Lindveit: Great Unconformity

Composer: Ryan Lindveit Instrumentation: Concert Band Work: Great Unconformity (2017) Binding: Pages: 36 Description Great Unconformity , Ryan Lindveit (2017) 6' for wind ensemble Grade 3.5 When I stumbled upon the term Great Unconformity at a lookout point on the south rim of the Grand Canyon, I knew immediately that it needed to be the title for this piece. While an unconformity technically describes a gap in time of several hundred million years between rock strata, Great Unconformity is more broadly inspired by (1) the beauty and diversity of the American West and (2) the concert band as a metaphor for this beauty and diversity. The landscapes of the West are both incredibly scenic and hostile, and the communities which have formed out of this shared confrontation with survival are remarkably diverse. The popular 20th-century view of the American West, inextricably linked to the cinematic Western, is of a place filled with conflict and hostility, where different kind