Clean Blue Sky is a three minute work for concert band. It is a modern take on classic ballads for winds such as Balladair by Frank Erickson. I wanted to write a piece for students that would represent musically the build up and removal of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I settled on using additive chord tones (7ths, 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths) to create tension and to build up the thicker textures needed to represent the build up of atmospheric pollutants. The piece begins with a standard 3-pitch major chord in Bb Major and ends with the open, clean interval of a Perfect 5th (Bb/F). Another pedagogical goal of the piece was to develop rhythmic understanding of the dotted-quarter note. It is used in multiple ways throughout the piece by every instrument. Ranges are all within beginner to intermediate level with doubling throughout.
This audio is of the original orchestration. An updated version will be available May 2022.