Tributes and Circles

For the Indiana University New Music Ensemble, David Dzubay, Music Director
    I. Available Notes: In Memoriam, Earle Brown
    II. Passacaglia
    III. Elegiac March
    IV. Chaccone
    V. Omaggio a Berio

In searching for a title which illuminates an over-arching conception binding a piece of music together, composers often find meaning which enlightens their work. My piece involves forms associated with circles and pays memorial tribute to two composers who had meaning in my life: Earle Brown and Luciano Berio.

Earle Brown was a teacher of mine at Indiana University and at the Aspen Music School. During and after my student days, he remained in touch, sending his music and recent recordings/CD’s to me and commenting on music I had sent to him. He was always supportive, writing letters of recommendation and suggesting venues to which I should apply. I remember him always having a smile, even when complaining about the state of the arts and music. He loved good jazz and the freedom of improvisation in general, incorporating the latter into his music even with regards to form, hence Available Forms which took on the shifting architectural possibilities of a Calder mobile. I had originally written the first piece, Available Notes, as a free-form, multi-layered quartet where each line had its own independent tempo. A challenge came in notating it more exactly within a single, prevailing tempo, though no one will hear an actual pulse. It is based on a term Earle Brown used to define a section of his violin concerto, Centering. That term is “floating.”

Passacaglia and Chaccone are both forms which use circular returns. In a passacaglia, the bass line recurs while in a chaccone, it is the harmonic scheme which comes around again. My passacaglia is eclectic, drawing upon such varied influences as Mozart and Miles Davis. Beginning mysteriously in the low strings, the piece is built upon the same half-step.whole-step (0,1,3) motive of Available Notes.

The centerpiece of the 5 movements is an elegiac march. It was composed on Digital Performer the same evening I learned of Michael Tippett’s passing. I had been present at a London performance of his works, but other than that, I can not account for the way in which I was moved. Death in general, perhaps, when focused upon, has a way of grabbing one’s attention. Led throughout by percussion circles of repetition, Elegiac March is in a clear-cut, ABA’ form where recourse to Josquin’s manner of alternating polyphonic voices with homophony is evident.

My chaccone begins with a frame. This frame consists of a piano cadenza. (The piano is doesn’t appear in the final movement, so it deserved some time here.) Then, a flute line, extracted from the chaccone harmony, climbs out of the introduction and leads to the harmony itself, first presented by the winds, then by the brass, then by nearly the full group, then by the strings, etc. It ends with a brief reminder of the frame and a goodbye.

Interestingly, Omaggio a Berio, is, as in the first movement, a title based upon the title of a fairly well-known piece by the composer being memorialized. In this case, of course it is Omaggio a Joyce of Luciano Berio. I had sent my music to Luciano Berio and he replied with a hand-written letter which I still have. In it, among other things, he expresses his concern that titles match the pieces which they preface. This piece, in homage to Berio, is based upon the same music as Available Notes, though in a different language.

So we begin and end talking about titles, tributes and circles.