Beacon Shining Bright

Description

With a haunting opening full of textural brilliance, this new work from Gabriel Musella is an impactful addition to the advancing Concert Band repertoire. Hopeful motifs rise out of textural percussion and woodwind features, forming an immersive soundscape for listeners.

Program Notes

This work was commissioned by Dr. Andrew Hunter, Director of Bands at the University of Texas–El Paso, in memory of his father, Steve. The music contains hints of bluegrass, the University of Tennessee alma mater, “Just a Little Walk with Jesus”, and other Appalachian flavors, as Steve Hunter was proud of his roots. It was premiered in the spring of 2022. The following is from Dr. Andrew Hunter:

On March 10, 2020, my father, Steve Hunter, died in his home. I was holding his hand as he passed from this life into the next. Before he took his last breath, I told him what a great dad he had been and that I loved him. His last conscious act was to grunt back in a loving response. I couldn’t ask for more.

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world during that time, isolation and inactivity stunted the grieving process. Fortunately, that summer, many of us found our release on the golf course! My dad and I had played golf since I was big enough to hold a club. After shooting a particularly stellar round (a rarity since becoming a father and college band director), I instinctively called my dad to tell him. The pain that came with realizing—in that moment—that I would never have a conversation with him again was too much to bear. Having worked with Gabe Musella on commissioning “Ciudad de Paz”, a piece in memory of the victims of the El Paso shooting in 2019, I knew he was the man to help me process my grief through music. Gabe instantly agreed and set to work.

As he began his process, he asked about my dad; I told him several things. He was an avid Tennessee sports fan and alumnus, along with his three siblings—all first-generation college graduates, and only two generations removed from their grandfather being gunned down in the streets of Harlan, KY, in a coal-mining union feud (he was a barber and an innocent bystander). Talk about country! That southern Appalachian history would certainly need to be part of the work. Dad wasn’t a classically trained musician, but he loved being a church choir tenor, and in particular the gospel song Just a Little Talk With Jesus. Gabe masterfully wove these elements into the work.

What he didn’t know was just how targeted his orchestration would be to our family. The first sounds of the piece are from the Bassoon—the instrument of myself, my wife, my father-in-law, and our second daughter. The thematic introduction happens in Clarinet—my third daughter’s instrument. In the middle of the work, the University of Tennessee alma mater is quoted in a Horn quartet; my oldest daughter—and the oldest grandchild who made my Dad a Papa—is a Horn player. Finally, as I listened to the MIDI and looked at the first draft, I was blown away at Gabe’s inclusion of handbells. He did not know that my mother was a professional handbell soloist for decades, and that my father was a licensed repair tech for Schulmerich Handbells. These “coincidences” surely are not coincidences at all, but fingerprints of the divine. There is simply no other explanation—nor would I entertain one! One final note: the closing fanfare motive just might remind one of a pretty popular song in Knoxville, TN, on Saturday afternoons in the fall!

The title “Beacon Shining Bright” comes from the lyrics of the Tennessee alma mater: “On a hallowed hill in Tennessee, like beacon shining bright…” This “beacon” is best represented in the Torchbearer, the official motto of the University, which says, “One that beareth a torch shadoweth oneself to give light to others.” This is what we do as musicians. We bring forth the torch of music to give light to a world that desperately needs it. I am thankful for Gabe bearing this torch for our family in our time of need. – Andrew