CHILDHOOD SKETCHES

for concert band / symphonic orchestra

Duration: 10'
Instrumentation: concert band: 4 fl., pic., 2 ob. (2nd doubling e.h), 4 Bb cl., b. cl, 2 bsn., 3 sax. (atb), hrp., pno., 4 Bb tpt., 4 F hrn., 2 tenor tbn., tba., 2x perc. (alt. arch. w/o harp).
Alternative Instrumentation: Symponic Orchestra: 2 fl. (2nd double on pic.), 2 ob. (2nd double on e.h), 2 cl., 2 bsn., 2 hn., 2 tpt., 1 perc., strings.
Dedication: to Dudu, to Ronchik.
Commission: Israeli Composers Organization and Thelma Yellin School for the Arts.
Premiere: February 1st, 2019, Shtriker Hall, Tel-Aviv, ‘Blowing 70’ orchestra.
Additional performances: December 2019, TAU Wind Band; December 2020, Sound in the Dessert Festival; September 2023, Israeli Music Festival.

PROGRAM NOTE

‘Childhood Sketches’ was commissioned for the Thelma Yellin School for the Arts, and was inspired by three sketches painted by Israeli Painter Dudu Geva during his childhood. Focusing on Geva’s childhood works connected to my stage in life then, as a young mother, and with the piece’s destination for a youth band - and so the main theme that led me throughout the composition of the piece was the theme of childhood, and specifically the promise that lies in each and every child, and how it enfolds in maturity. Dudu Geva’s childhood paintings showed a great promise, and his teachers and family predicted a great artistic future success for him. In a similar manner, each and every child hold the greatest promise of all: growing up and fulfilling one’s potential as a good human being, personally and as a part of a whole existence. Unfraternally, not all children get to fulfill that promise, and the gap between the magic and promise of childhood and their unfolding in maturity, occupied my mind as I was working on the piece.

The piece is composed of three main movements, each one illustrates a Geva painting, and in between them interwoven intermezzi movements which present the theme of childhood. The titles of the paintings, in the order in which they appear in the piece, are ‘Pinocchio and His Friends’, ‘Night in the Sea’, and ‘The Little Band’.

The piece is dedicated to all children and grown-ups, to my beloved uncle Ron, whose promise was cut prematurely, and to Dudu Geva who fulfilled his artistic promise and left a unique and wonderous artistic legacy.

As an adult, Geva found himself working and creating in the fields of pop art and humoristic writing. He developed a sharp and unique style and left a significant mark on Israeli culture - until his premature and abrupt death at the age of 50,