PERFORMANCE NOTES

Note: Also available for orchestra and single winds as well as just string orchestra

Lights On! is a festive Jewish offering for Christmas Holiday concerts.

Listeners embark on a musical journey through a traditional prayer

melody and eight diverse Hanukkah tunes, each representing one of

the eight days of Hanukkah. Some tunes are well known, such as
"O Hanukkah O Hanukkah," while others might be discoveries, such as

the Sephardic "Ochos Kandelikas." Highlights include frequent counterpoint

with various combinations of the the tunes. There is a moment of klezmer music

with a clarinet solo as well as a melodramatic violin cadenza. The structure of the

piece is a little bit like a spinning dreydel that goes out of control, with a climax where

all eight tunes play simultaneously. I add the tempo marking "Prestissimo Mashuguna,"

which I so hope is original. Lights On! was commissioned by Jed Gaylin and the

Bay Atlantic Symphony in New Jersey.

INSTRUMENTATION

Piccolo

2 Flutes

2 Oboes

2 Clarinets in Bb

2 Bassoons

2 French Horns

2 Trumpets in Bb

2 Trombones

1 Tuba

2 Percussion (Glockenspiel, Snare Drum, Triangle,

Tambourine, Castanets, Finger Cymbal,

Suspended Cymbal, Cymbals)

Timpani (28" and 25")

Piano

Strings

Optional Lighting
For added dramatic effect, use 8 spotlights as well as the full house lights in performance.

Spotlights may then be directed in the hall wherever they are most effective or visible.

At the beginning and until the climax, house lights should be off or dimmed.

A spotlight is added with each successive tune, until by the 8th tune (Al Hanisim at M. 304)

all spotlights will be on. All lights are turned off dramatically at M.329.

In the following measures, the spotlights are turned on, a new one each measure as the strings

gradually build an 8 note scale. Then all house lights should go on at the climax at M.348

where all 8 tunes play together and stay on till the end of the piece.