Frank Ticheli - Sanctuary EP Review

Frank Ticheli Sanctuary EP

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Tracklist:
1. Sanctuary

Release Date: 2007

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4.5
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Doug Belfast USER (29 Reviews)

2009-10-25 | 37 comments | 395 views

Summary: A 12 minute journey to the centre of your heart.

3 of 3 thought this review was well written

Pure and utter emotion; while it can be found in many different ways and in different places, there is no doubting the gut wrenching feeling that comes with it. Emotion can be good or bad, heartfelt or complete disappointment and as human beings we feel the highs and lows of all these throughout our lives. When Frank Ticheli put pen to score in the early days of writing his epic piece Sanctuary, the feeling of joy from a birth of a new child was pulsing through his heart, and descended on an epical 12 minute journey of pure emotional symphonic pleasure.

As a percussionist in a Wind Symphony ensemble and heard from our conductor that we were going to play a piece with very little use of percussion, of course I was disappointed, but when our conductor put Sanctuary into the CD player so the band could hear the piece, I was blown away by the sounds that were coming from the speakers. At the time I thought this was a purely sad but wonderful arrangement of music.

After many days and hours of rehearsing the piece, my love for Sanctuary just kept on increasing. I began to hear new melodies from the woodwinds and how they blended so warmly with the quiet long notes coming from the trombones, and the subtle vibrato being played by the saxophones. Slowly the piece became less sad to me, and grew as quite a happy piece of just pure and utter emotional joy.

Sanctuary itself follows a simple melody played originally by lower end brass, and then throughout the piece is shared with the band as call and respond is used. This all eventually builds into an amazing climax that is built by the flutes, and layered by large amounts of various woodwind and percussion. Then the heavy brass takes it to another level giving it the full sound that only a band with 40 odd members can give you. After the initial climax we are presented with quite an impressive flute solo that is then handed to the clarinet and links back into the simple minimalistic melody that was first heard at the start.

Sanctuary can be heard in many ways. It can be felt as pure joy by the listener as you delve deep into the intricacies of such a simple piece, or it can be heard as a sad melody replaying a memory of the past. But all I know is that this piece is a 12 minute journey into the depths of the listener’s emotional bearing, and it hit’s hard. If there ever was a piece of music that moved me, it's this. Sanctuary is a 12 minute journey to the centre of your heart, filling the voids that gape there, spilling with large amounts of emotion and testing your view of the way you feel or view it, be it sorrowful or emotion of immense joy. It is really open for the listener to perceive.

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