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TRYST, a song for soprano and brass band (2021)

Written for Hila Plitmann and the Boss Street Brass Band.

Music and words written by Daniel Despins.

Premiered on  March 7, 2022 at the Butler School of Music, Bates Hall, at the University of Texas at Austin.

As a composer, I love every family of instruments for different reasons, but the world of brass holds a special place in my heart. As a kid, the trombone was the first instrument I learned to play, and since then I’ve played in various bands throughout my life, which strengthened my love for the powerful, dynamic, exciting sounds that brass instruments can produce. As a singer, I developed a love for the medium of song too - the human voice is a unique method of self expression that can bring people together in a way that few other things can. So, when I was asked to write a piece for Hila Plitmann and the Boss Street Brass Band, I was excited to work with these wonderful people and to combine my love of these two worlds!

TRYST is a song about a romantic midnight rendezvous between two lovers. I hope that this music and these lyrics capture the undercurrent of electric excitement that people can share through this experience.

(August 2021)

She walks in moonlight and shadow

In the electric forest night

Slipping through the trees
Elusive as a shade, always just out of reach

In forest thickets black as ink

She leads me to the river

Flowing with gentle power

On the misty riverside, where the crickets sing

She beckons me into her warm embrace

Sinking into the earth, the thrill of summer night

Fills my soul with new life

Under a moonlit sky
Her luminous eyes reflect my gaze

The wind in the treetops whispers

Carrying the sound of promises made

The rhythm of the forest nightlife echoes in the pounding of our hearts

Cacophonous swelling, rising and falling in a universe all our own

On the misty riverside, where the flowers dance

We sing within this warm embrace

Sinking into the earth, the thrill of summer night

Makes us feel alive —

And our souls are electrified

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