J M Starr Music

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With lyrics from a poem by Margaret Widdemer, this selection is about finding peace and beauty in the juxtaposition of empty tree branches against a backdrop of clear blue skies. With vocal writing that is accessible yet mature, this winter feature is the perfect choice for middle school choirs.

Winter Branches

SAB Octavo

Instrument

Overcoming is a piece that was inspired by my own personal years-long journey of acknowledging, identifying, and overcoming both anxiety and depression. The work is conceptually paired with my string orchestra work titled Becoming. This composition begins with a fiery fanfare (the A section), containing a call and response between the brass and wind sections. This section builds to a crescendo that suddenly gives way to grooving B-section (m. 17 ), featuring an ostinato in the bass voices and percussion that is very much inspired by the rhythms of Brazilian Samba Funk. As it repeats, a soaring melody enters in the Alto saxophones and French Horns (m. 25 ). With each repetition, more voices and parts are layered in, creating an orchestral crescendo. This is followed by the opening wind section's rips being played by most of the band over the Funk groove (m. 65 ). The piece concludes with a triumphant variation on the opening fanfare (m. 65 ); the music is familiar and yet different. That musical conclusion is what my own voyage of overcoming has been: we are back where we started and yet somehow changed due to journey we took. This work offers many educational opportunities, including but not limited to:
 Call and response between winds and brass
 Energetic funk rhythms for the percussion
In the key of F-minor  great for introducing concert Db to your musicians

Overcoming

Concert Band Score & Parts

The Heist is an exciting piece that uses music to dramatically illustrate the events of a daring robbery. The form of the work is ABCBA, evoking the act of breaking into the target building and then having to escape back out. Your violas and cellos will get a chance to shine as they each get to carry the soaring A-theme in the beginning of the piece, while the violins and basses lay down an energetic and off-kilter ostinato. While the composition begins in D minor, the C-section triumphantly modulates to the relative major as our bandits have gotten their hands on the loot. Educationally speaking, the piece is a fantastic way to introduce the key of D minor to your ensemble – great for teaching F-natural and B-flat.

The Heist

String Orchestra Score & Parts

For the choir conductor who absolutely adores their 3-part mixed choir, here is an end of year wish *to* and *for* your SAB singers. It is a song about them moving on, but also reminding your students and singers that your school will always be a welcoming place to them. And that should they continue to foster their love of music, they can always travel back there in spirit. The verses of the song portray the school year being over  empty choir folders, empty hallways, empty lockers. However, the verses conclude with the idea that while these physical representations of their education have become devoid of materials, they will carry the music with them in their hearts and minds. The title "Keep This Song In Your Heart" seems to request the singer to keep this specific composition near and dear to them. However, at the end of the song I make it clear that all that matters that the students carry the love of all music with them into the future, long after they have left your classroom.

"Should this song not suffice
Then a different one will do.
For all I really want
Is the love of music
For you"

Keep This Song In Your Heart

SAB Middle School Octavo

Looking for a piece that doesn’t have to be taught by rote? Whether you use fixed Do, movable La-based minor, or movable Do-based minor, the pretty easy rhythms and step motion of this piece offers you and your students an opportunity to work on sight-reading, audiation, and a few key intervals. Try singing just on solfege syllables, even writing them in your scores. There are spots where the limited movement creates very “crunchy” tensions, but they are followed by equally relieving releases. Because of the slow tempo, breath support and phrasing will be crucial to the success of the piece. Good luck and have fun!

Agnus Dei

Like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, Becoming is a piece about transformation. The melody weaves in and out of the different voices of the ensemble. Violins, violas, and cellos all get a chance to be featured at various instances over the course of the piece. Lush harmonies rife with tone clusters and suspensions adorn the chords throughout the work. This composition offers many great ways to teach articulation, technique, and listening throughout: a slow tempo encourages attention to tone quality and controlling bow speed, there is lots of slurring, and major second harmonies draw focus to intonation.

Becoming

If you are looking for a piece to add to your concert repertoire or library that shows off your choir's ability to musically produce Drama, look no further. This choral composition uses text taken from two Psalms to create a narrative of a people's devotion for their God. The opening A section is largely grounded in diatonic harmony. The soft dynamics and use of extended harmonies and tone clusters give the choir a shimmering ethereal quality as they quietly sing of their reverence of the Lord (Psalm 68). Using much more exaggerated dynamics, more chromaticism, and playing with meter, the B section lets the audience know why the people sing their praise - an embattled people prayed to God for help, and he came to their aid, defeating their enemies in battle (Psalm 18). The form crescendos to a reprise of the A section, but now with loud and joyful exuberance.

Let the Righteous Be Glad

SATB Octavo

Rondo in E Minor is, as the title suggests, a piece in rondo form: ABA'CA''. Each section has a bit of a different character to it. The A-section melody, having varying accompanying parts in each iteration, is imbued with an intensity derived by the detached first beat that propels the energy and rhythm forward. The B-section contrasts this with legato articulation, while the C-section has a bit more bounce and detachment that alludes to a neo-Baroque feel. This work offers many educational opportunities, including but not limited to: teaching left-hand pizzicato, many instances of slurring, and low strings get a chance to show off the melody!

Rondo in E Minor

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