SWIRLING IN THE LIGHT BULBS (Grade 3) by Peter Sciaino

“Energy” is around us in so many different forms. Of these, it’s the harnessed energy that we use everyday that I, admittedly, will often take for granted. Swirling in the Light Bulbs is inspired by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins’s take on this often overlooked modern wonder. In his poem “August,” Collins writes “and time to offer some thanks to the electricity swirling in the light bulbs.” This composition is meant to echo Collins’s appreciation for this now common miracle while grappling with the idea of harnessed energy in a sonic format. The muted trumpets in the opening provide rhythmic vitality as a springboard to this idea. Along the way, the swirling melody seeks to keep the momentum going before ultimately an abrupt ending has the band “power off.”