Wind Ensemble / Concert Band

Wind Ensemble

More information: https://composerjim.com/works/symphony-no-1/
First movement of Stephenson's evocative Symphony for Wind Ensemble. Recorded by the USAF Band of Liberty under the direction of Capt. David Alpar.
(Note: the guitar part has options for harp or keyboard)

Symphony #1 For Wind Ensemble

EDGES is inspired by several events in my life over the period of 1995-97.  Two are near-death experiences, while the third is the sudden passing of one of my closest colleagues and best friends, Professor Robert Cooper.  

The first movement, "BACK FROM THE EDGE", is a chronicle of the battle that I waged with "flesh-eating strep", which nearly cost me my life in spring, 1995.  A fragment of a line from French playwright Jean Genet’s “Prisoner of Love” served as additional inspiration: 

 “perhaps all music, even the newest, is not so much something discovered as something that re-emerges from where it lay in memory, inaudible as a melody cut in a disc of flesh.  A composer lets me hear a song that has always been shut up silent within me.”

In a sense, my life has re-emerged from where it lay, for a while, silent, in memory.

Movement II, "POSTCARDS", is inspired by my mentor and friend, composer Donald Erb, who had his own near-death experience about a year later in the same Ithaca, New York hospital (a bizarre coincidence).  I know that he shared many of the mental aberrations I experienced during the recovery process, and POSTCARDS reflects the strange visions, the elusive but more and more frequent moments of clarity, and the eventual return to reality that such experiences create.  For me, in retrospect, these thoughts were like vivid postcards of other realities, sent to me by another part of my mind and filtered through the pain, the fear, and the medications that I had been given.  There was also a highly obsessive quality to my thoughts during the reco-very, which is reflected in the primary melodic material which simply refuses to disappear, though it changes colors, dynamics, and tempos at every turn.

Postcards -- real postcards, that is -- also played a role in my experiences.  While recovering, I received a post card (often of questionable taste) every two or three days from Don.  When it was his turn to be in recovery, it was my turn to send him postcards (equally questionable)...they seem now to me to be a lifeline to reality from people who are eager to welcome us back.

A quote was inspirational for this second movement as well, this time from Hermann Hesse’s Damien:

“In each individual the spirit is made flesh, in each one the whole of creation suffers, in each one a Savior is crucified.”

The final movement is a reflection on the amazing, wonderful, and sometimes difficult life of my colleague, Robert Cooper.  Robert had, without a doubt, the speediest metabolism of anyone I have ever known.  Lunch with Robert could be defined as both of us eating for the first five minutes and Robert watching me finish eating for the last 45.  Robert had two computers in his office and a phone; often all three were busy at once, while he carried on at least one additional conversation with whomever was present.  Yet Robert had great depth too.  He was a living example to students and colleagues, especially in facing life’s travails with courage and conviction.  He was also funny as hell.  I suppose that Robert’s pace was impossible to sustain, and in fact he died suddenly at age 45 on September 18, 1997. 

No quotations needed with this movement.  This one’s for you, man.


EDGES Movement III OhMan for wind ensemble

EDGES Movement II Postcards for wind ensemble

EDGES Movement I Back from the Edge for wind ensemble

View website for more information: http://stephensonmusic.com/product/american-fanfare
Played by many orchestras across the country, this "grand and stirring" (Omaha Herald) 2-minute fanfare now has been re-scored to work for band as well. A great opener to either half of a concert.
Sample of orchestras who have performed this work:
LA Philharmonic (Hollywood Bowl gala), Detroit Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Florida Orchestra (awarded best fanfare), and many more.


American Fanfare, Concert Band

John Marchiando, trumpet
The University of New Mexico Wind Symphony
Eric Rombach-Kendall, conductor

August In York - James Stephenson

More info here:
http://www.stephensonmusic.com/product/concerto-1-for-trumpet/

Concerto #1 for Trumpet (2007)

for solo trumpet and wind ensemble

duration:  22’

Concert Band version made possible through a generous grant from the Charles Schlueter Foundation. Premiere performance by the U.S. Coast Guard Band May 29, 2007  Jeffrey Work –  soloist and CDR Kenneth W. Megan – director

The Concert Band / Wind Ensemble version was commissioned by the Charles Schlueter Foundation for premiere at the 2007 ITG conference held at UMass Amherst, again with Jeffrey Work as soloist, and accompanied by the US Coast Guard Band, directed by CDR Kenneth W. Megan. Especially noteworthy and meaningful to me was that the conference was hosted by my very good friend and colleague, Eric Berlin, and that the new version was sponsored by none other than my college trumpet professor, Charlie Schlueter!

Program Notes – Concerto for Trumpet (2003) – James Stephenson, III

The Concerto for Trumpet, James Stephenson’s second major work written for the trumpet, is a product of a long-time friendship between Jeffrey Work, for whom the concerto is written, and the composer. As a trumpeter himself, Stephenson had spent many years admiring the abilities of Work, first as a fellow student at Interlochen’s summer music festival (the two sat next to each other as high school students in the camp’s orchestra), and later at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. After Work’s performance of Stephenson’s Sonata for Trumpet and Piano, the idea of a piece composed especially for the soloist began to germinate, but lacked a host to commission and perform a new piece. The Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, of which Work is a member, provided the final piece of the puzzle, and the Concerto for Trumpet was born.

Concerto - For - Trumpet - Band - 2

Concerto - For - Trumpet - Band - 1

A combination of your favorite Christmas carols with famous bassoon orchestral excerpts. Enjoy!
Versions for 2 or 3 bassoons with orchestra, or with band, or with piano: https://composerjim.com/works/bassoon-it-will-be-christmas/

Symphony #1 For Wind Ensemble

James M. Stephenson