Crown of Violets - Concert Band

"I have always loved the feeling of bittersweet, and this poem (my favorite of the Sappho Fragments), captures that feeling extremely well.  The translation by Anne Carson is the one that I used to create this piece.  The first line is striking and full of anguish, so the chime scrape starts off the piece.  Sappho's lover laments their forced seperation and so I continue the piece with a mournful melody that morphs into a dirge.  Sappho's response to her tears are words of soft memories, and so my response became a chorale.  The works of Maslanka greatly influenced my own writing in his tendency to put in a sparkling woodwind line above the drawn out chorale, and with word of rejoice, and beautiful memory, and love, a good amount of sparkle was needed.  As the poem slows to and end, we start to lose more of her words, and we are left with only fragments.  I was inclined to reflect this with a section of cues to bring the piece to an end.  Softly, delicately, no dance, no groove, no sound."

-Amber Sheeran

Concert Band, grade level 4 - score and parts included