2018 wind ensemble Duration: 7:30
“first dawn”
“shimmering light”
First Light is a double reference. It is the term used when a new telescope is commissioned and opens its optics for the first time to capture light. When Texas State University opened its new Performing Arts Center, the 2015 inaugural concert in the acoustically splendid Recital Hall was titled “First Light.”
The older reference is to native American mythology, which tells origin stories of the First People who emerge from the Dark World into the light of the rising sun (the Blackfoot sun god is called Natosi). In Navajo mythology, “Early on the morning of the fourth day, Little Dawn Boy began to sing his magic song. As he finished the song, an arch of shimmering light, all rose, violet, blue, and every color, and delicate as a veil, began to stretch from the summit of the purple mountain to the top of the white cliff. He then saw a bright Rainbow Bridge grow before his eyes. Singing with delight, he hastened over the Rainbow Bridge. As he ran a wind sprang up and blew a many-colored mist to the top of the cliff.” [First People: American Indian Legends]
To request performance materials and permission, email BMI-affiliated composer Thomas Clark, tc24@txstate.edu.
Thomas Clark - composer / digital artist 