Vicinity Lyra

Vicinity Lyra was written in memory of Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Derrick N. Shaw, a U.S. Army band officer, musician, and leader whose creativity and generosity left a lasting impression on those who knew him. After Derrick’s death from cancer, a star was symbolically registered in his name near the constellation Lyra. That small gesture—placing the memory of someone among the stars—became the point of departure for this work.

The music begins almost without gravity: fragments drift through a nebulous texture before gradually gathering into a clear melodic voice. From there, Vicinity Lyra moves between two musical worlds. One reaches outward, bright and searching; the other turns back toward those left behind, expressed through a chorale colored equally by affection and loss. These ideas continually return to one another, as memories often do—joy and grief occupying the same space, neither quite able to exist without the other.

Eventually, the music finds its destination. The uncertainty of the opening gives way to a broad final fanfare, transforming remembrance into something more luminous: not an ending so much as a release.

Optional herald trumpets may surround the ensemble during the closing pages, giving the final gesture a particularly personal resonance. Derrick twice served as director of The U.S. Army Band Herald Trumpets. Here, their distant calls become both tribute and metaphor—music reaching beyond the ensemble, beyond the room, and toward the stars.

The title comes from the location assigned to Derrick’s star: in the vicinity of Lyra.