Chester Leaps In

This humorous work by emerging young composer Steven Bryant quotes and warps William Billings' famous hymn Chester in surprising and imaginative ways. Serves as a great companion piece to William Schuman's Chester, or as alight-hearted program opener.

Chester Leaps In is contructed from the juxtaposition of two divergent musical ideas: a chromatic, angular melodic motive, repeatedly interrupted by the harmonic simplicity of William Billings’ well-known hymn tune, “Chester.”

This is the second incarnation of the piece (the original, written in 1994, was scored for two marimbas and piano). While I was studying at Juilliard, my friend and fellow composer Eric Whitacre suggested transcribing it for band. In retrospect, this seems an obvious evolution of the piece, given the familiarity of the original tune in the band community. I’ve been somewhat amazed at its popularity, having been recorded on 8 or 9 CDs (as far as I know), and played all over the United States and several countries abroad, including the professional Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra! Many thanks to all who have performed it – I hope it was fun!

Chester Leaps In, along with ImPercynations, MetaMarch, and Suite Dreams, is a part of my larger Parody Suite.