composition / concert band / downtown dash

downtown dash

Medium: Concert Band
Publisher: C. Alan Publications
Composed: September 2006
Duration: 2:30
Difficulty: Grade II

Instrumentation:

Timpani
Keyboard Percussion (bells, xylophone
Percussion 1 (snare drum, bass drum)
Percussion 2 (tambourine, suspended cymbal, triangle, crash cymbals)

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Downtown Dash Score

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University of North Texas Wind Symphony
Eugene Corporon, conductor

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notes

Downtown Dash is meant to depict a brisk 5K road race (3.1 miles) through the city streets surrounded by towering skyscrapers. The runners are all assembled behind the starting line, anxiously awaiting the horn or gun to go off. Because there are so many runners, even after the race starts, no one is able to move very quickly until the pack thins out. Each of the 3 miles in the race have their own musical character. During the first mile (m. 17) you are finally able to settle into your own comfortable stride. You start to pick up the pace a bit during mile 2 as the music moves into 3/4 time (m. 47). During mile 3 (m. 71), fatigue is starting to set in as you pick up the pace even more, depicted by the low brass taking over and moving the key into D minor. As you reach the last tenth of a mile (m. 93), the finish line is now in your sights, so you break into an all-out sprint to the finish.

j.w. pepper blurb

On your mark.. get set...go! Take part in a brisk race through city streets without taking a single step. This well-paced work musically follows the course of a 5K race from the slow pace of the crowded starting line to the exuberant sprint to the finish. Get off your podium and get moving!

J.W. Pepper, Editor's Choice (June 2009)