"Sheltering Sky" by John Mackey, performed. by the Baylor University Wind Ensemble, conducted by Eric Wilson October 22, 2015 Score and program note available here: ostimusic.com/S...
If i had known at the time that this would be my very last piece of my music that I ever played in high school as a member of the class of 2020. If I had known that, i would have cried more than i already did during playing this song.
The title “Sheltering Sky” seemed oxymoronic to me before I performed the piece because I couldn’t understand how one could be sheltered in an open sky. It took me until after I performed it to realize it was because it was conveying freedom. One cannot truly be free unless they are safe out in the open and exposed. True freedom is when one’s shelter has no limits.
Fun fact I learned from my band director was that Mackey wrote this piece for middle school bands originally and realized when he finished that no middle school could play it like it's supposed to be done without a true time signature attached
Nick T actually a lot of middle schools out there play this piece musically and beautifully. My sons middle school has 8 members in all state and they played this piece for their adjudication. I was very impressed with them and this is coming from a pianist.
@@thispromisePVP I think he means a middle school band probably couldn't play this in 4/4 with rubato so Mackey wrote all the stretching of tempo by using mixed meter.
My son's HS Wind Ensemble played this for their final concert of the year. It brought me to tears, especially since he's a senior. What a beautiful piece and Baylor did a beautiful job.
Other directors just don't fucking understand how to make beautiful music. Baylor is one of the VERY FEW places that truly understands in the wind band world. There are only a handful of places like this in the world. Baylor is one of them.
We're playing Sheltering Sky in my university wind symphony, and we're right by the Shenandoah River so the hints of Shenandoah are not unnoticed. To me this piece is heavenly, dreamlike, surreal... Jake Wallace's program note mentions a "sense of hazy distance as though...from a half-remembered dream," and I feel like if I had that dream, then in the dream I would be standing in an infinite prairie landscape while this tune is faintly coming from the bright blue sky.
😮the band i play in playrd this last spring. It was very good and all enjoed playing it. We played it as it is played here. I thought ofAron Copeland. ❤
has to be one of my favorite concert band pieces of all time. Having played it, I feel, makes the listening experience all the more better. Little nuances that you pro0bably wouldnt notice with ordinary headphones unless youve played at are noticable. Something my band director told me about this piece is that it does not Resolve to the I chord until the last chord of the piece. I feel a lot of the tension and emotion I feel are because of this and it makes the resolution at the end all the more beautiful
I wonna make an arrangement of this for piano, I played sheltering sky this year with my band and I was sad because most people didn't understand what they were playing and I broke my heart because I felt like I was the only who understood the beauty behind your piece , but thankfully those days are gone.
Very nice piece! Since I haven't played flute/piccolo since graduating college 35 years ago, this piece is slow enough for me to play! I love the chord at the end - the trumpet holding that neighboring note while the others resolve into the major chord. Very nice indeed!
