A Walk through Memory Lane
Composed by Phil Om

I wrote this composition for a Humanities Project which was to create an "artifact" that best describes your high school year experience. Since it's my last year in high school, I wanted to try making a composition that would best represent my journey the past 4 years. I broke this entire piece into 4 movements which will be explained below:

[0:10-0:58] Isolation (2020-2021: Freshman Year). The most memorable part of this year for anyone was online school. We truly felt isolated and alone since this is normally a time for many people to get used to high school and interact with others. The piece starts with a melody from the Bass Clarinet, my primary instrument coming into high school. After 4 measures, Tenor Sax, Clarinet, and Bari Sax enter at different times symbolizing how I picked up more instruments as time went on, growing as a musician little by little. Trumpets enter with a beautiful melody after that, changing the texture of the sound and showing how my world was slowly changing with this new lifestyle. The use of muted Trumpets throughout this section represents masks during the pandemic, not allowing the sound to come out completely, similar to how it was harder to communicate with the masks on. The trumpets end the melody unfinished leaving suspense like there’s something still unresolved.

[0:59-2:33] Demolition (2021-2022: Sophomore Year). Hurricane Ida demolished our school building with a flood, changing the course of our sophomore year. The movement starts with wind sounds and chimes, which set the atmosphere for this entire movement. After the first few measures, snaps become audible to sound like raindrops. Ocarinas enter with trills, adding to the mysterious atmosphere. The percussion builds up to a peak where the low instruments blast a low note, surprising the listener, similar to how the news of the flood surprised us. When everything cuts out, the Flute starts with a sad melody, encapsulating everyone’s feelings. The Alto Sax takes over the melody, representing all of us trying to have a positive outlook on the situation, but the Flute interrupts, challenging that thought. Once the melody ends, the wind chimes come back and the rain and thunder slow down to eventually come to a complete stop.

[2:35-3:32] Renovation (2022-2023: Junior Year). The flood put our school district in a difficult situation, forcing our building to be renovated. In addition to our building, we also had to renovate ourselves in a way, by changing routines and getting used to being back in person every day. The entire feel of this movement is drastically different from the rest of the piece, representing an immediate and obvious change in our lives this school year. The movement is also fast-paced and almost hectic, symbolizing how we had to play “catch-up” since everyone else already had a year to adjust to normal. After the melody is played twice, the bass instruments enter with a different melody, slightly changing the atmosphere, similar to how we were reminded of how we still had to worry about college, APs, and maintaining high grades. This was also the first year we were in person in our own building, which was great for several reasons, but specifically allowed ensembles to play together again. When the melody is recapped once more, everything moves up a whole step and continues to climb half steps until we reach the final movement.

[3:33-4:18] Celebration (2023-2024: Senior Year) This movement begins with the melody the Trumpets played at the beginning in a new key, almost like a recap or celebration of all of our years. The Trumpets are now completely unmuted, allowing them to play their fullest sound like we can reach our fullest potential without any more hindrance. This ending is triumphant, different from the feel at the beginning, reaching our conclusion and end to high school. The feeling then drops to a quieter version of the melody played by the Soprano Sax. A sax quartet is playing with the soprano sax, which represents how I was only able to be a part of the quartet during my freshman year and senior year. You would expect the end to be big and grand, but it dies down and ends at a quieter level, representing how this experience will never leave us. The Soprano Sax plays a small cadenza at the end to wrap the trip down memory lane.

Hope you enjoyed my composition!

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