Rain Falls From Broken Glass (2001)

for wind ensemble

2nd Place Winner of The American Prize in Composition 2022: Band/Wind Ensemble Music.

“A wonderfully programmatic work!” – Mark Morette (adjudicator for The American Prize)

Rain Falls From Broken Glass is a piece for wind ensemble which attempts to portray an incoming rainstorm, the chaos during the storm, and the aftermath. It utilizes unique percussion instruments such as rain drums to mimic the sounds of rain, along with bass drum accompaniment to portray storm lightning.

The piece starts calmly with sounds of rain underneath the main theme and melody that permeates throughout. Eventually, the rain turns into a violent storm and the music intensifies to reflect this. Suddenly, as the “eye of the storm” is reached, the mood and music is calm again – but only briefly – as a kaleidoscope of instrument colors create a surreal effect with static harmonies. Once again, the storm passes through and the music intensifies before it once again ends in a calm settling rain.