Love and Nature Gala Flagello

Love & Nature, for wind band

Love & Nature (2024) was commissioned by a consortium of wind bands led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and explores how love prevails through cosmic lore, social movements, and mercurial mythos. Each of the work's three movements connect a different instrumental sound world to the concepts of earth, air, and fire, depicting a blossoming of kindness and hope for the future of our planet. The first movement, "Flower Power," is inspired by the titular social movement of the 1960s1970s and sonically critiques the juxtaposition of fragility and strength, beauty and utility, and nonviolence and force. "Flower Power" reflects the ethos of Marc Riboud's iconic photograph The Ultimate Confrontation: The Flower and the Bayonet and incorporates a musical Easter egg a countermelody for counterculture. The second movement, "Star-Crossed," summons the hope, whimsy, and longing of its ill-fated protagonists through celestial textures and luminous scoring. The third and final movement, "Slow Burn," explores both versions of the titular literary trope romantic and anger-fueled through the arboraceous lens of controlled fire, an originally indigenous practice that mitigates the drought-driven effects of climate change. "Slow Burn" foregrounds bright and wooden sounds to pay homage to our forests and the necessity of ecological restoration.