Awakening

orchestra 2+picc,2,2,2 - 4,2,2,1 - timp, 4 perc, strings

duration 6'00"

Awakening for orchestra is a very personal reflection on my role as a father.   The full weight of this role bore down on me soon after my first son’s birth as I suddenly understood that I was an unthinkably huge part of my son’s world.  This revelation was somehow both invigorating and incredibly daunting: he is forever watching, listening, and learning.  The repeated tones represent the father striving to project stability for his child while maintaining balance in his own life.  The surrounding tones portray the child slowly assembling a world image that he will carry throughout his life (and pass onto his own child), and the child's being gradually enveloping the father's consciousness with love and awe.  This music celebrates, in a deliberate manner without fanfare, the father's and the child's awakening to one another.  An earlier version of Awaking exists for saxophone choir (2009).  This orchestral recomposition was completed in 2011 for the UW Oshkosh Symphony Orchestra. 

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Contact the composer at edmartin@edmartincomposer.com to request the score and parts.