Score of the Week: Eous

Eous

"Eous" is a piece for a Jazz group consisting of Soprano Sax, Vibraphone, Bass and Drums.

Please take a listen to the MP3 for an example of one way the piece could be interpreted. Thank you.

"Eous" is a made up word with no meaning.

Score and MP3
 
   

Score of the Week:

String Quartet #1 (Yuki)

Score and MP3

This is a short five movement piece for string quartet. Each movement is only about one minute each. And each movement is one line of a Tanka that I wrote about Snow (Yuki). I wrote the second movement first and all of the material in the other four movements appears in or is derived from the second movement. Given this, one can think of the first movement as a prelude with the second movement being the main movement. The fifth movement re-states the main motifs of the first four movements, combining them into one large polyphonic mass.

Unable to sleep I listen throughout the night to the silent song of falling snow in my yard. With the soft dawn, satori.

The first movement is built around the pentatonic scale F# G B C# D. (The Japanese Hirajoshi Scale; 平調)

The second movement is built around the pentatonic scale C# D F# G# A.

The third movement is built around the pentatonic scale D Eb G A Bb.

The fourth movement is built around the pentatonic scale C Dd F G Ab, but does not strictly adhere to the scale in places.

The fifth movement is built around the pentatonic scale C# D F# G# A, but does not strictly adhere to the scale in places

Score of the week: 59,620 YEARS

59,620 YEARS

Score of the week: http://www.scoreexchange.com/scores/20562.html

The title is in reference to the fact that in 2003 the planet Mars made its closest approach to Earth in the last 59,620 years. Aldo Vitagliano, of the University of Naples in Italy, calculated that Mars hasn’t had as close a brush with Earth since September 12, 57,617 B.C., when Neanderthals ruled but modern man had begun to make inroads.

When I was writing this piece I was envisioning in my mind short ballet to go with the music.

The form of the piece is a simple arch, A (slow introduction in 4/4 time), B (the "chant" section of alternating time signatures and a slow increase in tempo), C (the central calm section in 11/4 time, basically a passacaglia that build ups as each voice is added then slows thins out as each voice drops out), The return of the B section and finally the return of the A section acting as a coda

Ballet Outline

Section A (4/4)

o Through the void of space Mars approached ancient Earth.

Section B (Mixed Meters)

o Fearful a Neanderthal shaman prays to the clan’s gods. o Slowly the clan joins the shaman in praying to their gods. o The prayer becomes a chant o The chanting breaks into a chaotic dance o The shaman start to pray again.

Section C (11/4)

o While the clan sleeps the red star waxes and wanes in the autumn sky.

Section B (mixed meters) (Return of)

o The Shaman starts to pray again. o Slowly the clan joins the shaman in praying to their gods. o The prayer becomes a chant o The chanting breaks into a chaotic dance

Section A (4/4) (Return of) (Coda)

o Through the void of space Mars returns.

Score of the Day

   

Obsidian Waves and Missing Thoughts

A study in quartal harmony; written as an example of the use of fourths to build both vertical structures and horizontal lines.

Score and MP3