Michigan native Brooke Pierson (b. 1987) composes music for wind ensemble, orchestra, and chamber groups. One of these latter pieces, his Rise Up, was a winner of the Dallas Winds Fanfare Competition in 2018. In addition to composing, Pierson is the Chair of the Fine Arts Department at the Washtenaw International High School and Middle Academy in Ypsilanti, Michigan, as well as the music director of Grace Lutheran Church in Howell, Michigan. He has also started his own publishing company, Taurus Publications, which can be found at his website. His compositions have been performed by school and professional groups around the USA and abroad.

Pierson joined the movement to provide flexible instrumentation music to socially-distanced band programs during the COVID pandemic with his Heaven’s Morning Breaks in 2020, which is available in both full band and full-flex (any instrument can play any part) versions. Says Pierson about the piece:

I began writing this piece on March 23rd in 2020, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic smothering the world. My initial reaction to the events unfolding were disbelief; that the world could be gripped by such an invisible enemy, rendering me and many others helpless. After adjusting to a surreal “new normal”, I dedicated myself out of my inhibiting behavior and begin writing a piece that could not only bring joy and beauty from a difficult time but that would soothe my own soul.

Heaven’s Morning Breaks is a composition centered around the hymn “Abide With Me” (to the tune of Eventide) is both reflective and joyful. The title comes from one of the closing lines in the last stanza:

“Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.”

The author Henry Francis Lyte wrote the poem after contracting tuberculosis at the age of 54. Just two weeks later, he died and the piece was first performed at his funeral.

Here is the full band version in a MIDI realization:

And the flex version, in a recording made by the Backyard Flex Band of Upstate New York, a socially distanced, outdoor group of amateur musicians, in summer 2020. (Yes, that’s me with the mask in the foreground):

As Pierson says, the piece is based on the hymn “Abide with Me,” performed here by the Kings College Cambridge Choir:

See more about Pierson at his website, C. Alan Publications, and Excelcia Music. Heaven’s Morning Breaks can be found in both versions at J.W. Pepper and Taurus Publications. It also has an entry in the Wind Repertory Project.