Publisher

Protone

Duration

13"

Instrumentation

Solo trumpet, two trumpets, four horns, three trombones, tuba, timpani, two percussion

Year of Composition 

2017

Text

Dr. Myles Lee

Program Note

The Crowded Hours is a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt, using his own words in a script by Dr. Myles Lee. The music is based on songs popular during Roosevelt’s lifetime, including “take me out to the ballgame” and “it’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight.” These evoke the boyish nature of the President, his youthful energy and buoyant personality. This mood changed dramatically when one of his sons was killed in action having enlisted in the military because of Roosevelt’s hawkish enthusiasm for war. The moment of his son’s death changed Roosevelt and the boy in him perished forever. Despite this tragedy, Roosevelt concluded that: “He who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly…his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
“The Crowded Hours” is part of a four-president CD that is being recorded for Albany Records through the generosity of Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts. The other three presidents are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Franklin Roosevelt.