Product Description
At Dawn They Slept was composed in the winter of 2002 for the York (SC) High School Band, Fred A. Stewart, Jr., Director, and was premiered in April 2002 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This brass band version was arranged in 2025.
The work starts softly and tries to depict the U.S. military presence at Pearl Harbor in the days preceding December 7, 1941. The following section, beginning at bar 16, is the main theme of the work and shows the tranquility and beauty of those days in the late autumn of 1941. A bar 61, the mood changes at early dawn on December 7. A distant bugler and soft alarm clocks are noticed. Also, the sounds of approaching planes and 7 notes are heard on the chimes, representing the aack at 7:00am. The conflict starts in bar 75, where the percussion and brass bale in angular, dissonant and fragmented lines. This section leads to a climax at bar 134, where again the mood changes to one of strength and resolve. The main theme then returns, softly at first, but finally building to the key change at bar 149 where the theme is proudly presented by the full ensemble.
Youtube link is to a recording of the original concert band version of the piece.
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