Michael Gandolfi

Introduction
Michael Gandolfi is an American composer born July 5th, 1956 in Melrose Massachusetts. He is currently a chair member of the composition department at the New England Conservatory of Music where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees. Gandolfi was championed by conductor Robert Spano as one of the Atlanta School of American Composers. This group includes composers such as Golijov, Higdon, Theofanidis, and Schoenberg. In music Gandolfi often uses elements from rock and jazz music and is often inspired by science.

Work Analysis
The piece that I will be analyzing is Michael Gandolfi's Steps Ahead. This piece was finished and premiered in 2017. Steps Ahead is composed for full concert band (flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, baritone, and percussion) and is split into 3 sections. The beginning of this piece is slow with the flutes being mimicked by the clarinets and then opens up into a grand march-like section with heavy percussion. The flutes take the lead for most of the piece and there are many instances of syncopation throughout the center of the piece. The three sections of this piece are described as transposition, tutti, and a developing tutti. The transposition can be seen in the flute and clarinet mimicking in the beginning. The tutti and developing tutti are obvious and make-up most of the piece.

Comparisons
Michael Gandolfi has incorporated many rock and jazz techniques into his work having a very broad range of musical enjoyments. Many of his compositions have been composed to branch other disciplines with music like science, film, and theater. Works like Steps Ahead although not written for orchestra, uses many traditional techniques used decades before Gandolfi's time like syncopation and tuttis, which are usually used in choral music.

Observations
While listening to this piece all I could think about was that I can completely understand this music because I was in concert band so reading the score was a lot easier. I thought this piece was beautiful and grand it made me want to learn how to play it. I have really only thought of the use of a tutti in choral music so it was cool to see concert band music described to have one and now I know that it isn't just a choral technique.