Summon the Legends

This work is the result of a commission lead by 6th Grade Symphonic Band Director Michael Morrissey of the Lancaster Central School District in Lancaster, NY. As schools began a fall return from the shutdowns of the pandemic, Mr. Morrisseys project came about as a special way to navigate the hybrid learning model and resulting split rehearsals. The result is a piece with provided click tracks and rehearsal tools, constructed with doublings that would be conducive to rehearsals with incomplete membership. Additionally, while at first appearing challenging, rhythmic goals are well spread amongst the players with repetition and also occur in homogeneous moments to facilitate the necessary online teaching that has become an important part of the hybrid teaching model. In following with Mr. Morrisseys request that the work have a heroic flavor, the inspiration of the piece is drawn from the Legends logo on the front of the score. With a story familiar throughout Western New York as the Lancaster Central School District embraced student input and ingenuity to adopt the new Legend logo in 2015, the logo appears not only strong, but almost super-heroic in nature. With that image in mind, the melody that repeats throughout the number opens with strong open intervals, adorned with the bite of the dotted 8th-16th, and accompanied with solid closed chords and the battle braised sounds of the Sus2 and Sus4 chords.