To Gold in Broadest Blue

I grew up in the country, outside a small town in North Dakota. The prairie, the rolling hills, the colors, the peace and quiet ~ that is home to me. To Gold in Broadest Blue emulates that place. It is not majestic or grand like the mountains or the sea, but there is something magical about the space and the horizon line. For me, To Gold in Broadest Blue (a line taken from a Wallace Stevens poem) reflects upon that line between the fields of wheat and the sky. The music is built on ascending lines ~ the blue sky, cloudless, all around us, and ends with a hymn-like chorale that takes its footholds in the dirt, grounding us to the earth and our place in the world.

To Gold in Broadest Blue was commissioned by the Midwest District of Tau Beta Sigma and Kappa Kappa Psi, and premiered by the NDSU Gold Star Band, under the direction of Warren Olfert. It was then rearranged in 2015 for the Concordia Band, under the direction of Peter Haberman.
Performed by The St. Olaf Band, Dr. Timothy Mahr, conductor
February 4, 2020, Paul Shaghoian Memorial Concert Hall, Fresno, CA

Performed by the St. Olaf Band, under the direction of Timothy Mahr