One Day Wonder #110

For 2 horns, 1 trombone and tuba.

So we’re back to polytonality. Here we have a chorale. This style works best if you favor the dominant voice. In this case, it’s the horns. The tonalities switch with every fermata. Every now and then, it gets a little muddy, but it doesn’t interfere with the peculiar beauty that happens in polytonality. There are odd moments of consonance among all the confusion and struggle to make things sound right. Like I said, I’m quite sold on polytonality, although it pretty much ran its course a little less than a century ago. Serialism (atonality) won out because it was slightly more versatile and could be systematized. The odd thing about polytonality is that it can’t be. It’s all based on the ear and judgment – not on some dictatorial equation or sum total of pitches. And, to my ear, polytonality sounds better, because it can simultaneously imitate tonality and create its own reality. Anyhow, this piece is not without its charms, even though it’s just a chorale.