Concert Overture

This exciting overture juxtaposes and develops two musical ideas, one rhythmic/metric and the other melodic/harmonic. The predominant meter of the composition is 12/8, yet within the twelve divisions of the measure there are recurring patterns of five, seven, and nine, sometimes layered simultaneously. The pitch elements of the music grow out of a very simple three-note motive: do-re-sol, initially presented on the pitch G, but constantly transformed and extended. The working out of these two elements: rhythmic/metric and melodic/harmonic, make up the spirited outer sections of a ternary form. The calmer B section is an eight-part canon at the fifth whose subject begins with the original three-note motive. Throughout the composition there are deliberate clashes and shifts between diatonic and chromatic materials and episodes creating alternating moments of bright and dark sound.