Erickson, K.-At the Dawn of War (SP-12)-B/Cro/X/2V/4M/4T/P

At the Dawn of War by Kevin Erickson. From the composer,

"The idea for this piece began to manifest itself early in the fall of 2000, with the original sketches following soon thereafter. I had intended to create a work that would depict different episodes in a day of war. By spring of 2001, the project had been moved to the back burner, with no definite plan for completion. The following fall, I was able to revisit my sketches. Work had resumed for only a couple of weeks when our nation was struck by the tragic events of September 11, 2001. The flood of emotions that followed fueled my desire to see this project come to fruition. Focusing the direction of the project became increasingly difficult as the piece began to morph into something completely different than what had been originally intended. I had considered changing the title to An Act of War and, subsequently, new sketches were composed to depict the actual events of 9/11. As I grew increasingly frustrated with the progress of the work, I found that I did not want to glorify the attack on our homeland. I then looked back at the original ideas for the piece, realizing that the images on my head were of American offensive efforts in war. This could be any war, be it the retaliatory efforts following 9/11 or otherwise for that matter. With this in mind, I opted not to make the work programmatic in the traditional, but rather to let listeners conjure up images based on their own experiences.

This work is dedicated to the heroic men and women who gave wholly of themselves for their country on 11 September 2001. Let us never forget their sacrifice."

Number of Players: 12
Difficulty: Grade 5
Instrumentation:

Player I: Bells, Doumbek, Finger Cymbals

Player II: Xylophone, Crotales (2 octave)

Player III: Vibraphone 1

Player IV: Vibraphone 2

Player V: Marimba 1 (4.3 octave)

Player VI: Marimba 2 (4.3 octave)

Player VII: Marimba 3 (5 octave)

Player VIII: Marimba 4 (5 octave)

Player IX: 4 Timpani, Suspended Cymbal

Player X: Claves, Mark Tree, Suspended Cymbal, Finger Cymbals, Brake Drum, Splash Cymbal, 3 Chinese Cymbals, 4 Tom-Toms, 5 Temple Blocks, Ribbon Crasher, Crotales (2 octave), Metal Scraper, Snare Drum, Crash Cymbals, Triangle

Player XI: Brake Drum, Tam-Tam, Bell Tree, Chimes, Anchor Chains, Snare Drum, Suspended Cymbal, Bongos, Garden Weasel

Player XII: Bass Drum, Tam-Tam (share with player XI), Ceramic Wind Chimes, Tom-Tom, Triangle, Suspended Cymbal, Tambourine