After
After - Randall Standridge
After… by Randall Standridge is a reflective Grade 3.5 work that explores questions of loss, memory, and what remains after we are gone. Opening with the gentle sound of wind chimes, the piece establishes a quiet, contemplative atmosphere before a solo clarinet introduces a simple, expressive melody.
A featured French horn solo adds warmth and depth as the music moves through contrasting moments of sorrow and reflection, capturing the complexity of grief and remembrance. As the work unfolds, the returning solo line suggests a gradual sense of acceptance and peace. Thoughtful and expressive, After… offers ensembles an opportunity to explore nuance, phrasing, and emotional depth in a meaningful concert setting.
Program Notes
What happens after this life?
Do we continue on in some new form?Do we fade into memory?Do we become something we cannot yet understand?
These are questions humanity has asked for as long as we have been able to ask them. And while we may never fully know the answers, we continue to wonder.
After… is a reflection on those questions, but also on something we understand all too well. What happens to those left behind. The piece opens with the sound of garden chimes, suggesting a place of quiet beauty and rest. A solo clarinet follows, offering a simple and somber melody that represents those who grieve. From there, the music shifts between moments of heartbreak and warmth, reflecting the complex emotions that come with loss. Grief, love, longing, and remembrance exist side by side. Because even in sorrow, there is connection.
As the piece comes to a close, the solo clarinet returns. This time, the music is changed. The sorrow is still there, but it has softened. There is a sense of acceptance, of peace, as the melody settles gently into its final notes.
This work does not attempt to answer the question of what comes after. Instead, it sits in that space of uncertainty, while also acknowledging something more certain. The impact we have on one another does not simply disappear; it remains in memory, in feeling, in the quiet moments when we remember those who are no longer with us.
Peace, Love, and Music - Randall
Commissioned by the Del Mar Performing Arts Association for the DMHS Symphonic Band, William Burkhead, Conductor; in memory of his lifelong friend, Timothy James Blevins.