Symphony No. 1 - PDF Score and Parts

S Y M P H O N Y   N O .   1  for Wind Ensemble 
"Of Purple Mountain Majesties"
Composed by Lachlan Pierce
Grade 5 
4 Movements
Written in Fall 2014 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
Over a decade prior to the completion of my first symphony, my family moved across the Pacific Ocean from New Zealand to the American state of Colora­do. As the years passed, I found myself entranced by the beauty and spirit of my new home. In the summer of 2012, Colorado underwent a difficult chapter when dozens of wildfires, including the record-breaking High Park and Waldo Canyon fires, spread throughout the land. Not long afterwards was the devastating Aurora theatre shooting in which 12 people were killed and dozens more were injured. In the aftermath of these tragedies, I was overcome by how strong and spirited Colorado's citizens and community had grown, which led to me writing what would become the fourth movement of Symphony no. 1, "And the Mountains Still Stand," based off of a poem I wrote in response to that summer. 
 
"And the Mountains Still Stand" was originally going to be a stand-alone piece for concert band, but as I continued working on it I was overcome with ideas with Colorado being the common theme. Late in the writing process, I decided to turn the piece into a movement of my first symphony, adding the movements "Wild and Free," "Rock Giants," and "Snowfall." "And the Mountains Still Stand" was modified to be an appropriate finale for the symphony. 
 
Movement One: Wild and Free is a loose homage to the days of the old west, when cowboys patrolled the open range, native tribes traded and traveled along ancient routes, and settlers dropped everything to try their luck in the gold rush with the words "Pikes Peak or Bust'' painted on their wagons. I utilized some musical tropes from Western movie soundtracks as well as throwing in more unusual musical ideas and instruments, such as the use of bongos as a hint of the Spanish explorers who passed through long ago. 
 
Movement Two: Rock Giants is about the mountains that makes Colorado so famous. Colorado has the highest average elevation in the United States excluding Alaska and boasts having 53 mountains called "Fourteeners" that are above 14,000 ft (4267.2 meters) elevation above sea level. While in the States, I was particularly fond of a local peak, Pikes Peak, which towers above Colorado Springs like a rocky guardian. Rock Giants was difficult to write because I wanted to capture the power and majesty as well as sheer beauty of the Colorado Rocky Mountains as accurately as I could. I utilized the brass section as well as the percussion section to convey this power while having the woodwinds add a sparkle over the thick brass texture to convey beauty. 
 
Movement Three: Snowfall is a two-sided piece dealing with both the literal sensation of snowfall and the metaphorical implication of dealing with tragedy and difficult times. There is a strange and reverent beauty in hardship that I find very sobering, much like the feeling I have when watching snow fall in chilling air. If the fourth movement, And the Mountains Still Stand, stands for the response to difficult times, Snowfall takes place directly after or even during the difficult times and demonstrates the complex emotions associated with such events in a delicate and almost intimate instrumentation and melodic themes. This movement heavily features the woodwinds playing a lament as well as some mallet percussion representing the snow. 
 
Movement Four: And the Mountains Still Stand was the first movement composed out of the four but yet took the longest to complete. I admittedly chose a challenging concept for this movement to write about-the spirit of the Colorado community as well as nature-and I wanted to be sure I captured that spirit as accurately as possible. The movement starts with a single note played by a clarinet that hangs over from the previous movement and continues to figuratively pick itself up as the movement continues, adding more voices and growing more joyous. The movement eventually builds up to a cacophony of beautiful dance-like sounds as a celebration begins, and the momentum continues up to the grand finale. 
 
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
Bassoon
Contrabassoon
Eb Clarinet
Bb Clarinet 1
Bb Clarinet 2
Bb Clarinet 3
Bb Bass Clarinet
Bb Contrabass Clarinet
Soprano Saxophone
Alto Saxophone
Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone
Bb Trumpet 1
Bb Trumpet 2
Bb Trumpet 3
Bb Trumpet 4
F Horn 1
F Horn 2
F Horn 3
F Horn 4
Trombone 1
Trombone 2
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
Double Bass
Snare/Tenor Drums
Bass Drum
Tam Tam
Bongos
Whip
Chimes
Glockenspiel
Crotales
Xylophone
Vibraphone
Marimba
Piano
Harp
Pitched Glass