Escape from Plato's Cave - STORM699 | Music

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Concert Band

Escape from Plato's Cave

3 Movements

The Cave - Message of the Man - Into the Light

Escape from Plato's Cave

Concert Band

Escape from Plato's Cave

3 Movements

The Cave - Message of the Man - Into the Light

Occasion

Performance time
00:16:10

Grade Level
Höchststufe

Publisher
Stormworks

Size
A3 (Score) + A4 (Parts)

Info
Full Score + Parts

Order Number
STORM699

Release Date
1993

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#699 at 16:33 for Band of the 3rd Millennium
© Stephen Melillo IGNA 28 February 1993... 2nd & 3rd Millennium
Commissioned by Dr. Jack Stamp& The Indiana University of Pennsylvania Wind Ensemble and by Dr. Patrick Rooney& The James Madison University Wind Ensemble


TECHNICAL
This piece demands careful mixing and the greatest regard for tuning and intoning. The tempo markings given are guides only. “Time” is of far greater concern, than tempo. Only a feelingful, understood rendering on the part of the conductor will allow the Music to speak as intended. The slows are much slower, the ritards so much more than can be written.
The harp part is designed to sound harp-like whether rendered on harp or keyboard, utilizing only white keys for theglissandi.  If using a keyboard, be sure to position the speakers within the ensemble. Utilize reverb and mix into the texture carefully. It’s worth the extra effort.
In places where the Harp and the Piano are doubled, either instrument may be used at the discretion of the conductor.

MESSAGE OF THE MAN, the second movement may be rendered as a single piece, in which case the repetitive timpani pulse on D should end with the piece. Of course, this is a 3-movement work. Its meaning is best derived from the “whole”.
 
During the first movement, THE CAVE, percussionists may occasionally add, within the parameters of good taste, additional scrapes or other effects which I will leave to their Musical judgement. These additional effects would occur on the last 1/16th of the 4th beat in the percussion ostinato-cave figure.

In the event that the fast chromatic runs are too difficult for your situation, consider them as glissandi. It is the effect which is important here, the scurrying, the excitement, the drama.

Beginning at measure 108 in the last movement, we are moved “INTO THE LIGHT !”  Between the Harp, the Piano, the Chimes, the Orchestra Bells and the Vibraphone, an aleatoric effect is intended. The harp should “gliss” or tremolo the written figure as quickly as possible. It is the same for the other melodic percussion instruments. Establish this glistening effect first and then build the rest of the ensemble into it !

During the very last measure, these instruments should play the notes that are written, not in the feel of the tempo, but at RANDOM and out of tempo, despite the fact that there is a fermata going on. The effect needs to continue despite the fact that the last measure calls for a huge, long romantic sustain !
Please be sure to read A BRIEF INTRO TO MUSIC BY STEPHEN MELILLO (see first pages at the Score).

MUSICAL
Plato tells a story in which cave-dwellers are deprived the knowledge of the Light outside. In this story, ESCAPE From PLATO’S CAVE ! ... the people of the Underworld are visited by a Man from the Light. He tells them of a wondrous world ... outside. Some Cave-dwellers struggle against the would-be listeners, using chains to forever imprison them in the shadows of the Cave. His message heard, a few take on the challenge of the Escape and eventually, through noble battle and dark journey, emerge from the shadowy underworld ... Into the Light !
 
1. The Cave, The Struggle, and The Man from the Light.
2. Message of the Man (The Fragile Heart)
3. Escape ... Into the LIGHT!

DEDICATION
At the very moment I had reached that transitory moment in the third movement, the transcendence from “D”ark to “G”od, the phone rang. Father Peter Rinaldi had died. As a boy growing up, so often running to him at recess and serving mass with him every day of the summer, he taught me, by action, the Message of  “the Man” ... a message of Love. He literally gave me the shirt off his back one day, no show, no lesson, only Love. His entire Life was in dedication to something higher ... a Prayer to that which humbled him. My young adult novel, ONLY FOR NOW, was dedicated to him, his name that of the main character. Subconsciously, I’ve quoted the 9-movement Wind Ensemble Suite, my first piece, inspired by that book. Now, Father Rinaldi has gone ... into the Light. He would not have me dedicate anything to him. His eyes were always looking upward ... beyond himself. But, to him, another Man from the Light ... I bow humbly and offer back that which was, and never really will be mine to give.
 
Godspeed !
Stephen Melillo
Wind Music für das dritte Jahrtausend von Stephen Melillo / Stormworks / Stormworld / Godspeed

Content

01.

The Cave

The Struggle and The Man from the Light
Listen
00:06:00

02.

Message of the Man

The Fragile Heart
Listen
00:04:30

03.

Escape... Into the LIGHT!

Listen
00:05:40

Total time00:16:10

Keywords

Stormworld / Stormworks / Stephen Melillo

Cave

dark

Drama

dramatic

Greece

Historical drama

History

Light

RUNDEL Composers

thrilling

Our Recommendation

Wende

Wende

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