Courage to Persevere

Composer(s) / Arranger(s): Jane Knox Mills

Performance Time: 2:44  |  Grade: 1 1/2  |  Style: Contemporary

Courage to Persevere was inspired by the composer, Jane Knox Mills’s, sixth-grade band at The Independent Day School in Middlefield, Connecticut. When Covid-19 prevented performing groups from playing in person partway through the ensemble’s 4th-grade year in the spring of 2020, many students set aside their instruments. When the students started to play together again in the 6th-grade band during the fall of 2021, some had forgotten how to play their instruments, but the students persevered. Several band members who had continued playing during the pandemic offered help to those in the ensemble who needed it, patiently demonstrating fingerings, explaining rhythms, and modeling how to play passages. This is how an ensemble should work together and succeed together! Courage to Persevere is dedicated to the 6th-grade band at The Independent Day School and all the students who have had the courage to persevere.
 
Courage to Persevere starts out with a theme that represents challenging times, followed by a middle section at measure 33 that is more hopeful, ending with the first theme being repeated and varied at measure 50, representing perseverance. The music doesn’t resolve at the end of the piece, demonstrating the continuation of courage and perseverance.