About the Piece
Nicole Piunno – “I will lament and love”
I will lament and love is both a lament and an expression of hope and strength in response to tragedy. Sorrow and hope are deeply interwoven and I find this to be a mysterious reality. I believe we drive out hate with love and we drive out despair with hope. At the same time, does despair lead us to hope? Does hate lead us to love? In other words, does violence and suffering play a mysterious role in bringing forth hope and love? Can violence inspire us to bring more beauty into the world?
When we show hope in the face of suffering, we are playing a part in defeating evil. Love can arise from lament. I long for a day when a final surge of love comes and evil no longer has a place. [program note by the composer]
Narrator Text
This poem, which was written by the composer, can be spoken toward the end of the piece. Adding this narration is optional.
The narrator should enter with this text during measure 162 and be finished near measure 170.
I will weep, yet hope.
Pray, yet act.
I will grieve, yet endure.
Bewail, yet sing.
And while I walk this dark-veiled land,
I will lament, and love.
[Notice: Printing this text in program notes is not permitted]
Instrumentation:
2 flutes
2 oboes
2 clarinets
2 bassoons
4 horns in F
3 trumpets in C
3 trombones
Tuba
Narrator (optional)
Timpani
Percussion (3 players):
- Chimes, Snare Drum (brushes only), Bells (Glockenspiel)
- Vibraphone (two bows needed), Medium Suspended Cymbal, Large Suspended Cymbal
- Marimba, Triangle, Bass Drum, Medium Suspended Cymbal, Large Suspended Cymbal
Celesta
Harp
Strings
Click HERE to view a reference score.
About the Composer
Nicole Piunno (b. 1985) is a composer who views music as a vehicle for seeing and experiencing the realities of life. Her music often reflects the paradoxes in life and how these seeming opposites are connected as they often weave together. Her harmonic language and use of counterpoint mirrors the complexity of our world by acknowledging light and dark, past and present, beauty and brokenness, confinement and freedom, chaos and order, spiritual and physical, life and death.
Nicole holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition and a Master of Music degree in theory pedagogy from Michigan State University. Her composition teacher was Ricardo Lorenz. She earned a Master of Music degree in composition at Central Michigan University, studying with David Gillingham. Nicole earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education and her emphasis was on trumpet. Her music has been performed by the Principal Brass Quintet of the New York Philharmonic, Athena Brass Band, The United States Coast Guard Band, Wind Symphony of Clovis, the University of North Texas Wind Ensemble, and at many other universities and conservatories around the country. Her chamber music has also been performed at the Orvieto Musica TrumpetFest in Orvieto, Italy, the International Trombone Festival, and multiple International Trumpet Guild Conferences.
*D.M.A., Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition, Michigan State University, 2014
*M.M., Master of Music in Music Theory Pedagogy, Michigan State University, 2014
*M.M., Master of Music in Composition, Central Michigan University, 2011
Performance Materials
Performance materials, including score and parts, are available HERE.