- Program Notes
- Imagine yourself, once again, on the deck of a great ship. Though the age of sail is wrought with turmoil, danger, and death, many an explorer has laid their stake to their own piece of history upon these magnificent vessels. Among these, the most revered, and often reviled, are the navigators, those whose prowess in map making and nautical navigation laid the groundwork for empires to rise and fall. Though the damage done by these later colonizers cannot be overstated, particularly when considering how much violence, cultural demise, and myriad atrocities have occurred in their wakes, many of these initial explorers did so for the love of adventure, of the world, and of people.
Though the term is not used particularly often, a Quartermaster is usually cited as one who is in charge of navigation and of navigational instruments. Admittedly, I chose the name mostly because it sounded neat, as the work is based on a developing series of quarter-note syncopations in increasingly independent lines. However, it stuck, and thus The Seafarers, the suite for band of which the piece serves as the first work, was born.
- Publisher
- Cody Myre
