Amber Terrace Dreams

Amber Terrace Intermediate School is located on the corner of Amber and Terrace Streets. Representing a crossroad of dreams and hopes, the school instills upon their students the knowledge and willingness to succeed in each of their lives and in their own way.  Amber Terrace Dreams celebrates the drive to fulfill those hopes and is dedicated to the teachers who help to make children’s dreams come true.

Amber Terrace Dreams was commissioned by the Amber Terrace Intermediate Band in DeSoto, Texas under the direction of Kimberly Kriston and Karen Blake.

Amber Terrace Dreams is cast in five short sections representing a typical rondo design, ABAB’A. However, the traditional roles of the rondo are reversed with the “A” sections presenting the episodes and the “B” sections introducing the principal theme. The surrounding episodes consist of a collection of pitches in the woodwinds with an underlying bass motive. The main melodic figure is treated in two styles and tempi; the first is slow and broad with alternating brass and woodwind lines, and the second is moderate and majestic with rhythmic accents in the upper woodwinds and mallet percussion. The final episode is layered with the rhythmic elements of the second treatment of the theme to provide a sustainable drive to the concluding climax.