Here is what to look for in this STORMWORKS Chapter.  Scroll to the piece to learn more and order.  You can listen via STORMTRacks. Enjoy the Journey & Godspeed! S  

Time Music for: STORMWORKS Chapter V ∞: Writings on the Wall  (2 CDs) ... 146:08 Mvms Print SCORE & PDF Parts SCORE & Master Set/PrintParts Per. Score
0:19:00 CB G6 MUSASHI 1 160 185 60
0:13:42 CB G5-6 CUBA 1 140 165 45
0:28:48 CB G5-6 Concerto for Violin (Transcription from Orch. 3 movements) 3 220 255 85
0:15:00 CB G5-6 JIDAI 1 140 165 45
1:08:22 CB G4+ w/Chor KAKEHASHI:  THAT WE MIGHT LIVE, A Documentary in Music 1 300 Only as PDF w/pre-record 100
0:06:17 CB G4+ w/Chor GOD BLESS AMERICA, by Irving Berlin, arranged by SLM for K:TWML 1 Only available in Germany via Rundel Musikverlag (call, I have 2 copies) 40
0:08:48 CB G4+ w/Chor FURUSATO... Heimat... Home 1 85 100 40
  COMPLETE SUITE 146.08 Writings on the Wall: Complete Suite on CD-ROM   695 NA NA

MUSASHI

in 3 Parts

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Description

"If you follow the present-day world, you will turn your back on the Way; if you would not turn your back on the Way, do not follow the world." -Takuan Soho

 

 

 

CUBA

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Description

"Dear Steve, The emotions that CUBA brought to my heart are impossible to explain.
It was like seeing myself there with all the natural beauty
surrounding me, the ocean, the sun, the palm trees...
The beautiful people...friends...family...
Childhood dreams shattered by the tyrant.
I remember fear, sadness, tears, anger, and then goodbyes.
It was the little girl standing at the beach, at the sand kneeling down for the last time and saying goodbye...
It was the plane rushing on the runway taking me out of my land, away from my people.
It was the sadness of not knowing if I was going to see that land again.
It was Hatred, despair, and it was hope...
Too many emotions that at that time I could not understand.
Today. While listening to your Music...all those feelings came back.
I was able to touch them, I was able to feel them...
How on EARTH did you do that???
How on Earth were you able to identify those feelings and put them into Music...You don't even really know me!
I told Wally that I wasn't going to be able to write now...because I felt like I was just back in November of 1970...I was having the same feelings. I was able to touch those feelings.
My love for Cuba has never diminished.
Cuba is in my heart and your Music has given it a new meaning.
Thank you. I know my father would have loved hearing it...but I know that from Heaven, he blessed you too.
Thank you on behalf of my fellow Cubans.
And of behalf of all those who suffer oppression and strive for Freedom.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart!" Amelia Avellaneda

 

 

CONCERTO for VIOLIN

in 3 movements

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Description

This piece, in a newly "composed" transcription, is on the STORMWORKS... Chapter FIVE-8 CD, as recorded by Ms. Reiko Suzuki and the Japan Air Self Defense Force Band.

Godspeed!

 

 

J I D A I

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Description

J I D A I

To the Heroes of Always and Forever... #926 in 13:33 for Band of the 3rd Millennium by © Stephen Melillo IGNA 11 September 2004 2nd & 3rd Millennium

Representing Germany, J I D A I is inspired by Maurice Hamers, Conductor and Lothar Uth, Tubist and Teacher at The University of Augsburg/Nurnberg in Germany. He has taught me what Heimat really means.

Representing Japan, J I D A I is inspired by and dedicated to Ichiro Asuke, his son Kotaro and the Musicians of the Meijo Gakuin High School Queenstar in Japan and in the spirit of MUSASHI is also dedicated once again to the People of Japan and to all those who embrace the need for Heroism, understand its eternal call and live each day in the pursuit of all that lifts and binds us. It is also offered as a gift to the Musicians of the Japan Air Self Defense Force Central Band, Conducted by LTC Yoshikatsu Takagi.

Representing America, J I D A I is commissioned by Stephen Panoff & The Tallwood High School Band, in keeping with their 10-year tradition of honoring heroes. In particular, we offer this work as a continuing gesture of love and appreciation to all those around the world fighting in defense of Freedom, now and always.

Representing Austria and Europe, J I D A I is commissioned by The Sinfonisches Blasorchester Ried, Austria Karl Geroldinger, Conductor in Dedication to the Innominate Real Heroes of Daily Life

Representing Israel, J I D A I is commissioned by The Akko Municipality Music Conservatory Shmuel Kahana, Director & Conductor in Dedication to a Future of Brotherhood

J I D A I is also lovingly dedicated to the memory of Jerry Goldsmith who passed away on 21 July 2004. He has inspired me all of my Life, and from Heaven... he always will.

