Sun Compass takes its primary inspiration from desert navigation and, more broadly, from the idea of the exploration of an “imaginary landscape” along the lines of Paul Klee’s conception. I am drawn to solar navigation because of its propitious, mystical overtones in ancient cosmology. There are many forms of sun compasses, such as those invented by William Austin Burt and Ralph Bagnold, which make use of the sun’s direction rather than magnetism to calculate one’s bearing on the earth. Their complex calculations serve as an aid to explorers traversing long distances in sunlit landscapes such as the desert, the arctic, or grassland steppes and plains.
Sun Compass seeks to navigate sonic “deserts” through the cooperation of its diverse instrumental parts, namely a rhythm section of jazz players and a small wind band. On its journey, the ensemble confronts many differentiated musical objects, which reorient the ensemble and listener to different styles, feels, and textures. Through repetition, juxtaposition, and variation, these objects are recast and reconsidered as the band traverses imaginary landscapes of the mind and the soul.
Sun Compass was written for Bill Drury in celebration of his decades-long tenure as a conductor of New England Conservatory’s Wind Ensembles, a role in which he has dedicated himself to the service of his students and touched many lives through music and his ineffable good nature.
