One Day Wonder #106

For 1 horn, 1 trumpet, 2 trombones and tuba.

OK, here’s where the interesting stuff starts. This is where my disillusionment with tonality really begins to manifest itself. Actually, any worthy composer from de Machaut to present should be born with a healthy contempt for tonality and should seek the tools for its overthrow. The question is always the means. Some try to subvert the dominant paradigm with atonality. That really isn’t my thing, though I do dabble. I prefer polytonality. That requires some real skill and planning – two things that are often in short supply for me.

Here’s what you get with this piece: your form is A1BA2; your time signature is 3/4. OK, so we start with these basic elements. Here’s the departure: the accompaniment (two trombones and tuba) are in C, the horn is in F, and the melody in the trumpet is in A. On top of that, the trumpet doesn’t buy in to the meter. It plays more or less in 4/4 until the end of A1. Listen for it. In the B section, the horn takes the melody. It’s in C, the accompaniment is in A and the trumpet counter-melody is in Eb. How about that? The A2 takes us back to the original assigned tonalities. The goal of this one is to make polytonality sound somewhat normal. If used in the wrong way, it can sound quite sour. In this case, while not sounding altogether normal, there is something rather haunting about it. I attribute that to the size of the ensemble, the austerity of the arrangement and contrast of the tonalities. As you can tell, I’m really into polytonality, because, although it far less dogmatic than serialism, it holds far greater possibility for striking beauty.