Beauty Broken

• Texas PML-Grade 5

Duration: Approx. 9-10 minutes

Available for purchase through Murphy Music Press:

Program Notes:

I visited the Columbus Museum of Art and met a work titled “Blow Up #1” by Ori Gersht. This work captured my attention and insisted I give it a great amount of thought. Gersht used high-speed photography to capture a moment in time of an arrangement of flowers exploding. In that one short moment Gersht captured a profound truth about this world and the human condition.

At first sight the photo looked amazing. It was beautiful and exciting. Yet when I looked closely, I realized it was beauty that was broken. The photo was a visual display of the tension that exists between beauty and violence, or life and death. When I first saw the work, I was attracted to the beauty. Then I saw the violence and wanted to turn away. However, once I accepted both and was able to hold the paradox of these two realities, I was able to see the photograph for what it truly was. A sense of hope emerged as I felt a longing for beauty to be restored.

"Beauty Broken" begins with a chorale in the brass. This chorale leads into a celebratory section that ends in a state of brokenness. Alternating slow and fast sections follow this moment of breaking. These sections incorporate what I call the "Broken Theme". This theme is intense at times, while it is somber with a sense of longing at other moments. The chorale melody also appears at various times throughout the piece, often in subtle ways. This chorale becomes most apparent at the end as the woodwinds play celebratory flourishes over the brass chorale. Finally, the broken theme returns for one final statement.

I have an optional glass breaking sound notated in the score at m. 26. The inspiration behind that moment comes from the actual breaking process seen/heard in this video: (CAUTION: turn the volume down as the sound is quite loud).  

For electronic sound: You may download this link and use it for the glass break at m. 26:

For natural sound: Please feel free to experiment and do what works best for your ensemble. Here is an option in the percussion:

Use glass chimes or disc chimes (if possible use two sets: one with a higher frequency of sound and one with a lower). Use sudden hand movements on the downbeat of m. 26 and gentle movements to have the sound fade naturally. This gives a sense of the initial breaking with the sudden fast hand movements and the sprinkling effect from the pieces of glass as the chimes fade away.

Here is an audio example using this technique by the University of Toronto Wind Symphony:

Performances:

Wind Symphony of Clovis; Christine Keenan, Conductor (October 6, 2019)

Indiana University Concert Band; Jason Nam, Conductor/CBDNA performance (February 19, 2020)

United States Coast Guard Band; Jeffrey A. Spenner, Conductor (March 15, 2020)