my sophomore year of highschool I lost my best friend in band to a car accident. we played this piece and dedicated it to him. Two years later the band played it for me and my fellow seniors as a goodbye after graduation. This piece has never failed to bring me to tears.

The year that my band played this I just lost my father, and my band director described the cilmax as walking up a big hill with your father and seeing the last sunset with your father. Also playing French horn on this song has so many strong emotions, cry every time I hear this...

Difficulty is only partly related to "technical difficulty" (lots of notes and hard rhythms). I find it much more difficult to made single, simple, beautiful notes, sustained with shape and beautiful tone. To get an entire ensemble to do this, and to play the piece at the indicated (very slow) tempo, makes it quite difficult to play beautifully. Sure, just about anyone could "play the notes", but that's not playing the music. Slow music is some of the hardest music there is. Make sense? :)

Thank you for sharing these memories, and honored I could help create them!

I've played a lot of song throughout my musical career, From Blue shades, To El Camino Real To Elegy For A Young American, but nothing, and I mean NOTHING has brought tears to my eyes like this song. The moving parts and the haunting, yet blissful dissonance makes this possibly one of if not the most moving and emotional songs ever written. I aspire to write something like this, in hopes that some day I can make someone feel the same way I did when I first listened to this, or when I played it at the Meyerson Symphony Center, in Dallas Texas. Truly, a haunting yet beautiful song. Thank you god for the man that is Steven Bryant, He did an excellent job.

Such a powerful song, it really punches you when the climax happens. Even the people who play this song get sucked into the moment. It's great!

This song hits me so hard in my feelings. We played it in high school. I would give anything to go back and practice this with the band one more time.

This piece is so hard because every part is so exposed, but when you play it well, you know you're great at your instrument. Props to the band who made this recording, and thank you Steven for making my favorote piece of music to date. I couldn't ask for a better part for euphonium.

One of the best pieces I've ever played. Such a beautiful composition and full of emotion. When I first saw the piece as it was being handed out I thought to myself that it was just another "boring" slow piece. How wrong I was, this definitely made me appreciate slow pieces and I wish I could play this again :'(

I'm crying about this song and I don't even know what I'm crying about...

we're playing this for our final concert (i'm in eighth grade) and it never fails to bring me to tears. my band director chose this piece for us because she knew it would represent all of our fears and problems and such. she chose it because she knows that we go through more than adults think we do. it will forever be one of my top pieces.

I feel like this song brings out so emotion because my band plays this and there’s just anger and sadness and joy into this amazing song

I remember playing this piece. Junior year of high school. I was on bass clarinet, and was ecstatic because i got to play my low Eb note, something i never did in a piece before, ha. But it was a rough year for me. But we killed that piece. we killed that concert. Now im sitting here, just a few years later, and now again, i find solace in this piece. Thank you, Steven Bryant. Truly.

We started sight reading this in our Symphonic Band and at the end it was complete silence and we were all touched and some tears shred from how beautiful and moving this piece is.

I played this at USC band clinic with Steven Bryant himself there to help us with it!

This song alwaysss makes me cry and it’s so beautiful i love playing it with my band every morning. Such a beautiful song full of emotion

Thanks! Yes, I made the piece available on Smart Music. So cool to hear you found out about it through that. I've never thought about there being a connection between Dusk and Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek", but I love that song. Thankfully I wrote Dusk a year before she wrote that, so no one can accuse me of copying! :) Thanks again - best wishes!

Thank you so much for this piece. I played horn one and my friend played horn two in our senior year, and it was so special :) We always loved playing the part at 13. This piece will always have a place in my heart.

I played third in my freshman year and I was bass drum so I got to sit there and just enjoy the song. I would imagine all the seniors graduating to this song and now they’ve actually graduated and this holds such a social place in my heart

The harmony of this piece just makes me tear up of how nice it is. My band director Carlos Franco is counducting this piece for symphonic winds and we are loving it 🙂

Very Emotional music for music plsyers, music with heart. Thanks for present your soul over pentagrams. Saludos desde España.

Don't forget the intonation. If songs like this one are not perfectly in tune they are doomed. By the way, thank you for giving us suck a beautiful peice of art to play, Steven. It is one of the most enjoyable songs to play that I have played so far.

Probably one of the best modern composers. I am greatful for his works of art

music doesn't get much better than this

Played this for the final piece in my final concert in highschool, and boy what a bittersweet memory this is! I've read several of the comments, and I have to say I agree wholeheartedly. This piece is so beautiful, and it speaks to the soul like few other songs could ever aspire to do. This will definitely stay one of my all-time favorites. Thank you so much, Steven Bryant, for making such a beautiful piece!

