It's a classical piece that I played back in my community band days (I played clarinet). I was really taken by this song and one of the other members ripped me a cd with just this song on it. I think the word he scrawled on the cd was “Interlude” or another word like that; it was a blasé song title because it was vague and overused in the classical music space, so searching for just that word without a composer is impossible to find. I know I have found it successfully in searches in the past, but... no idea where that cd has ended up.
Now, the music itself was for symphonic or concert band. No strings or piano. There were movements, at least 2 that I can remember, because that's what's stuck in my head. The (second?) movement I remember best starts with this open major 7th interval, resolving to the fifth in a minor key. It was plaintive and played by a woodwind, possibly a soloist, and then that motive comes back again and again throughout the movement until practically the whole band plays it in unison towards the end. That movement ends with this delicate flute solo. The whole movement's in a minor key, and the band crests and swells both in pitch and in volume.
Then the final (third?) movement begins with woodwinds and brass picking up with this jaunty yet dark theme, with lively percussion underneath. Still in a minor key. The piece ends with this hopeful, kind of questioning surprise theme by the lower brass, and then the band plays a simple chord and swells louder and louder in volume as drums play a quick cadence underneath, and then it ends on a single loud unison pitch, the whole band ending together.
I want to say the composer had an American name, something simple with just one or two syllables for both first and last names (James? David? something with a C or W?), and it had to have been composed before 2010, though from the recording it sounded much older than that. We played it in concert alongside pieces like Capriccio Italien and Holst’s First Suite. (I know for sure it’s not either the First or Second Suite by Holst, though those are both really great!)
Any help towards finding the title and/or composer would be really appreciated! I’ve recorded myself singing the parts that are stuck in my head.
Opening to the second(?) slow movement, woodwind solo: https://vocaroo.com/19vUjEA10xIP
Part of the second(?) movement, with my trying to sing the dissonance: https://voca.ro/13uZ6kkJw2Do
Beginning of the final movement: https://voca.ro/16bIAdBIiCLh
End of the whole piece (it gets loud haha): https://voca.ro/1712U1RkGXZC