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Thomas Wolfe writes, “You can’t go back home to your family, back home to your childhood … back home to a young man’s dreams of glory and of fame … back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time – back home to the escapes of Time and Memory.”

From 1996 to 2002, and again from 2014 to 2016, I was a student at (Southwest) Texas State University. For over half of that time I was a resident of San Marcos, TX. I saw the town and the university grow from a multi-directional, “commuter” school to the fifth-largest university in the state. What was once a city that you left to go to Austin or San Antonio for fun has now become a true college town with all the fun and excitement that one craves from their collegiate experience. And yet, no matter how many new buildings are built on campus, or how many new restaurants come to San Marcos, I am always filled with the same feeling whenever I drive by, drive through, or stop in San Marcos. That feeling is home.

(Southwest) Texas State University or, “S-Dub” as many of us still to this day refer to it, molded me into the educator, musician, and human being I am today. It was from my teachers and peers where I learned lessons on how to perform, how to teach, and how to compose. It was the town that taught me responsibilities like balancing a checkbook, buying groceries, and parking just long enough before I got a ticket or worse, towed. And it was the music that I performed and listened to that shaped the composer I am to this day.

I experienced music in the marching band, concert band, ensembles, and of course, popular music through CDs and new technology at the time called, mp3s. And when called upon to compose a piece in celebration of 100 years of band at my alma mater, I knew that the piece not only needed to reflect the historic significance of music at the “Southwest Texas State University Normal Teachers College,” but also the music that affected me during my time on campus.

The piece opens majestically and anthemic with bell tones and flourishes inspired by motives from my first composition for band, Danse Moods, which was premiered by the Wind Ensemble in 2002. The harmony and chords of the opening are inspired by my favorite band U2, a group that I saw live for the first time while I was an undergraduate. An almost school-song like melody is then presented and developed in the spirit of composers David R. Gillingham and David Maslanka, whose music I was introduced to by former directors John C. Stansberry and Jim Hudson. Strains of melodies from the fight song “Go Bobcats,” the pre-game traditional “Hill Country Fanfare,” and the rhythmic drive of “Walk On” cadence are weaved through and ultimately climax with a tutti la Forza presentation of the main theme. The opening flourishes and bell tones return as the piece concludes with a full rhythmic presentation of the final phrase of the “Walk On” cadence (allowing for many a horn press and plume shake).

Red Hilled Crown is my love letter to S-Dub and San Marvelous, TX. From the red-roofed buildings all over campus, the hills that forged our calves daily, and to the iconic crown of campus “Old Main,” I can go back home again.