French writer/aviator Saint-Exupéry and his flight mechanic, reported missing after their plane crashed in the remote Scetis desert right before New Year’s Eve. Upon arrival at the accident site, the investigators follow the aviators’ traces, but will soon get lost in the dunes themselves, where they wander for three days and nights, and extreme heat and water deprivation make them experience mirages and hallucinations. One night, a horrendous, mischievous creature appears before them, so they fear they have completely lost their minds and the end is near. But an old Bedouin caring for a herd of camels finds them the next morning and gives them shelter in his tent. There, he will reveal Lucius and Benjamin an ancient, well-kept desert secret: the evil creature they saw the night before wasn't a sensorial deception…"

Wadi El Natrun || Woodwind Quartet

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

At the time, I was living in an apartment just a few blocks away from Lexington Market, one of Baltimore's most historic attractions.  Throughout that year, I had taken pictures of Lexington Market from my apartment window at various times of the day with various weather phenomena.  These photographs served as the inspiration for "The Skies Above Lexington Market".

The first portion of the piece is devoted to the sunrise and numerous beautiful mid-day skies.  The sunrise remained an enchanting experience despite me facing west instead of east.  While the sun was never visible, shadows advanced and retreated as light slowly filled every dark alley in the city.

The piece then advances beyond calm skies and begins to portray the more aggressive side of Mother Nature.  Moments of beauty and moments of severity are exchanged until eventually being overtaken by "the storm".  This particular event saw constant lightning strikes with thunder echoing through the high-rises of Baltimore.  As hail began to gather outside my window, people were sent dashing through the streets to seek immediate shelter.  The intense storm eventually subsided, leaving a tranquil and serene cityscape with no urban dwellers in sight.

Finally, the sun would set in the west over Lexington Market.  It was a magnificent display of beauty, the sun providing an indescribable array of color throughout the sky.  There was often no single "set" sky during these sunsets... with every second, the sun fell just a bit lower, painting a slightly different picture using a slightly altered color palette.  It was noticed with every blink of the eye and did not cease until the starless night sky of Baltimore emerged.

The Skies Above Lexington Market || Wind Ensemble/Band

Fanfare and Celebration || Brass Ensemble

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

Go, lovely Rose-
Tell her that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.

Tell her that's young,
And shuns to have her graces spied,
That hadst thou sprung
In deserts where no men abide,
Thou must have uncommended died.

Small is the worth
Of beauty from the light retired:
Bid her come forth,
Suffer herself to be desired,
And not blush so to be admired.

Then died-and gone
The common fate of all things rare
May read in thee;
How small a part of time they share
That are so wondrous sweet and fair!

-- Edmund Waller

Go, Lovely Rose (Whitacre, arr. Faleris) || Trombone Octet/Choir

One of the most common fears among children is the fear of the dark.  Sometimes, this transfers into an irrational fear of a monster in the dark, often hiding "under the bed" or "in the closet" .  As an adult, it is impossible to recreate the vivid nature of believing such a monster exists.  This piece attempts to put the listener (and performers) back into the child's shoes.  The first half is conversational in nature... a mother trying to put her child to bed worry free.  The child eventually falls asleep to a lullaby after several attempts and a dream sequence ensues.  This dream is warm and colorful at first - a true dream that only a child can dream.  Not surprisingly, the dream turns to nightmare with the inevitable appearance of the monster in the closet!  The child wakes up to his mother comforting him, rocking him as the monster echoes away.

The thematic material is ultimately drawn from a twelve-tone row and its subsequent matrix (a set of transformed rows, backwards and inverted, derived from the original row).  From the twelve pitches that make up the chromatic scale, a twelve-tone row is a predetermined order of those twelve pitches.  This means no pitch will be repeated until the other eleven have been sounded.  The trombone opens the piece with the row in its original form and exclusively performs variations of this row until the brief lullaby section, just prior to the dream sequence.

A second series of pitches (six instead of twelve) is based off of the first six pitches in the original twelve-tone row.  This second series is first heard in the piano as a response to the trombone's opening row... the mother's response to the child's statement about the monster.

During the dream sequence, this calm second series is freely improvised by the trombone until it slowly morphs into the original twelve-tone row (symbolizing the monster).  As the trombone plays, various effects are applied to the live trombone performance (captured by the microphone).  Because nothing is pre-recorded, the performers interact with one another to create a real-time, genuine dream sequence. The dream unfolds and evolves naturally until the child awakens.

There's a Monster in My Closet || Trombone & Piano with Live Sampling

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

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David Faleris