Concert Overture for Orchestra
The story of the angel Gabriel, rendered with emotional intensity in this concert overture for orchestra, evokes a glimmering celebration of three angelic events.
- As messenger from God, Gabriel told Mary she would be the mother of Jesus, sparking Christianity
- As messenger from God, he gave the Quran to the Prophet Mohammed, sparking Islam
- When the world ends, Gabriel will be playing his horn for us, one last time
This music traces these three moods for the angel: lyric, dramatic, and apocalyptic. Your audience feels the beating of angelic wings, soaring and gliding, while the score calls upon the trumpet to be the airborne voice of love, struggle, and obliteration.
Originally the first movement of a trumpet concerto commissioned in 1988 by Doc Severinsen and the Phoenix and North Carolina Symphonies, The first movement was given a “second life” as Gabriel, through the Nashville Symphony’s American Encore Series.
– duration: 6′
– (1997)
3(3rd db. picc.)/2+E.h./2+E-flat/2+cbn. – 4/3/3/1
timp. – 3 perc. – strings