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Ghost Train
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Note from Composer
Ghost Train was a total fluke.
In the fall of 1993, while an undergrad at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, I happened to hear the wind symphony rehearsing through closed doors. I snuck into the band room and sat entranced for 50 minutes, transported by what was, hands down, the single loudest music I had ever heard. 6 percussionists! 8 trumpets! I was in love.
After the rehearsal I approached Thomas Leslie, the conductor, and asked if I could write a piece for their group. He said (without hesitation), “sure, and if it turns out well we’ll play it at the CBDNA convention in the Spring.” Now, up to this point I had never written for instruments before, only singers, so I got all of my friends who were instrumentalists and took them through their paces: “What pieces do you love to play? Which register is most comfortable? Which instrument sounds best when doubled with your instrument? etc.” I struggled with the work all through Christmas break (I wrote it in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, and Waco Texas) and presented Tom with the first movement when school resumed. He played it beautifully at the convention, and BOOM… the thing took off like a shot. Band directors began calling me at home, trying to buy it from me, and my formal career as ‘composer’ had begun.
I wrote the second and third movement a year later, and Tom premiered the whole thing in the Spring of 1995. I graduated two months later and headed for Juilliard. Ghost Train is dedicated to the man who brought it to life, Mr. Thomas G. Leslie.
Ghost Train Triptych
I. The Ride
II. At the Station
III. The Motive Revolution
Instrumentation
Flutes 1 & 2
Oboes 1 & 2
Bassoons 1 & 2
Clarinets in B♭ 1, 2 & 3
Bass Clarinets in B♭ 1 & 2
Alto Saxophones in E♭ 1 & 2
Tenor Saxophone in B♭
Baritone Saxophone in E♭
Trumpets in B♭ 1, 2 & 3
Horns in F 1-4
Trombones 1, 2 & 3
Euphonium
Tuba
Piano
Mallet Percussion
Vibraphone
Low drums
Timpani
Percussion 1-5
Snare Drum
Crash Cymbal
Surdo
Bass Drum
Suspended Cymbal
Triangle
Tam-Tam
Low Drums
Triangle
Wind Chimes
Bells
Tom-Toms
Chinese Cymbal
Chimes
High Hat
Low Tom
Duration
20 minutes
Year of Composition
1993-1994
Difficulty
Level 5
Licensing
Purchase
US: Hal Leonard
UK: Musicroom
World: Music Shop Europe
Digital: Sheet Music Direct
Perusal Score
Music Catalog
- A Boy and a Girl
- All Seems Beautiful To Me
- Alleluia
- Alone
- Animal Crackers Vol. I
- Animal Crackers Vol. II
- as is the sea marvelous
- Child of Wonder
- Cloudburst
- Deep Field
- Enjoy the Silence
- Equus
- Five Hebrew Love Songs
- Fly to Paradise
- Ghost Train
- Glow
- Go, Lovely Rose
- Godzilla Eats Las Vegas!
- Goodnight Moon
- Her Sacred Spirit Soars
- Higher, Faster, Stronger
- Home
- hope, faith, life, love
- Hurt
- i carry your heart
- I Hide Myself
- i thank You God for most this amazing day
- i walked the boulevard
- i will wade out
- Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine
- Little Birds
- little man in a hurry
- little tree
- Lux Aurumque
- Lux Nova
- maggie and milly and molly and may
- Mermaids (from Pirates of the Caribbean 4)
- Noisy Wheels of Joy
- Nox Aurumque
- October
- Oculi Omnium
- Paradise Lost
- Prelude in C
- Psalm 137: By the Waters of Babylon
- Sainte-Chapelle
- She Weeps Over Rahoon
- Sing Gently
- Sleep
- Sleep My Child
- Songs of Immortality
- The Boy Who Laughed at Santa Claus
- The Chelsea Carol
- The City and the Sea
- The Gift of the Magi
- the moon is hiding in her hair
- The River Cam
- The Sacred Veil
- The Seal Lullaby
- The Star-Spangled Banner
- The Stolen Child
- This Marriage
- Three Flower Songs
- Three Songs of Faith
- Very Soon
- Water Night
- What If
- When David Heard
- Winter
- With A Lily In Your Hand
- You Rise, I Fall