Endless Ladders, Distant Stars

by
Samuel Kerr

Ensemble: Wind Ensemble

Additional Performing Forces: Audio Track

Duration: 06:00

Year of Composition: 2021

Premiered by: University of Toronto Wind Ensemble (Gillian MacKay, conductor)

Date of Premiere: April 8, 2021

Publisher: self-published

Available: Yes

How to Acquire: Composer

Links:

Web Page

Sample Audio

 

Instrumentation

Electronic Conductor
Flutes 1,2,3
Oboes 1,2
Bassoons 1,2
B♭ Clarinets 1,2,3,4
E♭ Alto Saxes 1,2
B♭ Tenor Sax
E♭ Baritone Sax
F Horns 1,2,3,4
B♭ Trumpets 1,2,3
Trombones 1,2,3,4
Tubas 1,2
Percussion

For virtual wind ensemble


Program Notes:

Moving the goalposts. Endless ladders. Changing the rules of the game. Whatever phrase you might prefer, it is hard not to feel like we have all been climbing an endless ladder since March of 2020. After surmounting one obstacle, finishing one semester, playing one recital, the end still seems like it is way up in the clouds above, maybe even in the stars beyond.

Endless Ladders, Distant Stars meditates on the goalpost quandary, the feeling of endlessness and hopelessness. But concurrently, it is an expression of optimism. The piece requires fine-tuned recording and collective playing, despite being a ‘fragmented’ piece of music—it shows that despite existing as individuals in space time, we can create so much more than just music as a collective, despite the distance imposed by our current reality.

(Program note by Samuel Kerr)