 

 

 

KAKEHASHI: THAT WE MIGHT LIVE

Then. Now. Always. A Documentary in Music


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Click here to listen to a Phone Message left by a Principal

Click Here to see a Photo Gallery of a Superbly delivered version of this "self-contained" concert by Jim DePriest and the Mount Pleasant HS, Iowa Musicans.


Description

KAKEHASHI: That We Might Live, A Documentary in Music has broken the bounds of the band world and has won Two Telly Awards for History/Biography & Music. An Eva Gold Award for Music Documentary. The recorded concert work was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Music and was also nominated in the 49th Grammy Awards. THAT WE MIGHT LIVE, the DVD "visualized" Concert, was again nominated in the 50th Grammy Awards for Best Long Form Documentary Score.

This live-theatrical Grade 4-5 work for band of the 3rd Millennium has been "visually scored" in a process called STORMWORKS VisaREEL, and further develops Music and Picture concepts first developed in LAST WORLD STANDING.

From the Japanese Musicians and Military who render this Music:

Remember the Future... for Truth is Timeless. Our bridge to the Future is a place THAT WE MIGHT LIVE, a finally-fulfilled destiny beyond the Past, a new world born of facing our mutual and unfortunate Pasts with Hope, of forgiveness, of Love and Freedom. Such is the Home, then, now and always, that all of us have longed for.

The Japanese concept of "Kakehashi" refers to a bridge of Hope, of Friendship, of our mutual overcoming of the Past.

KAKEHASHI: That We Might Live, A Documentary in Music is made complete by a historically accurate, pre-recorded CD of authentic radio & musical clips from World War II, excerpts and lyrics of which are pertinent to events in the Pacific.

In fact, 70 Copyrights were purchased in order to recreate the Past, firstly inspired by the Survivors of the Conflict in the Philippines, and now... in this more Universal telling of the story, the perspective of the Home-longing Japanese and the Innocent Souls lost in the destructive conclusion of World War II, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The connective thread? HOME. At the conclusion, we hear 2 arrangements. God Bless America, the key words of which are "Home Sweet Home", and then Furusato, which means... "My Home".

Furusato, becomes the connective conclusion. Home, Home Sweet Home, Heimat.

To complete the international flavor of this Universal Version, Furusato is brought to us by Thomas Rundel of Germany. And it was in Germany that the first inspiration for a piece about HOME began. This concept of Home is explored in the connected and further concluding piece: JIDAI. It is the idea of Home, of HEIMAT.

This large scale, but accessible work utilizes a large chorus, the extended instrumentation of Band of the 3rd Millennium as described in the "storm" works, theatrical reenactments, comparable to David and Ahab!, and a disk of prerecorded Radio Broadcasts, songs, morse code clips and more from the period. This prerecorded CD will "accompany" the ensemble in the same manner as was premiered and demonstrated in The Universe Below.

This new and evolved work, KAKEHASHI: That We Might Live, A Documentary in Music is inspired by the Leadership and Vision of The Japan Air Self Defense Force Band who recorded this work for the Chapter 5:8 CD Set: WRITINGS on the WALL.

Here now, to better sum the special Gift of the Japanese, please enjoy my opening comments for the Chapter 5:8 CD Set:

"Remember the Future for Truth is Timeless . . ."
A Personal Message from SLM 2004
STORMWORKS Chapter V∞, Writings on the Wall
 

From Stephen Melillo:

It takes a photon 38 million years to escape the forcible, unforgiving gravity of the sun and blast its way to the surface where eight minutes later it bathes the earth in the Light by which you find yourself reading this libretto.

In the Timestorm of that 38 million years and eight minutes, give or take a few hundred years... a mere and tiny moment of imperceptible dancing on the cosmic stage... the Human drama has seen unthinkable violence, pain, hurt, self-inflicted suffering... emptiness and longing. And with it? Untold Love, Sacrifice, Giving and Heroism.

Without Warning, we are cast into the epic adventure. In the hollow of the heart, sense must be made of the constantly swirling storm, the unraveling of the mysterious. Free will. Choice? Fate? The seemingly endless succession of useless, inevitable, somehow destined to be traversed catastrophes as Man brutalizes his Brother... and then... steps forward to rise above such folly.

In your hands is a recording, the meaning of which escapes the moment of your listening. It leaps across Time... past, future, possible future and present. Rising above our mutual and many sins of the past, the Vision of Brotherhood is not merely written about... but finally, in a way only Human History could have produced... demonstrated.

We are a part of the convergent Moment. History is made.

Though all should be self-evident, allow yourself to contemplate the document in your possession. It is the first Recording to be released outside of Japan by The Central Band of the Japanese Air Self Defense Force. With the Good graces of the Japanese government, the JASDF Band offers this document in the 60th year marking the end of World War 2. In the Music, we encounter a historically accurate and by our current view, a tragic and unfortunate Past. As Japanese Musicians render KAKEHASHI: That We Might Live, A Documentary in Music with the Choruses from Old Dominion and Shenandoah Universities, one cannot help but see an unchained intersection of time and culture-crunching dimensions. Have we done it? Have we laid strong the path by which Man exercises His greatest gift... the ability to short-circuit the needless predetermined march into more suffering? Has a new blueprint been established where, instead of embracing the False, the fleeting, and Art of the State, we have taken that lofty right-face into the Brotherhood of Man? Have we collapsed evolution into the moment of our combined Will and chosen to live by Love inviolate, an evolved position which must... after all... be our True Destiny?

