Composition folio : Earth bound wings : a symphonic poem for wind orchestra

Abstract

The introductory scene-setting percussion (bars 1 - 6) features improvisation, within parameters. The flute then enters with a chromatic melody (bar 6)~ this melody continues to freely develop, with the texture thickening as the other instruments enter (bars 15 - 38). It is in this section that the harmonic language becomes more polytonal than chromatic (example bars 15 - 20 in the clarinets: dichotomy of concert E-flat minor and A-flat minor). The concept of chromatic melody is developed again in a sudden new texture of four saxophones (38- 50, with bars 43- 50 having more timbral and textural augmentation). Throughout these sections the military bass drum signal ( JJ S lJ ) has been used in various ways to underpin the musical material, and at letter D it features more soloistically underneath persistent snare drum semiquavers. The chromatic melody idea returns in the guise of a mock-march-obligato in the flute parts (bar 60). Here the concept of a 'band-within-a-band' is u~ed -juxtaposing these 'fife-anddrum' -based, florid chromatic sections with more modal, homophonically-textured sections (example- bars 68- 82). Eventually both of these types of texture thicken out, to involve more instruments each time they reappear (example- bars 82- 88~ 88- 96). The monophonic 'fife-and-drum' texture becomes more polyphonic (bar 113) and leads into a superimposition of conflicting pitches and interlocking rhythms (bar 123 ), involving the eventually full band (bar 136). Here, some of the melodies from the build up to bar 38 return (bar 136). At N the bass drum signal idea is reiterated at its most blatant, in a full band texture, with all the notes of the chromatic scale being used in a cluster. Then at 0 it is rhythmically augmented as an accompaniment for a new melodic idea, both employing modality, the melody based around a rising fifth, akin to the idea introduced in the clarinets at bar 15. At R the texture changes from that of a melody over a drone, to a more homophonic texture, with the modality centered around C-lydian. Then (bar 217) the bass drum signal idea returns as an accompaniment for the piccolo solo (bar 220), which not only uses some of the material from the build up to bar 38, but reintroduces the opening flute material, thereby ending the piece in the manner in which it began.