Carlos Simon, Amen!
Professor Carol has had a close association with the Dallas Winds for many years, giving their pre-concert lectures and doing other promotional work. Now that we are in Winston-Salem, she agreed to serve on the board of the Piedmont Wind Symphony. There is a great deal of impressive new music being written for wind bands. If you have a wind ensemble in your area, you may find it to be one of the best concert experiences available.
Carol and I recently attended a concert by the Piedmont Wind Symphony in Winston-Salem that featured Amen! by Carlos Simon. I wanted to feature it here while the experience was still fresh. The effect of hearing it live is hard to match in a video performance as some of the energy is inevitably lost in a recording. The Piedmont Wind Symphony had the added benefit of being joined by the Capital Bones, a preeminent jazz trombone ensemble.
Carlos Simon (b. 1986) grew up in Atlanta where his father was a preacher in an African American Pentecostal Church. The exuberance of the evangelical worship style informs this work. The congregation is encouraged to join in the music with singing, dancing, and shouting, and all of those things are represented in the work.
Amen! was commissioned by the Michigan Symphony Band, and the video here is its premiere performance in 2017. (The composer comes on stage at the end.) It consists of three movements played without breaks in between. The trombone section takes center stage and various instruments are featured with solos in an improvisatory style. The trombone solo in the second movement is based on the gospel song “I’ll Take Jesus for Mine.” The final movement takes the exuberance to an extreme level.
