This 5:20 minute symphonic orchestral piece called Prayer for Peace was written by Gary A. Edwards in the month of June 2006. The piece starts with a call to war by the war drums played by the timpani, with a rousing fanfare counter-melody follow-up in the brass, then repeated. Then follows a fast triplet rhythm in 9/8 played by strings, with melody B playing contrapuntally in the woodwinds and trumpet. This section slows to a romantic melody, first played by a full lush string sections, with a repeat slight variation by trumpet and brass chorus, accompanied by strings and woodwinds. The last part of this section speeds up to a solo in the snare drum playing a prayer for peace in morse code, inspired by the DaVinci Code. This is the Edwards Code which I leave to the interpreter to translate. This 12 measure snare drum solo is repeated three times, first accompanied by a 12 measure tuba solo counter-melody which is then played as a round by most instruments. The last 8 bars is a fading snare drum solo beating out SOS repeatedly followed by a surprise one measure ending.
Prayer for Peace premiered December 2, 2006 by the Coeur d'lene Symphony Orchestra. Score and parts $29.95 Listen to MP3 sample
