Wallal Downs: A work for symphony orchestra (Original composition)

Abstract

This work attempts to integrate both tonal and non-tonal musical elements into a cohesive, intelligible unit. It Utilizes a number of highly gestural melodic and harmonic entities which are juxtaposed with one another throughout the piece. The overall form of this work can be understood as an arch shape; the letter scheme ABCBA best describes it. The A sections are, for the most part, slow and quite sedate. The internal sections are fast and quite forceful with driving rhythms and dense textures. Underlying this structure, yet not always working in accordance with it, is a harmonic scheme which serves, among other things to contrast repetitions of internal sections. The "tonal centers" employed can be seen, sequentially, as: F, E, F#, E, Bb, E; an harmonic rondo. The fundamental pitch of the piece is E; each of the tonal regions acting in a spring-board manner pushing out to the furthest region of Bb. It is the transition from Bb back to E which provides the climactic moment of the composition. The work lasts for eight minutes and is scored for a full symphony orchestra.