In the summer of 2020, in the midst of COVID, I felt like I needed to write something joyful. So I started writing, and after about 24 measures, I had this terrible feeling - not uncommon for composers - that maybe the piece I was writing had already been written. And in this case, I feared that I had just plagiarized Frank Ticheli.
I sent the opening to Frank, who was incredibly gracious in his response. He said that he had NOT written this tune - although maybe he COULD have. I agree - this is a Ticheli-esque tune if ever I had written one.
I finished the piece a few weeks later - my first attempt at writing from scratch for an adaptable instrumentation. I hope musicians (and eventually audiences!) enjoy this little 3 minute piece, in whatever combination of players come together to work on it. And thank you to Frank Ticheli - to whom the piece is dedicated - for his inspiration.