One Day Wonder #170

For 2 horns, 1 trumpet and tuba.

With all the polytonal and diminished chord adventures I’ve had in the past, I suddenly realized that I’d never delved into realm of augmented chords. For those unfamiliar, an augmented chord is formed from all major thirds. Your diminished chord is all minor thirds, whereas a basic major chord is a major third and a minor third and a minor chord is a minor third coupled with a major third. For those in the know, this is a very superficial explanation, as chords are an entire universe in themselves. Just suffice to say that because of their rather unstable sound, augmented chords want to go somewhere. Even if you use the whole-tone scale with them (as I don’t do here), they still don’t sound quite right. The same can be said of diminished chords and the diminished scale. Using it exclusively leads to some pretty inconclusive music. That’s why I resorted to some rhythmic motifs to smooth over some inherent weaknesses in our wonderful tonal system - or maybe my own lack of technique. My treatment of it doesn’t resolve the problem. If anything, it only highlights the problem of diverging from the basic major/minor format. This piece doesn’t really distinguish itself, but it does take on the augmented-chord dilemma in a frank and productive manner.