Preview: A Day on Hellroaring Plateau
Listen
Look
A Day on Hellroaring Plateau
Instant Download
Share
Details
Ensembles
Genres
Series
ArrangeMe
Formats
Item Types
Levels
Usages
Description
Concert Band - Level 4 - Digital Download
Of course, it is impossible, or at least beyond my meager skills, to capture all of this in a few minutes of music. Still, the lasting impression this singular example of creation has made on my heart compels me to make the attempt. The music is structured into four themes of light: darkness to dawn, an alpine summer morning, a sudden storm, and sunset to darkness. Following is a description of each section.
Darkness to Dawn: One awakens to a moonless darkness. Is it ominous or embracing? The low drone on C, bass drum rolls, and moans from the tam tam speak of the gloom. A rising theme in the mallets and echoed in alto flute glitters like starlight. Bass clarinet and mallets depict the battle between darkness and starlight with a musical competition between major and octatonic tonalities. A constant rattle permeates the background. Is it the wind? The skitter of claws and paws? The distant clatter of antlers? Other instruments enter as the eastern sky begins to glow but darkness and light still wrestle amid shuffling major, minor, and diminished chords. Trombones herald the appearing of our local star and dissonant trumpet triplets lead to unexpected octaves of Bb depicting the dawn.
An Alpine Summer Morning: Birds greet the sun as the upper woodwinds call and respond. Warmth and light bathe the landscape as the band settles into a calm. As one’s eyes begin to absorb the surroundings a lydian melody portrays the gentle colors and textures of the alpine meadows populated with summer wildflowers and little scurrying creatures. Variations of the melody grow gradually bolder and impassioned as one’s senses apprehend the feels, sounds, and grandeur of the heights. A 3/4 meter alteration of the melody, led by the brass, present the revealed plateau in its full majesty.
A Sudden Storm: Increased dissonance, percussive accents, rising motion and dynamics impend the arrival of a sudden squall, threatening snow even on a summer day. Hellroaring Plateau earns its name with hurricane force gusts in the swirling woodwinds, ominous clouds in the low brass shouting a fragment of an earlier melody, flashes of boulder-shattering lightning in flutes and trum
SKU: A0.976732
Composed by Robert Myers. 20th Century,Contemporary,Folk. Score and parts. 186 pages. WheatMyer Music #6252911. Published by WheatMyer Music (A0.976732).A Day on Hellroaring Plateau for Concert Band or Wind Symphony
Download includes transposed score and all parts.
Difficulty is Grade 5.
Duration is approximately 9:30.
Preview the entire score at https://wheatmyermusic.com/product/a-day-on-hellroaring-plateau/
The Hellroaring Plateau is a landmass on the northeast extremity of the Absaroka mountain range straddling the Montana-Wyoming border. Its relatively flat topography and high elevation lead to intense winds and unpredictable storms bestowing the plateau's colorful moniker. Contrary to the title, the music reflects a compilation of impressions from multiple visits over a decade’s time, gathered with my son’s first-hand reports of overnight stays, rather than a single day’s experience. My original objective for the music was to portray the stark and stony landscape alternatively caressed and buffeted in a stew of breezes and gales, sunshine and storms. However, as I was writing the piece it became apparent the true theme of the music is rather a daily high-altitude drama pitting light versus darkness, a drama staged on the plateau’s rocks, meadows, streams, and lakes depicting a perpetually shifting kaleidoscope of distinctive lighting unlike any I have experienced elsewhere. The transparent, thin air reveals indigo blue skies and scalding-white clouds overarching stunning vistas stretching a hundred miles or more. The landscape glitters under the radiance of high latitude sunlight. The only word I can think of to describe the golden glow of sunbeams slicing through a summer snow squall is ethereal. The utter absence of artificial light makes for the darkest night skies and brightest stars one can experience on earth.
Download includes transposed score and all parts.
Difficulty is Grade 5.
Duration is approximately 9:30.
Preview the entire score at https://wheatmyermusic.com/product/a-day-on-hellroaring-plateau/
The Hellroaring Plateau is a landmass on the northeast extremity of the Absaroka mountain range straddling the Montana-Wyoming border. Its relatively flat topography and high elevation lead to intense winds and unpredictable storms bestowing the plateau's colorful moniker. Contrary to the title, the music reflects a compilation of impressions from multiple visits over a decade’s time, gathered with my son’s first-hand reports of overnight stays, rather than a single day’s experience. My original objective for the music was to portray the stark and stony landscape alternatively caressed and buffeted in a stew of breezes and gales, sunshine and storms. However, as I was writing the piece it became apparent the true theme of the music is rather a daily high-altitude drama pitting light versus darkness, a drama staged on the plateau’s rocks, meadows, streams, and lakes depicting a perpetually shifting kaleidoscope of distinctive lighting unlike any I have experienced elsewhere. The transparent, thin air reveals indigo blue skies and scalding-white clouds overarching stunning vistas stretching a hundred miles or more. The landscape glitters under the radiance of high latitude sunlight. The only word I can think of to describe the golden glow of sunbeams slicing through a summer snow squall is ethereal. The utter absence of artificial light makes for the darkest night skies and brightest stars one can experience on earth.
Of course, it is impossible, or at least beyond my meager skills, to capture all of this in a few minutes of music. Still, the lasting impression this singular example of creation has made on my heart compels me to make the attempt. The music is structured into four themes of light: darkness to dawn, an alpine summer morning, a sudden storm, and sunset to darkness. Following is a description of each section.
Darkness to Dawn: One awakens to a moonless darkness. Is it ominous or embracing? The low drone on C, bass drum rolls, and moans from the tam tam speak of the gloom. A rising theme in the mallets and echoed in alto flute glitters like starlight. Bass clarinet and mallets depict the battle between darkness and starlight with a musical competition between major and octatonic tonalities. A constant rattle permeates the background. Is it the wind? The skitter of claws and paws? The distant clatter of antlers? Other instruments enter as the eastern sky begins to glow but darkness and light still wrestle amid shuffling major, minor, and diminished chords. Trombones herald the appearing of our local star and dissonant trumpet triplets lead to unexpected octaves of Bb depicting the dawn.
An Alpine Summer Morning: Birds greet the sun as the upper woodwinds call and respond. Warmth and light bathe the landscape as the band settles into a calm. As one’s eyes begin to absorb the surroundings a lydian melody portrays the gentle colors and textures of the alpine meadows populated with summer wildflowers and little scurrying creatures. Variations of the melody grow gradually bolder and impassioned as one’s senses apprehend the feels, sounds, and grandeur of the heights. A 3/4 meter alteration of the melody, led by the brass, present the revealed plateau in its full majesty.
A Sudden Storm: Increased dissonance, percussive accents, rising motion and dynamics impend the arrival of a sudden squall, threatening snow even on a summer day. Hellroaring Plateau earns its name with hurricane force gusts in the swirling woodwinds, ominous clouds in the low brass shouting a fragment of an earlier melody, flashes of boulder-shattering lightning in flutes and trum
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard’s global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.
About Digital Downloads
Digital Downloads are downloadable sheet music files that can be viewed directly on your computer, tablet or mobile device. Once you download your digital sheet music, you can view and print it at home, school, or anywhere you want to make music, and you don’t have to be connected to the internet. Just purchase, download and play!
PLEASE NOTE: Your Digital Download will have a watermark at the bottom of each page that will include your name, purchase date and number of copies purchased. You are only authorized to print the number of copies that you have purchased. You may not digitally distribute or print more copies than purchased for use (i.e., you may not print or digitally distribute individual copies to friends or students).