Feste Romane

Feste Romane is a symphony piece composed by Ottorini Respighi in 1926. It's a truly beautiful work that's inspired me and a lot of other people.

The piece has four movements, which is something I modeled my own symphony after. The first movement is called Circus Maximus and is meant to represent the Flavian Amphitheater. The second movement is called the Jubilee and represents the pilgrims flocking to Rome and seeing it from the mountaintop for the first time. The third movement is the fall festival. The fourth is The Epiphany.

The second movement is the one that most affected me.

2002.

We were playing Feste Romane for the State Honor Band competition. The Dickinson Band was one of the best bands in the state of Texas, which makes it automatically in the running for nationwide. Now, Feste Romane is an extremely difficult piece, but it's sounds excellent. We did not do the song justice. However, we tried. And in the second movement we started to actually make it sound good. The Jubilee has a very special part, 4 minutes and 23 seconds into it. The band comes together to build to a section where everyone starts playing such joyous music. The first time we nailed that section our assistant band director, one Roman Jakubis, said that that very section was what made him get into music as a profession, playing that very piece, that very movement, that very section, as a member that very Dickinson Gator Band in that very band hall decades before.

It was a powerful moment. It made me want to stop sucking at composing and outdo Respighi.