The Ascension, for six horns

by Paul Basler

$28

The Ascension was written for Charles Snead and the University of Alabama Horn Choir, with great respect and admiration for their wonderful musicianship and friendship. Composed in the spring of 1990, the work went through a complete revision in January 1997. The piece is a sort of personal manifesto on matters spiritual as well as physical. Gestures leap upwards, rhythmic patterns undulate underneath (and above) melodic fragments, activity rushes by at a rapid pace, only to be transformed into a new level of motion — slower and more thoughtful. The whole work can be seen as a journey towards “enlightenment.”