The Spirit is Willing

The closing piece in my December concert with the UofT Wind Symphony was Beauty Broken by American composer Nicole Piunno. The piece was inspired by the unique photography of Ori Gersht, specifically the Untitled No. 1 from his Blow Up series, in which he captures the explosion of a vase of flowers. Piunno’s work features a “broken glass” sound effect at an early climactic moment, which can be achieved using either a pre-recorded digital sound file or one of a number of acoustic methods. After some experimentation, the percussionists of the Wind Symphony settled on the acoustic option: two sets of glass chimes, one struck forcefully to produce the immediate impact of breaking glass, and one played more gently with length to simulate the scattered tinkling of the aftermath. Dr. Piunno was very pleased with the result in our performance and shared an excerpt of the “break” moment and how we achieved it on her website.

Blow Up, Untitled #1, Ori Gersht

A few weeks later, Piunno was looking for someone to record the wind ensemble version of her piece The Spirit is Willing (originally written for brass band), and the Wind Symphony and I were happy to oblige. Despite some challenges with absences, we were able to produce a pretty good recording, for which Dr. Piunno was very grateful. Almost immediately after she posted it, she received an inquiry from a director wanting to perform it! You can listen to our recording below:

The Wind Symphony’s next concert, “To the Stars”, featuring the Kairos Quartet performing Kevin Lau’s Charon’s Dance, is Friday evening.