Dominick DiOrio

How solemn, as by one

• Instrumentation: singing narrator (medium voice) and double trombone choir (4 tenors/1 bass per choir)
• Completed: November 2006
• Duration: 9 minutes
• Texts: Walt Whitman (1819-1892), "How solemn, as one by one" from Leaves of Grass
• Audio:
  • How Solemn, as one by one
    
    Ithaca College Trombone Troupe
    

    Lloyd Dugger narrator, and Erik Kibelsbeck, conductor.

• Prize:

  Winner of the Allen E. Ostrander Memorial Trombone Composition Prize - 2007

• Program Note:

  How solemn, as one by one was written for and was first prize winner of the Allen E. Ostrander Memorial Trombone Composition Prize. The work is dedicated to those persons whose souls have been needlessly sacrificed in War.

  I was drawn to write this work by Walt Whitman's powerful and evocative text. He treats visions of soldiers dying, stabbed and bleeding with a quiet reverance and an almost wounded beauty. The silhouettes of these unnamed men haunt the pages of the score, always reminding us that our conflicts pay a very real human price in suffering and death. This work attempts to pay homage to those persons by providing time, space, and sound as a reflection on the worth of the soul.

• Performances:
  • April 1, 2007 (Premiere)
    Frühling Posaunen
    Ithaca College Trombone Troupe
    Lloyd Dugger, narrator; Erik Kibelsbeck, conductor 
    Penn State University - University Park, PA
  • April 2, 2007 
    Elmira College Concert Series
    Ithaca College Trombone Troupe
    Lloyd Dugger, narrator; Erik Kibelsbeck, conductor
    Elmira College - Elmira, NY
  • November 1, 2012
    Indiana University Trombone Choir
    Carl Lenthe, director
    Indiana University - Auer Hall - Bloomington, IN