This piece was composed to as a dedication piece to commemorate the new Saint Cloud Public Library at its dedication ceremony on September 20th, 2008. I was invited to introduce the piece to those assembled at the ceremony just prior to it being premiered.

The choice of a brass choir, (consisting of 3 trumpets, 3 French horns, 2 trombones and a tuba), as well as timpani drums, tam-tam and cymbals, pays tribute to Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for The Common Man, a work that relates directly to the role of libraries as places where the world’s knowledge may be accessed freely by all of our citizens, irrespective of disabilities or economic status. The instrumentation of brass, tam-tam, cymbals and timpani takes inspiration from the architecture of the new library building, with its generous use of copper and round lines.

The piece resonates with the building’s architecture by utilizing four timpani, in which the instruments themselves are copper and round. Likewise, the tam-tam and cymbals are round and metal. The brass instruments are metal and the shape of their bells is round. The work incorporates metallic sounds through the use of hard sticks played on metal bands.

The Dedication Fanfare for Brass Choir and Percussion was premiered by a group of musicians from the St. Cloud, MN Symphony and faculty and staff from Saint Cloud State University, The College of St. Benedict and St Johns University in Central Minnesota. It was conducted by Dr. Richard Hansen, Director of Bands at SCSU University.