Program Note:

dedication…
as surely as the sun will rise… was written for my fiancé Madeleine Aiken. Though she began teaching in the Muskegon Public School District in 2016, it wasn’t until the 2019-20 school year when I was truly able to watch her work and also make my own connections to the students within her program. By coaching sections of the marching band and concert ensembles, I developed a deeper understanding of the Muskegon “Big Red” family, and this experience prepared me to create something more genuine for the students. The concert cycle for which this piece was programmed had developed a celestial theme, and so when I set to work on a short lyrical composition, I thought of sunrise. The image conjures feelings of hope, happiness, and an optimistic confidence for the future. Like so many of her public-school colleagues, Madeleine’s endless efforts are performed in service to her students, ensuring that a “better tomorrow” becomes reality. The title “as surely as the sun will rise...” was selected also as a personal celebration of my engagement to Madeleine. I know that whatever lies ahead, we will have each other as partners in our shared life-journey.

Two days after I completed the score and parts for this work, the global pandemic caused the district to discontinue in-class instruction. As I complete the editing process for as surely as the sun will rise.., I find it comforting to reflect upon the title even as our society confronts (yet again…) challenging issues on a myriad of fronts. The collective “we” have much work to do, but I am uplifted by the certainty that someday Madeleine’s students will physically return to the educational environment in which she so completely dedicates herself.

description…
as surely as the sun will rise…  is constructed in ternary form. The syncopated two-bar rhythm serves as an introduction to a primary theme that consists of pulsating 8th notes that move in a rising direction. It begins low in tessitura, a foreshadowing of the eventual solar emergence from beyond the horizon. At the first full-ensemble moment, accented notes sound the intervals of a perfect fourth and perfect fifth to musically spell out Madeleine’s birthday—April 5th. Immediately following this, her initials “M.D.A.” appear as the only triplets in the work: M(Mi=E)–D–A is transposed here to A–G–D. Thereafter comes the musical spelling of my birth-year: 1982 are assigned to the pitches of the chromatic scale C#–A–G#–D, transposed here to F#–D–C#–G.

During the duets found in the B section, I use the minor mode and woodwind-only orchestration in order to evoke the sense of uncertainty that is often associated with night’s darkest hour before dawn. The unusual phrase lengths contribute to this unease, which eventually subsides as the melody works its way down to rest on a dominant seventh chord. This secure half-cadence prepares the return of the original melody in the home key of Bb major.

In the modified repeat of the A section, all woodwinds play the primary theme in a singular and confident voice, no longer apprehensive of the future. This time, the tune fulfills its skyward trajectory to achieve sunrise. As the melodic tension increases bar by bar, up toward impending daylight, the sonority of the ensemble also continues to deepen on every third beat with the lower winds, timpani, and bass drum, thus reflecting the ever-broadening width and warmth of the sun as its full circumference comes into view. In the codetta, an inverted fragment of the main melody is played by the solo flute, which is then answered by a final musical spelling of Madeleine’s 04–05 birthday in the alto saxophone. 

It should be noted that both the solos in the B section and the final flute solo can be played by anyone in the ensemble, and a player may replace the material I’ve written for a solo of their own making. The pedagogical materials that are included with the score and parts include a worksheet that endeavors to provide help for students wishing to compose their own solos. 

performances

05|02|2022
Minden High School Auditorium – Minden, NE
Matthew Stubbs and the Minden High School Concert Band

01|17|2022
Kearney High School Auditorium – Kearney, NE
Kearney High School Junior Honor Band

04|26|2021
Peru State College Performing Arts Center – Peru, NE
Peru State College Concert Band (reading session)