Duration: ca. 4 minutes 30 seconds

Composer Notes:
Into The Darkness They Go, The Wise And The Lovely is a short, contemplative piece written as a tribute to Bramwell Tovey. Its brevity and simplicity and its wise and lovely inspiration presented unfamiliar difficulties and raised a perplexing question. How does one pay tribute to a person who has been so incredibly supportive and generous over my entire career? I found a hint in a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The title of my piece comes from that poem, which acknowledges that death comes for us all, but we can protest. With that encouragement, I did.

The piece opens with muted chords passing through the band. There are solos for baritone and soprano cornet punctuated with muffled bass drum lines that feature throughout the piece. As the melodic material is presented, every section of the band is allowed to shine. The piece culminates with ascending scales chasing one another to the top — defying the darkness with shards of light.