Hymn for the Innocent - Julie Giroux, Eltham High School Symphonic Band

Eltham High School Symphonic Band, Conducted by Rick Keenan. Recorded at Celebration Concert on Thursday September 19 2024.
Hymn for the Innocent - Julie Giroux
Julie Giroux wrote Hymn for the Innocent in 2016 as a gift of sorts for Colonel Larry H. Lang, who was the Commander and Conductor of The United States Air Force Band. “in thanks for his service and friendship”.
Hymn for the Innocent is a tribute to all the innocent lives that are lost whether by accident, disease or acts of violence. It also includes all those who serve, here and abroad, military and domestic who have sworn to protect the innocent and have lost their lives or lead a handicapped life as a result of this service. What has been lost by their passing is an infinite list of possibilities. What they could have been, could have accomplished or achieved and the holes left in all the lives they touched and would have affected surely is a sorrow above all sorrows. Loss is never easy but when loved ones are taken before their time the loss and grief seem to be compounded. This hymn is for them. My prayers will always include them. This hymn is for the survivors as well. My hope is that this music, this hymn can be a part of a healing process for some listener out there. Grief never goes away but music can be an instrument that can help you live with it.
Note from the composer:
I often tell my students, composition and clinics alike, … that to be a musician you have to be able to submit and surrender to the music you are playing. You have to let it take control of your emotions and your soul and experience the journey AS the music, not just with it. As musicians when we play music, we are gifting the listeners with not just the music but our souls. And as that vessel we must be willing to lose a part of ourselves in the giving.
When composing you must be willing to leave a part of yourself in the music and on the page. There can be no walls, no hesitations. When you are finished with whatever it is you have just written, if you feel protective of the notes, the music, have a need to keep it from harm, a need to know that whoever you hand it to will care for it and help it be what it was meant to be, then you know what you have written was worth putting on the paper. I left a great part of me on these pages and for what it’s worth, I am happy to call it mine, if only for now. Once it is published it isn’t mine any longer. It belongs to whoever is playing, hearing & experiencing it and that is the magic, the gift of music.
Eltham High School Symphonic Band
Eltham High School is a large high school on the urban rural fringe of north eastern Melbourne. The school’s primary focus has always been to enhance student outcomes through the provision of high quality teaching and learning strategies.
The Music Program at Eltham High School is internationally renowned for its excellence and is recognised as one of the finest school Instrumental Music Programs in Australia. The Symphonic Band is the most senior of four wind ensembles at the School.
Over many years the band has built a prestigious reputation both locally and internationally. Highlights include performing at the Midwest Clinic in 1997 and 2014.
In 2014 they toured the USA. As part of this tour they had the opportunity to work with some of the world’s greatest composers and educators, as well as performing in concerts with the United States Air Force Band and the Brooklyn Wind Symphony. The Band also presented at the Midwest Clinic assisting Dr. Ingrid Martin & Jodie Blackshaw with their repertoire and education clinics.
In December 2017 they toured Japan. As part of this tour they had the opportunity to work with some great ensembles, composers and educators; including members of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, The Osaka University of Music, Shinonoi High School, Hirokazu Fukushima and Mr Manabu Inoue.
The Symphonic Band have been fortunate to work with many great Conductors and Composers over the years, including Frank Ticheli, Prof. Mark Camphouse, Dr. John Lynch, Dr. Steven Davis, Dr. Stephen Peterson, Dr. Nicholas Enrico Williams and Dr. Dale Lonis just to name a few.
Through their repertoire, the Symphonic Band reflects on life and sources of inspiration. For many their inspiration is family, friends, life experiences and each other. Each year Eltham High School commissions various composers to write for the ensemble, to add to the depth of Australian repertoire. The thought provoking themes of the repertoire that these gifted composers have provided the ensemble ensure that their musical journey is rich and connected to the young musician’s lives.