2006 SECOND PLACE

REVEILLE: A BRASS SEXTET
Johannes Plambeck
17 years old, California

(Unfortunately the music is not available)

Statement from the composer:

A Reveille is defined to be a wake up call usually associated with the military. In all essence, I have tried to write a song that is a wake up call, but a wake up call to the dissidences and disillusionment associated with the hardships and anxieties of war.

The peace starts off very dynamically and flamboyantly; however, dissidence begins to take over the mood until it is finally very chaotic (my musicians could hardly perform this properly). Following this section, there is a section conveying a short era of serenity. It almost seems that there is a war every decade in our world. Peace, in my mind, is extremely short lived bur glorious in its time.

Following the first slow section there is a section conveying a march (marching soldiers to battle). The tone is very dreary and dark because of the perils ahead of the march. The song unfolds into further chaos as the soldiers near the battlefield (a euphonium solo is the soldiers’ last opportunity to turn back). Thus, the last minute of the piece paints the horrors of battle. Although this section in a fancy recapitulation of many themes already stated, I have stated many of the “peace” themes as underlying layers in the music (the themes are minored or diminished showing that peace has been infringed upon).

The song literally ends in a dissident bang, so one may ask how it has anything to do with peace. I ask: when is peace most desirable? The answer is: in times of conflict. Human nature clearly reveals that we learn things at the last minute almost all the time. So, the goal of the piece was to show that we only begin to appreciate peace in the face of the terrors of war.