There is this brilliant video game inspired flute Concerto by Frank Ticheli. Ticheli is known for writing so many astounding Concertos for a variety of woodwinds. This piece has an extraordinary amount of rhythmically sophisticated runs and percussive tongue techniques including flutter tongue. The first movement starts it all off. There is a live video on Facebook if you go to Frank Ticheli’s page. This is the nation-wide premier, I believe. Everyone has praised this work as one of Ticheli’s best works.
The piece starts off with a great opening with some dodgy progression that reminds you of video games and that is followed by the flutes in the clarinets doing a duel with each other. It's very exciting to listen to this. I wish there was a YouTube video on this already, but there isn’t. This concerto just came out maybe a few months ago so it takes about a year to have a decent recording of the piece so that everybody can consume it. It's very spellbinding. It takes you want to ride that is at times at breakneck speed. If you go on Facebook and you go on Frank Ticheli’s page, you'll see the piece in one of his posts. You could also go on the National Association for Bands Facebook page for the live concert page.
Any rate, the piece has a lot of agility. It has a lot of dissonances in certain places. It has that silvery tone that flourishes all throughout the work. Ticheli is known for all the fast and fancy runs that are in the piece. All the chromaticism that is in the first movement of the piece is glorious.
The second portion of the piece is in G minor. It has a stunning array of brass that do a chord in the root of two minor. Over the cord backdrop, the flute sings a quick but very lyrical, Disney-like theme that is so inspiring. I wonder if this is the silver lining that the piece is referring to. The chords turn big, bright and new. New harmonies are explored that haven’t been explored in other works. Ticheli often talks about the balance between surprise and predictability. This whole piece as a whole is full of that surprise and predictability on every turn. I believe Ticheli really outdid himself on this one. He really let it shine. If I were a band director I would highly recommend this piece of music for your advanced high school bands to play.
In the second movement there are some spots with actual flutter tongue in the flute part that are very inspired. The harmonies of the other woodwinds support the lyrical theme in the flute part by forming chords underneath it that are triadic. There are a lot of places in the peace where there is this epic, shiny band sound that moves audiences everywhere. This is so Ticheli. All registers of the solo flute part are explored in this piece. It's better if you go Frank Ticheli’s Facebook page and check it out for yourself. Check out the glory. Check out the beauty of the music for yourself.
