One Day Wonder #200

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

Here we are at #200. I had absolutely no idea how to commemorate the occasion until I turned on the radio. The local classical station was playing a scad of choral pieces. One of them was a Shaker hymn called "Not One Sparrow Is Forgotten." To say that this tune is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard is something of an understatement. I can't describe just how gorgeous the performance and the arrangement were. I believe the group was the Dale Warland Singers. After that powerful experience, I figured I'd write a fake Shaker, or Faker (Shake'n'fake also works) tune. I listened to lots of examples of true sources (mostly very, very old ladies singing in their kitchens for roving archivists) and arrangments (including the big finale from Appalachian Spring) and came away with this much: all these tunes are ruled by their words (which accounts for their sometimes oddball phrasing), their melodies are simple in the extreme and they come in two main varieties: lyrical and chant-like. I decided to employ these very basic observations in this piece. And yes, I realize that a brass quintet is not the ideal ensemble to convey the aesthetic, but that's what I'm working with here. I'm also aware that my articulations in the group are a little weird. I'm still working on that. What this tune gives you is a simple AABA chant-like modal melody played by the trumpet, then backed by the ensemble. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. It's not "Simple Gifts" (probably the best-known Shaker tune) or "Not One Sparrow Is Forgotten," but it has its moments.

All of this got me to thinking. Maybe the Shakers have it right. I'm not a religious person in the least, but isn't it a comforting thought that there's a God who keeps track of even the littlest of things? To think that there's some being out there who is all love and kindness - who sees righteousness in all of his creations - it's a lovely idea. This isn't the flashy, belligerent fraud of televangelists or the Catholics' formal and distant uber-pope or any of our dogmatic conceptions of the supreme power. The Shaker deity is all gentleness and compassion. Having lived in Belltown for 17 years, I can tell you that a sea of human misery, selfishness, stupidity and cruelty flows by under my window each day. It's very soothing to know that there might be a place where none of that exists. And it's a place for you, me, all the people rolling by on 2nd Avenue, the crazy folks who live next door and everyone else. And, if the hymn is to be believed, there will also be sparrows.

No, I'm not ready to become a Shaker, but their unorthodox beliefs fill me with hope. I've been a little short on that for the last year.