Description

How do we, as musicians, center ourselves and our wellbeing amidst careers which too frequently leave us injured, isolated, and seeking a path forward? When I first seriously considered this question—after being diagnosed with TMJ my senior year of college—my guiding light was Brianne Borden, then a first-year DMA student and my trumpet teacher. Even as others would go on to tell me my future as a performer would have a finite shelf life, Brianne’s confidence in me never wavered. Many of the things I learned from her that year remain among my strongest influences across all my disciplines.

Collaborating with her on body, mind, and heart, a piece designed to bridge from Brianne’s performance practice to her teaching and research, has by extension been a singularly special project for me. This work charts the performer and audience alike through Brianne’s “body, brain, and heart” meditation, which she uses regularly in her teaching practices. (To avoid confusion, we have intentionally kept the piece name different from the meditation itself.) Both flugelhorn and narration are offered their distinct times to shine, dovetailing on occasion but largely standing as individual complements to each other throughout the piece. Ultimately, this allows the performer to equally participate in the meditation (if they so choose) while still delivering an extraordinary performance.

Notes to the performer:

For your comfort and convenience, five seconds of silence have been included at the beginning of the fixed media track to facilitate smooth performances. This five seconds is accounted for in all listed timecodes.

Included in this score is a full copy of Brianne’s narration. We encourage you to include it in full wherever you program body, mind, and heart so audience members who may not be able to hear, understand, and/or process the words can still engage with them in another format.

Throughout the piece, double bar lines appear with fermatas over them. This indicates that you’ve reached the end of that section and should wait until the next listed timecode to begin the next passage.

I would apologize for all the low F#s and C#s, but they sound so pretty.

Many of your entrances and cutoffs will dovetail with the narration. This is expected and correct.

Should you find yourself with remaining questions, please feel free to drop me a line at eris [at] erisdejarnett [dot] com or by using the current contact information on my website. Please see the end of the score for information about how you can help me out (at no cost to you!) by sending me programs when you perform my works. I’d also love to hear you play, so always feel free to send links to your performances as well!

Brianne’s full meditation text will be provided here in 2024.

For Brianne, always. Making you proud is among my biggest achievements.

Known performances:

Got one I’m missing? Drop me a line!

• 2/15/2024, Brianne Borden, SUNY Potsdam, Potsdam, NY (world premiere).