Munro Sherrill
“Maximum Ride!” for Full Concert Band
By Munro Sherrill
The creation of a musical piece can be quite interesting.
The initial compositional material for “Maximum Ride!” was started over 50 years ago when Munro (Mo) Sherrill was in undergraduate school.
Originally the piece was written for a woodwind choir consisting of the principal woodwind instruments of the concert band. Then about nine years ago he was looking through some old material and came up with the idea of adapting this for full concert band.
Although the original concept was that of a toccata the idea came to me that the overall sound of the piece began to sound like a fast ride of some sort. It was at that point that he decided to call it “Maximum Ride!”
The piece is dedicated to John Brand II, a very good friend of Mo’s who lived in Elmira, New York. John was a train buff and had a huge collection of model trains in his basement and an admiration for any train, old or new, steam, diesel, electric or hybrid. John, and his wife Linda, traveled extensively and on one trip to Europe they sought a ride in the French High Speed Train, the V-150.
At the time it was the fastest train in existence and ran from Paris to Strasbourg. In 1990 the train set a record of 515.3 kilometers per hour (320.2 mph)! Around that time John arrived in Paris with his wife Linda and they were able to convince the powers to be to let John ride in the cab during one of its runs. (This may have been possible because of John’s association with the folks at Adtranz, makers of railway cars located in Elmira, New York.)
As John would tell the story it was truly his “thrill of a lifetime” and a dream come through with memories he carried to his passing in 2005.
“Maximum Ride!” as you can imagine from the title, is a fast piece. Probably the only factor holding the tempo down would be the ability of the group playing it.
During the past nine years the piece has gone through some major changes, but retaining its original concept of a quick piece intended to keep the listeners interested and engaged in the work.
“Maximum Ride” is a set of variations based on the main theme stated in the low woodwinds immediately after a brief introduction. Each variation can be viewed as a stop on the train’s journey; the last section escalating in intensity with a furious and abrupt ending.
Between each variation is a chime sounding the “all aboard” and “departure” from each train station.
The world premiere of “Maximum Ride!” is April 21st at Glenridge Performing Arts (8 pm) and April 22nd at Sun City Center Community Hall (2 pm)
Munro Sherrill, a Sarasota resident is a retired teacher of an award-winning high school band in Fairport, New York. With a Masters in Music Education from the State University of New York at Fredonia, he went on to earn a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.
While he is basically self-taught as a composer/ arranger, he has taken composition and arrangement courses with Samuel Adler, Donald Hunsberger and Sydney Hodkinson.
He’s had several pieces published and performed by leading educational institutions and his “Allegro Guisto”, written in 1962, won first place in a band composition contest held by Carl Fischer Music Publisher in New York City.
As a friend of the Sarasota Concert Band and a member of the Board of Directors, he has arranged several works for this group and is realizing a long time dream of hearing his full concert band work, Maximum Ride! in this World Premiere.
An Interview, with Linda Keefe, Chairman, Sarasota Concert Band
Tell me about your musical self.
I became interested in music at a very young age. I started playing the cornet in 4th grade and it became my love throughout public school and into my undergraduate college. I was highly influenced by my band instructor, Carmen Caiazza in the Oneonta Public Schools and it was because of him that I became a public school music teacher and band conductor.
How did you come to be a composer … in addition to your playing, teaching and conducting? What do you have published? Is it hard to get your music printed and heard?
I am basically a self-taught composer, with the exception of one class composition course with Sam Adler and two arranging courses from Donald Hunsberger and Sydney Hodkinson when I was at the Eastman School of Music working on my Doctor of Musical Arts degree.
It all started when I was in high school and realized I wanted to go to college to study music. At that point my parents bought me an old upright piano so I could have some keyboard skills before getting into college. It was during my senior year in high school that I began to improvise on the piano, in a classical style, and started to write down some of my first compositions.
