GIVE US THIS DAY by DAVID MASLANKA - GREATER MIAMI SYMPHONIC BAND

GIVE US THIS DAY by DAVID MASLANKA ©2005 Carl Fisher Music. All copyrighted music in this video is used under license with ASCAP and BMI. Recorded live at Maurice Gusman Concert Hall, on the campus of the University of Miami campus, May 19, 2024, with Guest Conductor Dr. Robert M. Carnochan on the podium.

GREATER MIAMI SYMPHONIC BAND is excited to present this exhilarating performance of GIVE US THIS DAY by American composer David Maslanka (1943-2017). The work was commissioned by Eric Weirather, Director of Bands at Rancho Buena Vista High School in Oceanside, Calif., which is in the greater San Diego area. Weirather put together a consortium to support the commission. The score to GIVE US THIS DAY was finished in October of 2005, and the premiere performance was done at Weirather's school in the spring of 2006.

GIVE US THIS DAY is in two movements, moderately slow and very fast. The duration is about 14 minutes. The music feels symphonic, hence the subtitle. “Short Symphony.” The first movement is deeply searching in character, while the second is highly energized. The words, “give us this day,” from the Lord’s Prayer, touch the idea of being immediately and vividly alive in the moment, the reason why music making can be so vital and compelling. This piece has had hundreds of performances in the United States and around the world, and never fails to energize both bands and audiences.

Below is a program note by David Maslanka:

The words “Give us this day” are, of course, from the Lord’s Prayer, but the inspiration for this music is Buddhist. I have recently read a book by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn (pronounced “Tick Nat Hahn”) entitled For a Future to be Possible. His premise is that a future for the planet is only possible if individuals become deeply mindful of themselves, deeply connected to who they really are. While this is not a new idea, and something that is an ongoing struggle for everyone, in my estimation it is the issue for world peace. For me, writing music, and working with people to perform music, are two of those points of deep mindfulness.
Music makes the connection to reality, and by reality I mean a true awakeness and awareness. Give Us This Daygives us this very moment of awakeness and awareness so that we can build a future in the face of a most dangerous and difficult time.
I chose the subtitle, “Short Symphony for Wind Ensemble,” because the music is not programmatic in nature. It has a full-blown symphonic character, even though there are only two movements. The music of the slower first movement is deeply searching, while that of the highly energized second movement is at times both joyful and sternly sober. The piece ends with a modal setting of the choral melody “Vater Unser in Himmelreich” (Our Father in Heaven) – No. 110 from the 371 four-part chorales by Johann Sebastian Bach.

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