A Soldier's Symphony

A Soldier’s Symphony is a three-movement work for symphony orchestra. The three movements are as follows: I – Sonata Allegro; II – Passacaglia; III – Rondo. A performance at the given metronome markings in the score will last approximately 30 minutes. Instrumentation is piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 B-flat clarinets, B-flat bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 French horns in F, 3 trumpets in B-flat, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani and strings.In this paper, following introductory material, I write about my combat deployments to Iraq as a U.S. Army soldier and my struggles with psychological war wounds after I returned to the United States, then describe how these experiences and wounds shaped A Soldier’s Symphony. I also write about four composers, Sergei Prokofiev, George Antheil, Daphne Oram and Dennis Smalley, whose music and ideas influenced my approach to composing A Soldier’s Symphony. After presenting an overview analysis of each of my work’s three movements, I conclude by discussing my public and private purposes for composing this work. My public purpose for the work is to raise peoples’ awareness of the true scope of war’s human cost, while my private purpose is to help me bear the personal cost of my own war experiences. The full score of A Soldier’s Symphony is found in Appendix A.