"Indivisible!"

A band director I've known for many years had always wanted to commission a piece for his band, and as he was preparing to retire, he approached me with this idea. This was in 2016 during the political upheaval of both parties and the eventual election. In 2020, I decided to send this to my publisher for release. Indivisible "fractures" the US national anthem, then puts the pieces back together again, more or less. The introduction is dark and haunting, takes off in a fast "angry" section, a slow lyrical section, and a celebratory finale of the final verse of the anthem. 

Each section corresponds to the lyrics of the anthem. "Oh say can you see..." in the intro, "As the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air" in the angry section, "By the dawn's early light..." in the slow lyrical section, and the unified final verse of the anthem in its conclusion. I enjoyed writing this and hope you enjoy "Indivisible!" Thanks for listening, and feel free to comment if the mood strikes you. Cheers! 

Great job!  I love the major/minor cross-relations you make in the melody in the beginning on saxophone solo.  I once had an idea to combine the Polish National Anthem with the American Anthem in a sort of variations piece that would be titled "The Polish-American Heritage Anthem".  That piece never came to fruition (it was a little too ambitious for my abilities as a composer at the time I think).  Glad to hear your attempt was quite successful!  The piece was definitely in good taste and never ventured into any kind of sacrilegious territory so well done!

Thank you! I appreciate your feedback! 

I really like the way you wrote this. Love your harmonies and the way you use the different instruments. Grate job. 🙂

This will be a crowd pleaser. Nice traditional band scoring. And if middle schoolers can count a bar of 7/8 then maybe there's hope for math education in America.