Program Notes

This piece was written for Indiana University's Kids Compose concert series, a contest in which local elementary school students compose and submit original melodies, and Indiana University composers turn them into full pieces that are performed by one of the university's bands or orchestras. Cricket's Quest uses melodies written by two local elementary school students chosen by the composer. The first melody "Hopping Grasshopper" and the second melody "Smile" tell the story of a Grasshopper and Cricket who are best friends and decide to play hide and seek. After the cricket hid, the grasshopper came up with a plan. The grasshopper would listen for the cricket's characteristic chirp, and what better place to listen for a sound than a music store. The grasshopper explores the music store and here's all sorts of wacky sounds, but none are the cricket's chirp. Leaving the store, the grasshopper almost gives up, but then suddenly hears chirping nearby and finds the cricket who was hiding in a tree all along!