asphyxiating sky (2020)
instrumentation | wind ensemble
duration | 10:30 - 11:00
premiere | by the Mid America Freedom Band March 1, 2020
program notes:
This piece was commissioned and recorded by Lee Hartman and the Mid America Freedom Band and I can't thank them enough for the time and energy they put into my work.
asphyxiating sky was premiered on Mar. 1, 2020 at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, MO.
“asphyxiating sky” seeks to recreate the physical and emotional sensations of fading memories, past fears, & the horrors that humanity has and continues to inflict on itself.
When I was young, I would visit my great great-grandfather in hospice and he would entertain me with stories of his experiences during World War I. One story that often stands out in my mind is one of his accounts of fighting in the trenches, where they first came into contact with mustard gas being used as a weapon. Despite being mostly incoherent due to the drugs to keep him comfortable, he was incredibly lucid during his recount of the fear and helplessness of not being able to breathe.
The musical material of “asphyxiating sky” is based on three WWI era songs: “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to be a Soldier”, “The Rose of No Man’s Land” and “I May be Gone for a Long, Long Time”. After taking original recordings of these songs, I layered, time-stretched, and distorted them to create a sonic manifestation of a mustard gas cloud. The ensemble functions as a living, breathing, cloud of sound that is unrecognizable from its source, yet spiritually connected.
The Mid America Freedom Band in dress rehearsal for “asphyxiating sky”