One Day Wonder #138 (Variation #6)

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

I read a New Yorker article about Aaron Copland and his difficulties during the fifties. According to Alex Ross, meeting Shostakovich in New York wasn’t the best career move for him. In an offhanded way, this got me to thinking about his Fanfare for the Common Man and how I could emulate that piece and make it some kind of individual statement at the same time. This is the result: a big, plodding, weird-sounding tune that doesn’t flog the Americana too severely. The entwhole thing is in 6/8 (in retrospect, it should have been in 6/4 or possibly 6/2, but no matter), but I was able to jockey with the feel with dotted eighth notes which essentially puts the thing in 4. That’s yet another reason why I love 6/8. Anyhow, the piece is rife with polyrhythms (a term that I kind of hate, but it suits), suspensions and dissonances. Those contribute to the overall bigness of the sound. I’m really fond of this piece. How is it a variation? Well, there are some visitations to fragments of the original tune and that’s it. So there.