DEREK M. JENKINS – COMPOSER​

Duration: 7'00"



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Instrumentation:

1 Piccolo, 2 Flutes (1° dbl. Piccolo 2, 2° dbl. Alto Flute), 2 Oboes, 1 English Horn, 2 Bassoons, 1 Contrabassoon, 1 Eb Clarinet, 6 Bb Clarinets, 1 Bass Clarinet, 1 Soprano Sax., 1 Alto Sax., 1 Tenor Sax., 1 Baritone Sax., 4 Bb Trumpets, 4 Horns, 2 Tenor Trombones, 1 Bass Trombone, 1 Euphonium, 2 Tubas, 1 String Bass, 1 Timpani, 4 Percussion



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Program Notes:

"When o'er the eastern lawn,​

In saffron robes, the daughter of the dawn​

Advanced her rosy steps, before the bay​

Due ritual honours to the gods I pay."



- Homer's Odyssey



Eosphorus (pronounced ee’ – ahs – fer – uhs) was an ancient Greek deity, personifying the morning star and the daughter of the dawn. Her sighting in the eastern sky would herald the coming of Helios, who brought light to the day with his golden chariot of the sun. Over the horizon in the early morning hours, Eosphorus humbly shines, and as the dawn slowly subsides to the majestic sunrise, she struggles to continue illuminating the eastern sky. After one final attempt to retain her place in the heavens, Eosphorus loses her primacy in a blaze of glory, as the sun’s light overwhelms the little star. Slowly she retreats until at the end of the next night she would eventually and inevitably herald the return of Helios. Like Eosphorus, this work flows from chaos into order with intersecting and fluid lines that usher in the fanfare of the sun, until Eosphorus, conceding defeat, fades back into the abyss.

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