Steven Franklin: Skylight for five trumpets

Preface by the composer, Steven Franklin :

“I was inspired to write Skylight while hiking in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. The title is derived from Mount Skylight, the third highest mountain in the Adirondack National Park. This region offers stunning views of the rugged and lonely landscape below, which became the basis for this piece.
I structured Skylight in two through-composed sections. The piece begins with a simple solo, made up largely of perfect intervals to give a sense of the openness and grandeur of the landscape. This melody develops throughout the ensemble and finally summits, showing sweeping vistas. You can hear the pure and distinctive call of the White-throated Sparrow, which to me encapsulates the song of the Northeast. The lively second section describes the vitality of nature in an Adirondack summer. This section is built on fragments from the first section, which now appears in the form of fast-moving chorales and a fugato. The fast repeated motive propels the piece to its conclusion.

In essence, Skylight is a series of mountain landscapes; it is a tribute to the beauty of nature and the

precious gift of freedom that we have to experience in it.”