Musings Of An Idealist - PDF Score and Parts

M U S I N G S   O F   A N   I D E A L I S T  for Concert Band 
"A (Not) Folk Song Suite"
Composed by Lachlan Pierce
Grade 4
3 Movements
Written in Spring 2015 in Fort Collins, Colorado
 
W H A T   T H I S   I N C L U D E S
PDFs of the score and parts (letter sized - 8.5"x11")
Reference recording
Cover art
 
Physical score sold separately. No refunds for digital products.
 
C O M P O S E R ‘ S   N O T E S
Even before I became involved in music, I was always drawing pictures, creating worlds, and writing stories. As many young people do, I had a terrible habit of finishing what I started until, thankfully, I finally created something that I decided, “Yes, this is the one that will get published!” The story in question was a novella I wrote back in 2003 which consisted of a lost princess trying to return home. I created characters, languages, and a country. I originally wanted the story to take place in China, but I didn’t want to go through all the research to make it historically accurate. Funny enough, I ended up doing even more work creating all of the original lore. Go figure. Creating is more fun than researching, anyways.
 
I held onto the ideas for the story long enough to create multiple drafts, turning the short 10 chapter novella into a full-length novel. I was never satisfied with it, so I took it to a friend to get his input. He told me exactly what I needed to hear: “Your writing sucks.” I was traumatized, thinking that I had wasted years upon years developing this story. But then he continued, saying that the story itself had a lot of potential. “Maybe you should make it into a comic. You tell such great stories with your pictures.” I started drawing right away and in 2014 I published the first graphic novel out of four in my series, Year of the Marachi. But I didn’t just stick to drawing to tell my story.
 
I decided to write several folk songs as part of the lore development. These folk songs were some of my very first compositions, some of them having been written as early as 2006. Many of them have been unused for years, so I have been looking for ways to utilize them in an effective but subtle way. Many of these folk songs were inserted into “Musings of an Idealist,” so named after a character from the story who is a composer. I was always inspired by band suites, particularly the two suites Gustav Holst wrote for military band, so I wanted to try to write a suite that paid tribute to the band suite tradition while bringing something new to the formula.
 
Musings of an Idealist: A (not) Folk Song Suite was premiered on October 4th, 2015 as part of my senior composition recital at Colorado State University. It was performed by a group of friends and colleagues I had assembled specifically for the event, and the piece made for a fantastic finale.
 
Movement One: Dance is a beautiful and energetic movement with a scale-based motif being tossed around in different tones and styles. The overall melody and style of this movement was based off of east Asian folk music, particularly a mix of Indian and Japanese Taiko.
 
Movement Two: Waltz is heavily influenced by Romantic-era music with a Nationalist dash. The “chorus” after the oboe/soprano sax solo was the first section of the suite that I orchestrated, and it was a great chance to write some great chorale moments as well as more intimate moments.

Movement Three: March was a great opportunity to write something that was bonkers—totally cheesy, totally schmaltzy, and totally fun. It’s not often that I let my humour shine through my music, so this movement holds a bit of a special place for me. This march was inspired by many different symphonic marches, particularly Russian, British, and French marches.
 
I N S T R U M E N T A T I O N
Piccolo
Flute 1
Flute 2
Alto Flute
Oboe
English Horn
Bb Clarinet 1
Bb Clarinet 2
Bb Clarinet 3
Bb Bass Clarinet
Bassoon Whip
Bb Contrabass
Contrabassoon
Soprano Saxophone
Alto Saxophone
Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone
Bb Trumpet 1
Bb Trumpet 2
Bb Trumpet 3
F Horn 1
F Horn 2
F Horn 3
F Horn 4
Trombone 1
Trombone 2
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
Double Bass
Harp
Piano
Marimba
Vibraphone
Glockenspiel
Snare Drum
Bass Drum
Tambourine
Finger Cymbals
Whip
Anvil
Sleigh Bells