We played this song at region band this weekend and it was so emotional that our director teared up and he had to take a breather

This song is so stunningly beautiful. I played it at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in 2011. We were told to think of a sunset over Lake Michigan while we played it. It gives me chills! I also played the bass clarinet solo, which too is beautiful, and quite rare! I love this song, it brings back a lot of great memories from a summer I'll never forget. ♥

The one song that gives me chills every single time when I play it and when I listen to it.

As a bass clarinet player I thank you for this.

My high school concert band is playing this for our spring concert in April and I'm the only clarinet in the whole band, and to tell you the truth, I'm not very loud so I'm going to have to try REALLY hard to be louder and sound good while doing it. I'm really looking forward to it now that I've listened to it and it just gave me goosebumps. I hope I can sound this good when I do it. :P

Just played this yesterday. I play percussion, only played bass drum, but this one was by far my favorite piece of the concert. Such a beautiful song! Can't get tired of listening in repeat and getting chills every time :D just beautiful!

We played this song my senior year of high school in Bentonville, AR. Couldn't remember for the life of me what it's name was. Just stumbled across this beautiful piece of music again; I get goosebumps every time I hear it! Thank you for bringing this back to me!

Thank you for sharing this - so glad you all enjoyed it. :)

I played this two years ago in college. While difficult, this was very rewarding to perform. I miss playing in band. This brought back some wonderful memories.

I will be playing this piece with my high school band for ISSMA this spring. This will be a remarkable piece to perform thanks to the sheer emotion put into each note, and an excellent choice for my first time performing on horn. (I'm mainly a trumpet player.)

at 3:16 you just....feel it.

This is my absolute favorite piece I have ever played in band. It was one of the last pieces we played with my band director before he moved and we played it during my first year of playing horn and I remember practicing it almost everyday during lunch. It’s just so pretty and reminds me of that year of band whenever I listen to it.

I played this my senior year of highschool. Wonderful piece, absolutely soul moving.

Measure 21 just hits with so much emotion, so cool that music can change you

Beautiful. Simply beautiful.

Such a beautiful piece of music. Gives me chills every time.

this is so beautiful. i just saw my boyfriend preform this with the rest of the wind ensemble. this song was by far my favorite and blew me away. absolutely wonderful.

Played bass clarinet on this piece this year for festival. Literally one of the hardest pieces to play. Technical difficulty was low, but my god sustaining balance for the entire piece was excruciating. So beautiful.

just the majesty of this song alone has everyone brought to tears and put memories of lost loved ones in my head. thank you Steve Bryant for making this song to put everyone to tears

Tears rolling down my cheek, the most delicate, beautiful piece of music of the 21st century -3

@ steven Bryant, I first played this piece as a first flutest in 2010 pretty sure right after it came out, and it brought tears to my eyes, here I am, a 28 year old still listening to this peice and still crying, thank you for one of the most emotional peices i ever played..... Not even Frank Ticheli has done this.

This has got to be one of my favroite band pieces, despite it being relativly simple it is more then enough to make me cry no matter how often i listen to it

I got to play this piece my senior year of high school at Carnegie Hall 2 years. What an amazing and beautiful piece to end my high school performing career with. Still brings a tear to my eye and gives me chills, especially at the massive crescendo at the high point.

I played this piece at a summer camp a few years back, and this piece still reverberates in my memory. As a composer, I can say that it's so beautiful when one writes something so wonderful, inspired by a simple thing! This piece taught me to embrace those climaxes and contrasts, and that's something that will make the music remain with an audience.

I was going to play this, Undertow, and Bayou Breakdown but because of COVID-19, our festival and everyone else’s seasons were canceled. The hours we spent on this piece in rehearsal and knowing we will never get to perform this magnificent piece is always a lot for me to take in. Occasionally I come back to listen to this and I tear up every time.

Playing the trumpet duet with Lassiter High School this year, great song.

I really love this piece of music because it feel so beautiful and yet so powerful throughout 32 to 53 its so inspiring to me!

I played this piece last night for all city Greeley honor band as first trumpet. Tears rolled down my eyes as we hit the climax, really has been the out song that has brought tears to my eyes! Absolutely wonderful!!!

We played this last year in my band class! I've never heard such a beautiful piece. It brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it and while I was performing it on stage I cried. Such a powerful meaning behind it! Thank you for composing such a wonderful piece.

Steven, this is a brilliant idea to have a .pdf video of your score with your comments in real-time. This helps us who are conducting your music better realise your intentions. Keep doing this and I hope more composers will do the same.

