Variations on ‘Shenandoah’

Grade 4

10 minutes

Composed for the Stonewall Jackson Senior High School (Manassas, Virginia) Symphonic Band.  Premiered Spring 1991.

Performed by the Army Ground Forces Command Band

This, my third piece for band, is the earliest piece you’ll find in my public catalogue. This is the piece where I felt I really started to get “good.” ‘Variations on Shenandoah’ was written for a band with numerous excellent first-chair players, but with considerably weaker players deeper in each section.  Therefore, the challenges stem from the solo writing and the requirement for sensitive phrasing and expressivity.