STORMLore: The beginning!
At the Boston Conservatory, the requirement for graduation was simple: play a trumpet recital. But for me, that wasn’t enough. I couldn’t stand in front of others as a Teacher or as a conductor unless I first proved to myself that I could write Music, not just play it, but understand it from the inside out.
That was the Mission. Write to be a better Teacher.
I approached John Corley, our Wind Ensemble Conductor at BCM. Impressed with my first piece, “A Theme for the Special Olympics,” I asked him if I could write a suite of Music for the Wind Ensemble. He responded. “Yes!”
That summer was the first time I didn’t go to the beach.
Instead, my insomnia met its match with manuscript paper, pencils, and a vast idea. I took the story from my young adult novel, Only for Now, and began shaping it into Music. What came out was a nine-movement suite, an enormous work for an extended ensemble, with built-in jazz ensemble, guitar, and harp, the likes of which would have earned an approving smile from Wagner and Mahler. By the end of the summer, I had stacks of hand-copied parts ready for rehearsals.
It’s not an exaggeration to say, “I’ve written TONS of Music!”
Returning to school with heavy cartons filled with hand-copied Music, I discovered that Mr. Corley had been let go. My heart sank. All that Music…months of work… suddenly had no home.
That was a foreshadowing of many similar events I would experience even unto this day!
Mr. Corely was moving on to MIT. When I asked him if he would premiere the work there, he again responded. “Yes!”
Three friends and I (2 are on Facebook) carried the heavy cartons of scores and parts across the river. Before our haul, a raging fire burned in the brownstone building next to ours. The fire department had squelched it just in time. On one side of a wall was a fire. On the other sat cartons of original scores and parts!
That premiere in May 1980 carried its own weight of meaning. It was the first… and the last… concert my Grandfather would ever experience. In September, I wrote the suite’s final movement, “A Place to Start,” inspired by Mr. Corley’s departure from BCM.
The premiere was recorded. The ¼-inch tapes, if they still exist, are buried in MIT’s archives. I never heard the recording. I was content to have all the work remain as intended… “Only for Now.”
Godspeed! S
A Theme for the Special Olympics (my 1st piece for band) on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/UzGqmxjLJLU?si=dW2baLpP7IDpj_LL
A Theme for the Special Olympics at STORMWORLD:
https://stephenmelillo.com/product/1201279-a-theme-for-the-special-olympics