We are currently playing this in class, and I believe it is a lovely piece. I especially like being a main part for one, seeing as the French horn is often not exactly the most focused upon instrument in the band.

Played this for Wind Ensemble my junior year of high school. Performed it at our CBA festival, got a superior rating, and then went to state. Great piece, one of my favorites. I listen to it constantly. Thank you Steven Bryant for a beautiful composition!

After all these years I still get goosebumps listening to this piece :') so good

I can’t get enough of this, I’m performing at MICCA this week, and the combination of this and Chorale and Shaker Dance just makes me wish that it could last forever

Great composition and great band.

We played this in my wind symphony and the way my professor described it was “when Steve writes something he knows exactly what he wants and to not deviate from so” we followed this piece as close to what we thought he wanted and it turned out to be the most beautiful piece I’ve played to date. The heart wrenching stab in the middle of it stills sends chills down my spine 💕

I honestly love this piece. I first heard this at a band concert at my university and I just fell in love with the sound. This is a great piece that can touch anyone's soul. I was moved when I first heard this and it brought tears to my eyes. Very beautiful.

Thank you for this beautiful gift.

This piece always takes me back through my high school year. I’m currently a senior and every time I play it, it just brings back so many memories

We are playing this right now at Gresham High School in our Wind Symphony, it is an amazing piece of music, of course it helps that I am playing horn

nostalgic, beautiful , sad

Played this in a summer band!

TMEA Region 32’s Symphonic Band played this and buildup to the climax really got me, this piece is so amazing and it brought me to tears after playing it

So beautiful. Gave me chills. Love your work.

This is my favorite piece of music that iv heard/played so far. Its very emotional and powerful. Brilliantly written.

When I got my district orchestra folder (Trombone 2), this piece stuck out to me, as it might be the largest collection of rests not put together into one large rest. I was a little weary of it, since I'll be counting rests A LOT, but at least I'll be counting rests to one of the most beautiful works I've heard written so recently.

I love this song!!!! Thank you for making beauitful music. I played it at my GMEA District Honor Band Concert. I was almost in in tears after we finished

We played this for Memorial Day. I saw a few vets that just broke down after the song. It’s powerful.

i got to perform this piece a few days ago in district clinic and it’s one of the most beautiful pieces i’ve ever heard. there was a lot of counting, which i normally despise, but it was fun with this piece because of the beauty going on around me at all times. one of the only band pieces i’ve ever got to perform that has brought me to tears, i loved performing this so much and i really hope i get to again one day.

+Steven Bryant just love it man gotta love it

Played this at nationals and got gold. Beautiful piece that you can really get into

Im a horn player and this is like heaven to me. I wish our high school will play this!

This is the most beautiful piece I have ever heard. Wow! Just amazing!

The corresponding score makes it much easier to see how the parts fit together. That makes it much easier to rehearse for festival in a few weeks. Glad I found it!

Most awesome piece ever... ! Love it.

Playing this in the orchestra. I love the chords, and everything about the chords are perfect. Great job! Also, horn players unite!

I played your piece a year ago, the beginning of my senior year, my Teacher read your decication of the piece, what this piece meant to you, and after reading he conducted us to play. Instantly we got the feel for the piece, how majestic prominent and regal each note had to be played and the true importance of this piece. We still had some touch up work to do since it was only the first day on the piece but the reading of your passage really gave the whole band a new outlook on music. Thank you.

this piece is so beautiful like oh my goodness i'm getting chills thank you for putting it on youtube

to this day. this is the only piece that has successfully brought tears to my eyes.

I love this beautiful work of music. We are playing this for our march concert!!!

i played this piece in manitoba senior honour band 2018 this year and this made me cry while playing

Mr. Gekoskie is my band director at Jupiter High School and we are playing this. It sounds AMAZING! Thank you for this Mr. Bryant. Truly a beautiful euphonium part.

my band is playing this for our trip to poland and i have the 2nd horn solo in the song im so excited!!!

Im playing the upright bass for this part and i wanted to thank you. You did an excellent job and it's the best thing i have played yet!!!!

even though I rarely do much in a lot of your pieces as a percussionist, the moments I get in your music are always so beautiful and stunning.

So beautiful!!!!!!

I LOVE that you put this to the score.

Beautiful

Mr. Bryant, I love you. Your work has inspired me.

I had that horn solo. we got to play it for a festival at troy university, amazing piece

We played this piece my junior year. Incredible!

Love the tenor sax part. :) playing this in band and its suvh a great piece! well done.

Absolutely amazing piece!

This song is so powerful and inspiring!

This is a very beautiful piece! We played this at my high school as our senior send-off piece for our June concert. Such terrific writing!