- Program Notes
- Sparrow and sun is, in part, about the feeling of early summer. As someone who lives by the academic calendar, there are few things more powerful than seeing the day-to-day obligations dissolve away, and getting to spend time outside, especially in the warm comfort of the sun.
The piece is also, in part, about a set of stairs, built on the exterior of the Urban-Loritz-Platz in Vienna, which I first met as a student in the Texas A&M University-Commerce Wind Ensemble, during our tour of Germany and Austria in May 2016. As the details of that trip fade, some of my strongest (and fondest) memories are of spending nights on top of the stairs, sitting and looking out at the city.
But at its core, Sparrow and sun is about the ways in which that staircase has returned to my life. In the summer of 2023, Kaylie (one of my sectionmates from the trip), sent me a video from the staircase – she was touring in Vienna again, and her hotel was in the same neighborhood, so she wandered past Urban-Loritz-Platz and asked if I remembered it (of course, I did). And now, in May 2025, I’ll return to Vienna with my own students in the HPU Wind Ensemble, and I know I’ll make a point to return to the Urban-Loritz-Platz, so that I can share that memory with them.
I can’t get past the feeling that there is some strange seasonality linking me to this place, like a comet or a satellite on an irregular orbit. It’s made me think about how much of my travel is predestined, versus how much is truly of my own will, and in turn, the writings of Roberta Sparrow (A Philosophy of Time Travel), and whether I’m making multiple trips or just repeating the same one.
In any case, I look forward to returning: to the magic of being there, to experiencing old memories while creating new ones, and to climbing those stairs again, walking into the summer sun.
Sparrow and sun is dedicated to the High Point University Percussion Ensemble, for their performances in Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague, May 2025; to the memories that they’ll make there; and to the stairs on the Urban-Loritz-Platz, long may they reign.
- Performer Credits
- Westlake High School Symphonic Band Percussion, dir. Ben Armeni
- Publisher
- Louis Raymond-Kolker
