PROGRAM NOTE
Sic Semper Nobis ("Ever Thus to Us") documents the birth, development, and coronation of a single flawed idea. After its first presentation (in the violins, horns and trumpets) it blooms out of control, taking over, demanding attention. Eventually, its burden is impossible to shake. Those thoughts contrary to the idea become overshadowed.

In history, certain trends have changed or faded while others have been more tenacious. Can we shake off the assumptions which may have brought about these trends? Or those universal truths we learned as infants? Or even the ones we learned later in life— about how the world operates? We are bound more inextricably than we know to our paradigms. Ever thus to us.

Would a few notes' difference in the first measures have brought about a different piece?

INSTRUMENTATION
2(picc)222, 423(bass)0, timp, 2perc, harp, strings