Andrew Pease (b. 1979) got his start as a composer writing rock songs in high school, and he has written and arranged for wind bands and chamber groups ever since. In his day job, he serves as Associate Professor of Music and Director of Instrumental Music at Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY, where he leads the Wind Ensemble and Brass Ensemble. He is also co-conductor of the Catskill Valley Wind Ensemble, a community band also based in Oneonta. His guest conducting work has taken him to several states and the UK, and he has presented nationally and internationally on topics in the wind band field. He studied music and music education at Dartmouth College, Columbia University Teachers College, and Hofstra University. He completed doctoral studies in wind conducting at Arizona State University, studying with Gary Hill. His work there earned him the 2017 American Prize in Collegiate Wind Band Conducting. He started his career in New York City, where he was music director of the Columbia University Wind Ensemble and the community band Columbia Summer Winds (now Manhattan Summer Winds). Throughout his varied career, he has directed players of all ages and ability levels, from elementary beginning band to adult amateurs to professional ensembles. His latest compositions appear at his personal website, www.andypease.com. He also runs two websites dedicated to wind bands. Wind Band Literature (windliterature.org) is a repertoire resource for bands around the world. The Wind Band Symphony Archive (windsymphonies.org) is a dynamic archive of symphonies for wind band.

Still me. I’m taking my Three Reflections suite and creating a separate page for each movement, since they really do stand alone. Diminished is the slow middle movement. My program notes say more:

“Diminished” is the second movement of Three Reflections, a suite of three movements, each written around the same musical theme. While there is no specific program or story behind this music, each movement is its own self-contained character piece, each capturing a moment from this chapter of my life.

“Diminished” adopts a much darker outlook than the outer movements of the suite. It is built out of both diminished chords and the real frustration that comes from unexpectedly limited capacities and choices. In other words, it works to capture what it feels like to actually BE diminished.

To see exactly what caused me to feel literally diminished, I encourage you to read my Spring 2025 recap. Suffice it to say, this piece comes from a genuinely dark place. The premiere came on November 23, 2025, with me conducting the Catskill Valley Wind Ensemble. You can also follow along in the score as you listen:

So where did this music come from? Some of it was conscious. I was definitely thinking of the slow movement Vittorio Giannini’s Symphony no. 3 for Band:

The ending bears some kinship with “Rufford Park Poachers” from Lincolnshire Posy by Percy Grainger:

The final shape of this movement had plenty to do with the input of Michael Markowski, who has been my composer spirit guide for the last couple of years. His Brooklyn Air is a great example of his mastery in the idiom that Diminished also inhabits:

There are too many Romantic era composers behind this to name. Oddly, I realized about 75% of the way through this piece that one hidden influence comes from the Legend of Zelda fairy music, whose melody I unwittingly stole (but then took in a different direction) for the primary theme of this movement:

In addition to diminished chords, Diminished also sometimes uses octatonic scales (also known as diminished scales) to heighten the sense of wrongness and uncertainty. Despite the overall dark mood of the piece, I had a lot of fun playing in this space and finding new ways to make new and interesting harmonies.