Answers reside within. The document you hold is now History, a History of the Future. It is made possible by an important reality which can never be taken for granted. The Heroism that is "talked about", and written about and urged for and hoped for rises far above all former cliches. Music as a "universal language" is exposed for the many times it was mere hyperbole and its sentiment inappropriately invoked. The Heroes portrayed in this Recording, immortalized once again in the Living thing we call Music, are represented, indeed demonstrated by the Japanese Musicians who render it. They have become, in their transcendent DOING, the role models of a new generation of Heroes. A new JIDAI. It is impossible to thank them enough... for only THEY, at THIS Time, in THIS circumstance with our combined Histories, could have heroically donned the mantle of message bearer.

And their message is profound indeed.

In the spirit of eternal Brotherhood, ALL of us are honoured and humbled to be a small part of this Triumph! Through Time and Space, geography and culture, language and History, ALL of us who have made this Music, ALL of us alive and sacrificed who have lived and inspired it, ALL of us who have drudged through our brief moment like a struggling photon in search of Light... join with you in the Now and share with you a message of Forgiveness and Love... of Giving and Sacrifice, of facing the Storm and rising above it.

History is made. May you make it well.

Into the hope-filled Adventure... Godspeed! Stephen Melillo

 
 

"Steve, words cannot express the soaring emotions which oneexperiences when hearing this monumental work. You deserve the Medal of Freedom for this piece of patriotism, especially for your success in having the spirited cooperation of a once-despised and brutal enemy. I salute you, Sir!" -Joseph R. Priestley, LCDR, USN (Ret.) Served in WWII, Korea & Vietnam

"Stephen's new CD, Chapter 5:8 "Writings on the Wall" is indeed a historic groundbreaking album and a total artistic triumph. From the moving mega work Kakehashi to the great uplifting rendition of God Bless America this double CD set is packed with masterworks." Aldo Rafael Forte, Composer

"Stephen, this is one of the most original and moving pieces of music I have ever experienced (and we have played a lot of your music over the years - all of it amazing). I look forward to talking with you again. Sincerely," Jim DePriest, Mt. Pleasant HS, Iowa

"I have now watched The DVD of That We Might Live and just want to say what a truly significant experience it generates for me.  I was moved multiple times throughout but most of all … near the end when you have the pages and pages of names on the screen.  That was alone was a powerful … POWERFUL visual. As an active-duty line officer in our United States Air Force, I want to thank you for such a thoughtful, intensely well researched, and ravishingly honest musical documentary such as this.  Also, thank you for offering it as a tribute to all of our veterans."
DANIEL W. BOOTHE, 1Lt, USAF, Commander/Music Director, USAF Band of Flight 2012

 
 

GOD BLESS AMERICA

from Kakehashi: That We Might Live

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Description

You will only be able to get a Perusal Score from me unless I have copies of the German Publication on hand. Please call to check.

It begins in quiet, with innocence, then tells the story of longing for home as never before... GOD BLESS AMERICA may well be played alone, but as you will see on the Chapter 5:8 CD and see "literally" on the THAT WE MIGHT LIVE DVD, is a most historic and history-making conclusion to Kakehashi: That We Might Live.

Friends... This much beloved version of GOD BLESS AMERICA, as indeed you will see in the testimonials of VETERANS and Conductors below, is neverthless NOT available in The United States of America. Despite the fact that there are over 100 arrangements which have been granted permission, this one has not. The reasons are left to your imagination.

For those of you who appreciate irony, it is available via Thomas Rundel in Germany.

Forty-five minutes before getting on a plane to France, where GOD BLESS AMERICA would be played on OMAHA BEACH, Thomas was able to secure an international permission and license. As I left for OMAHA BEACH, Thomas sent the following email.

"Viel Erfolg in OMAHA BEACH". (Good luck on Omaha Beach.)

Now, see IN EINEM ANDEREN LICHT and view that in a new light as well.

I DO have hard copies of the German-published traditional music sets. This work is NOT available in PDF, but it is possible to order the German edition from STORMWORKS USA.

 

 

FURUSATO... Heimat... Home

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Description

Originally composed by Teiichi Okano (1878-1941), this arrangement of FURUSATO (My Homeland) expresses the common longing for Home. That it comes after Kakehashi: THAT WE MIGHT LIVE and the Japanese rendering of God Bless America is a lasting, lingering statement of Brotherhood. As we recorded this work, which until that moment was always played as a childrenís song, I saw tears in the eyes of the Musicians. What better purpose for Music than to reveal to someone the Beauty of their own Heart...