Music for Life was commissioned by the members of Community Band South in Pittsburgh to celebrate their 20th anniversary. The band's motto, Music for a Lifetime, provided the inspiration for the title. It is a work always full of life and vitality, even in its more reflective moments. Because of this, the piece is almost totally melodic, relying little on development or other formal devices. A series of lively melodic statements precedes a slower central section, designed to showcase the band's talented clarinet section. But the moment of reflection is short-lived and the livelier music returns to end the work in the same spirit that it started.