Entrata is a new work for wind band (grade 4+) that was recently premiered by the Florida 9-10 All-State Band, conducted by David Ragsdale.
It was a special performance, as the piece was written in honor of Gary Green, who was in attendance at the premiere. And David Ragsdale was a conducting student of Mr. Green’s. The piece was commissioned by a consortium of Mr. Green’s students.
The piece is now available here.
Here are the program notes for the piece, which provide some more insight into the work:
Entrata is a gift for conductor and teacher Gary Green from his students. For 22 years, Mr. Green was the conductor of the Wind Ensemble at the University of Miami, inspiring countless student performers who played under his leadership, and conductors who trained under his mentorship.
I was fortunate to play saxophone in the Wind Ensemble under Mr. Green's direction when I was an undergraduate student studying composition. During this time, I was introduced to an incredible variety of music, and began to develop an interest in writing for the wind ensemble. I learned from numerous guest composers through the wind ensemble - one memorable highlight was playing in the East-Coast premiere of David Maslanka's Mass.
In 2018, Mr. Green gave me a print of a photograph he had taken of the entrance to a church in Savannah, Georgia. The striking photograph has many interesting features, and shortly after I received it, I knew I wanted to write a piece inspired by the scene. The church appears somewhat dark and mysterious, with a stone facade and arched stained glass windows. Two items in the photograph immediately caught my imagination: First, there are beams of light streaming down from the sky, above the church. Second, the doors of the church seem to be ever-so-slightly ajar. It’s a beautiful and captivating photograph.
Entrata, Italian for entrance, is a nod to the doors in the photograph that are cracked open - mysterious and intriguing. Much of the music is inspired by “Third Mode Melody,” a haunting tune written by English composer Thomas Tallis in 1561. Around the same time that I began brainstorming ideas for this piece, I sang “Third Mode Melody” in a choir, and found the melody and harmonies lingering with me for weeks. Its mysterious and haunting sounds seemed like apt inspiration for this piece.
The first half of the piece draws inspiration from the open doors in Gary Green’s photograph. In the second half of the piece, I tried to capture the beams of light shining down from above. And then at the end of the work, we return to the open doors, and finally enter through the darkened doorway to find what mysteries lie within.