Endless Ladders, Distant Stars
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:
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)