Resilience

Resilience is a powerful orchestral work with an overall positive message, spanning a vast spectrum of emotions and motivated by the turbulent times in which we are living.

© 2026 Thomas S. Statler. This recording is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0). You may share the recording with others and/or use it in derivative works as long as you explicitly credit me and do not use the recording for commercial purposes. In addition, you may not alter the metadata in the audio file identifying the title, composer, artist, or licensing information. The license pertains only to the audio recording and not to the underlying musical work or public performances.

Listener's Notes

Resilience is about finding joy and strength in difficult times. It is my personal response to the sneering bigotry and belligerence that have taken hold in parts of American society, and that are depicted in the opening of the piece. Attitudes that should have been ridiculed out of existence decades ago are represented by clashing dissonances and destructive pounding, repeated over and over, turning threatening and suddenly violent. Amid the shock and dismay, a simple theme provides solace and reassurance. The melody transforms and becomes playful, runs, jumps, takes flight, and breaks through the clouds into joyousness and exuberance. But the ugliness returns, and hopes are torn down and crushed. The music slowly spirals into despair, nearly lost. But a center is found, represented in a single note: the most central pitch, middle C. From that small, uncrushable seed, the simple melody grows again, with inner strength and determination, enduring, and in the end, at peace. The final note — middle C, the same pitch played by the entire orchestra — stands against the distant returning threats, focused and resilient.