When I went to the State University of NY at Fredonia I met a fellow classmate who had some done composition on his own. Bob Stewart and I developed an interesting relationship writing music for each other all through our 4 years together. Once in a while we could get a group of fellow students together to play our pieces, but that wasn’t very often.
During my Junior year, the local Music Educator’s National Conference, Fredonia Chapter began a composition contest for students at the college. My friend Bob Stewart and entered the contest. I won the 1st place award for a woodwind piece that I had written and in the 2nd year Bob won the 1st place award for a piece he had written.
When I began teaching in Fairport I was inspired by my fellow band director, Waldo Woodworth (Woody) who had an outstanding Senior Band. One week in 1962 when I was home sick alone, and not married at the time, I started jotting down some musical ideas that materialized into a band piece I called “Allegro Giusto“. Woody was excited about the piece and played it several times the following years in Fairport.
In 1967, I entered the piece in a band composition contest held by Carl Fischer Music Publishers in New York City. In a letter dated September 29, 2026 I was informed that I had won the contest! I was awarded a sum of money plus publishing rights with Cart Fischer. It was a really great surprise!
“Allegro Giusto” which means fast with exactness, was played throughout the country at various festivals and was eventually listed on the New York State School Music Association’s performance manual for band competition in New York State.
Several years later my piece “Furioso for Band” was published by Kendor Music, of Delevan, New York. ”Furioso for Band” was played by the Eastman Wind Ensemble and many other concert bands around the country. I have written four or five other pieces for bands, all of which remain unpublished and generally not performed.
One of my efforts was a very successful arrangement of Ottorino Respighi’s “Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No. 2” that I arranged while I was doing doctoral work at the Eastman School of Music. The “Ancient Airs” arrangement was premiered by the Wind Ensemble at the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam, New York by Dr. Timothy Topoleweski.
That group also premiered a piece that I wrote while at Eastman for composer Samuel Adler called “Dies Irae,” a piece based on an old Gregorian chant. I am currently working on another major piece for concert band called “Lamentations” which is a six movement work depicting the unbelievable conditions of the people in the Sub-Saharan Desert in Africa. (When I say major I’m talking about 17 minute work that is more contemporary in nature but still accessible by many audiences.) I have also written several sacred choral anthems which for the most part have not been performed.
Where do you usually get ideas for musical compositions?
Like many composers, musical ideas just seem to come from nowhere. Sometimes I get ideas from dabbling on the keyboard and other times I get them from just sitting down and starting to write to see what comes out.
Also like many composers, I spend a lot of time reworking ideas because I never seem to be happy with what I have. I just enjoy spending time at the computer using the Sibelius Score Writing Program where the actually act of writing down notes with a pencil is so much easier and actually fun.
Although, my early works were before the advent of computerized music writing programs they seem to have been more successful, perhaps because I had immediate access to musicians/conductors who could and wanted play what I wrote.
Today it seems more difficult for most contemporary composers to have their music performed unless they have a direct connection to an interested conductor, group, band, orchestra etc. Composing music, as a creative expression of one’s art requires several complex procedures before anyone can experience the final product.
Not only does the composer have to have a performer (conductor) interested in doing his/her works, there has to have rehearsals, venues, publicity, and of course an audience that is willing to come to listen.
These hurdles are quite overwhelming for young composers that are struggling to be heard. For composers who are interested in entering what I call the educational market, it is particularly difficult because most educational music publishers have hired on staff composers that write most if not all of their publications.
Submitting original works to music publishers can be very discouraging as many will not even write back to say they have received the pieces and many times months and months will go by without any indication of interest on the part of the publisher.
Consequently, there are many fine original compositions sitting in drawers because of the hurdles involved in getting the works played and certainly in getting published.
I think the Internet and “publishing on the net” has the potential of providing more of an opportunity for composers today. While it’s still a relatively new area, there are composers who are doing just that. Computerized music writing programs coupled with the possibilities of the Internet offers an entirely new era for creative artists everywhere. Global exposure is instantaneous.
