Sea of Blossoms
| Year Composed: | 2019 (rev. 2012) |
| Instrumentation: | 2+picc.2+eh.2.2/4.3.3.1/timp+2 perc/hp/strings |
| Duration | 4 minutes |
Program Notes
In 2012, I composed a short fanfare to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the Sneak Peek Orchestra—an ensemble that I co-founded while I was a grad student at the University of Toronto. Titled, simply, Fanfare for the Sneak Peek Orchestra, it was intended as a tribute to the imagination, energy, and optimism of youth, as so stirringly exhibited by the young members of this group.
I have long wanted to adapt this fanfare into a (slightly) longer work, one that could function as an opener on a concert program. When it came to devising a new, more universally appropriate title for the work, I looked to the music itself for answers. I realized that, in attempting to describe the hopes and dreams of youth, I had unabashedly drawn upon the language of my own youth: the music of cinema. Filled with sweeping thematic statements, continuous modal modulation, and a sense of unreserved lyricism, this is music descended from the language of John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, and James Horner. My Overture to the Silver Screen invites the listener to imagine her own stories and images—as I did when I first began writing music, and still do.