View Sample PDF Score
Watch the Interview with Composition Contest Winner
 
Instrumentation
 
Piccolo
Flute 1 - 2
Oboe 1
Oboe 2, opt. English Horn
Bassoon 1 - 2
Clarinet in E♭
Clarinet in B♭ 1 - 3
Bass Clarinet in B♭ 
Alto Saxophone 1 - 2
Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone 
Trumpet in B♭ 1 - 3
Horn in F 1 - 4
Trombone 1 - 2
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
Double Bass
Percussion 1 - 3
Timpani
 
Program notes
 
In the repertoire of concert band and wind ensemble music, the folk song suite holds deep meaning and importance. “Icelandic Folk Song Suite” is my contribution to that legacy in our field and is, very much at its heart, a love letter to it. This work endeavours to new musical work set in this traditional structure to celebrate making music in the concert band and wind ensemble settings.
 
As folk song suites often use national music as a connecting thread through it (like Vaughn William’s “English Folk Song Suite,” for example), I incorporate traditional Icelandic folk music here, and for two reasons. The first is that there isn’t much Icelandic music in our repertoire and there is room for a meaning contribution there. The second is that Icelandic music is very close to my heart. While my nationality is Canadian, my heritage is Scandinavian – primarily Icelandic, with a dash of Norwegian and Swedish.
 
I grew up in a small town called Gimli, Manitoba in the prairie region of Canada. During the late nineteenth- and early-twentieth centuries, scores of immigrants fled Iceland escaping volcanic eruption, deterioration in the climate and growing conditions, and an epidemic infecting their sheep. Many who chose to leave and many found their way to Canada and established a colony in Manitoba called “New Iceland,” with Gimli as its main settlement – the town where I grew up.
 
Like Icelandic Folk Song Suite No. 1 (published by Grand Mesa Music) all of the melodic material in this suite stems from four Icelandic folk songs. Movement I centers around Krummavísur in the first half, then foreshadows the melody from Á Sprengisandi in the second movement. While the second movement begins with Á Sprengisandi, it weaves all of the folk material together from Icelandic Folk Song Suite No. 1 and 2 in a climactic and exciting ending fanfare. While each suite can be played separately, they are optimally designed to be played together, comprising a traditional four-movement structure of Allegro, Largo, Scherzo, then ending with Vivace.
 
The original folk song on which Movement III is based, Krummavísur is about a raven who scours the earth for food. Every time he finds a good meal, something always gets in his way and he remains hungry for another day.
 
Á Sprengisandi, whose melody centers the fourth movement, details a man riding his horse down the Sprengisandur trail in Iceland. He implores his steed to ride faster each verse, as the road is dangerous and full of elves.