Threnody for Challenger

Commissioned by the Kempsville (VA) Junior High School Band, Dwight Leonard, Conductor, for a Midwest Clinic performance, "Threnody for Challenger" is not only a remembrance of a great national loss, but also a salute to the spirit of the seven fallen astronauts. A distant introduction gives way to the primary theme sounded over an insistent ostinato (derived from 1001001, the binary representation of the 73 seconds of the mission). A misty, elegiac passage mourns the fallen astronauts collectively and individually; this section is eventually overtaken by a restatement of the primary theme and the confirming coda.