WITHOUT WARNING Duration: 5:17 Grade: 6 Price: $120   Additional Score: $45 Audio Options

STORMWORKS (3 mvmts) Duration: 11:00 Grade: 5 Price: $140 Additional Score: $45 Audio Options

O COME HOLY NIGHT! Duration: 5:33 Grade: 3-4 Price: $105 Additional Score: $40

GIVING Duration: 5:33 Grade: 4-5 Price: $95 Additional Score: $40 Audio Options

FESTIVAL of LIGHT! Duration: 7:33 Grade: 4-5 Price: $110   Additional Score: $40 Audio Options

ERICH! (3 mvmts) Duration: 11:00 Grade: 5 Price: $150 Additional Score: $45 Audio Options

ERICH! (for Low Brass Choir & Timapni) Duration: 5:33 Price: $55 Additional Score: $25 Audio Options

ERICH! (for Brass Quartet & Timpani) Duration: 5:33 Price: $55 Additional Score: $25 Audio Options

THE FOUNTAINHEAD (6 mvmts) Duration: 25:45 Grade: 2-5 Price: $275 Additional Score: $90 Audio Options

AMERICA THE BRAVE! (w/opt chorus) Duration: 5:45 Grade: 4 Price: $105 Additional Score: $40 Audio Options

STORMWORKS... CHAPTER I

A PERSONAL MESSAGE to LISTENERS from the Libretto of STORMWORKS... Chapter One CD

The Chinese say, "Clutch at water and it escapes between your fingers." In the musical world of today, despite all the things you may have come to believe, there are Goliath-like political forces which seek to advance some and hinder others regardless of their musical efforts.

Three years ago, I was "let-go" from my only non-teaching, business-world job at 3:33pm. My alarm, chiming during the dismissal, was set to sound at 3:33pm. Why, you ask? Because of a prayer and a promise made years ago in Boston, on a bridge... at that very time.

With a smile on my face, I walked from my office and instantly, unfearedly began an experiment in the American Dream. I called it STORMWORKS.

In the Music I had been composing to date, the "storm" had become a metaphor for Life. Turbulent, brooding, painful, stormy Life always had as its inevitable end, a return to Light... and the hope of a new dawn.

The first piece I wrote for Band was a gift. Innocent, perhaps naive as I was, I sent it off, wanting nothing in return. I had no money to make a donation. The Music... that was my gift.

It took years, but I eventually learned that even giving requires extraordinary effort. I adopted a new theme, that of giving to the world by Storm.

When the "clutching" came and the many intriguing stories of rejection, I escaped into a place where I could tell a new story. It was in Music for Band. Kids in schools throughout the country would be the message-bearers. Could it be done? Could value, Musical value, be achieved and communicated in Music that is written for kids to play?

Part One of that answer resides in this very CD which you have discovered. You are special to me, and I hope that you will find, if only in the smallest of ways, the Inspiration to face the day-to-day again and again. The Musicians on this album are some of the finest players from our military ensembles, universities and professional music world. Together, we offer this work... to you. Godspeed, Stephen Melillo