26′ / Wind Ensemble / $250 PDF Score and Parts

In the summer of 2023, I took my first eleven-hour drive to New Hampshire from Ohio. Halfway through the drive, I made a quick rest stop to get a snack, and the moment I got out of my car I realized how far from home I was. I also realized how close to home I was compared to the enormous size of our country.

The more I contemplated this idea, the more I started to realize how small we are as individuals in comparison to everything that is around us. Life is full of beautiful things just waiting to be discovered, and we should take advantage of that beauty while we are alive. This is one of the most important inspirations for the symphony. The second is seen from the perspective of an individual and their deep emotions. On the outside, many of us tend to put on a persona, acting a certain way around one group of people, and completely differently around another. However, the emotions that are deep inside that individual stay the same day in and day out, and sometimes the individual is afraid to express their true self in front of their peers. The emotions expressed in this symphony are specifically and selfishly my own.

The first time the main theme of the symphony is heard, it is almost immediately drowned out by the other voices in the ensemble, in the same way that an individual might be consumed by their own thoughts and concerns. The theme is then quickly converted into a march that presses forward, representing anger, but not anger toward something or someone, but toward oneself. In my case, the anger is driven by not being good enough. While others might experience sadness in this situation, for me it is more rooted in the idea that others will say I am good enough, but I still refuse to believe them.

The second theme eventually emerges, representing passion. Passion is what drives art, creativity, and humanity. Without passion, many of today’s greatest achievements would not have come into existence. The second theme ultimately begins to collapse under its own weight, and the music shifts back to the opening march.

This is followed by an interlude, featuring pairs of solo voice and representing calmness and stillness. No worries, just existing.

Happiness and joy are represented at the start of the scherzo. The focus of this section, though, is the second theme, a melody meant to represent love and appreciation; more specifically, the love that I have for my parents. Coming from a family of immigrants, times were hard for my family, and at times I had a lack of appreciation of that fact. As I have aged, I have begun to see the sacrifices my parents made for me to be where I am now. The familiar tune My Bonnie emerges in the scherzo as well. This poem is about an individual wanting someone to come back to them. I interpreted the poem to be about someone longing for their homeland; for my parents, this would be their homeland of Mexico.

The following section is marked “reflective.” At the start of this section, I reflected on my previous actions, both good and bad, memories I have gathered over the years and which I am glad to have experienced. The music at this point feels as though it has a trajectory of peacefulness, but ultimately it falls short, just as it did during the second theme in the beginning of the symphony, and the listener is hurtled back into anger.

Finally, the second theme emerges again, meant to represent passion as it did before, but also, and more importantly, acceptance; acceptance for having feelings, an acceptance for having thoughts, acceptance of the past mistakes made. An acceptance for being human.

Why the ocean? First, I have always been fascinated with this entity and the great mysteries within. Though it covers 70% of Earth, only a little over 5% has been explored by humans. It makes you realize how small we are compared to everything around us. Second, the ocean is extremely deep, and contains some of the most beautiful, and ugliest, living things on the planet. Just as the ocean is deep and mysterious, so are our emotions.

The name Oceana is of Greek origin and means “ocean”. It comes from the greek word okeanos, which was the name of a Titan in Greek mythology who represented the Earth’s main river or body of water.

University of New Hampshire Wind Symphony; Andrew Boysen, Jr., conductor