Arizona Centennial Overture - Hispanic Section and Ending

I have completed the overture and today I will discuss the "Hispanic Section" and ending. Audio and visual examples are provided to illustrate my discussion . Since blogspot does not have the capability of including audio examples, a link is provided that will navigate you away from this blog. To return, use your browser's back button or click on the Composing Insights link on the audio page. You will have two choices to hear the audio examples. The first uses a free Scorch plug-in that will enable you to see a scrolling score as you listen to the audio example. The second is an mp3 file of the audio only. The score is now transposed.

The "Hispanic Section" was a lot of fun to write as I was very influenced by Mariachi Music, which is very sunny and optimistic. This section is very basic harmonically as it uses mostly I, IV, and V chords in major. In order to make it more interesting harmonically, I changed keys five times within the one and a half minutes of this section.

This section has two melodic ideas. The first is a festive melody in the trumpets and clarinets in 4/4 meter.

 

After an interlude of alternating 3/4 and 6/8 meters, the second melody is in 3/4 time over a syncopated accompaniment that continues the alternating meter feel occurs.

I repeat twice the syncopation at the end of this melody (not shown in the above example), each time up a step, to lead the listener into the ending.

The ending borrows fragments of the celebration fanfare from the beginning of the piece at measures 179 and 181. It is answered by a fragment from the "Native American" section in measures 180 and 182. Measures 181 and 182 are up a minor third from measures 179 and 180. Measures 184 and 185 are from the "Hispanic Section". It was my intention to create and ending that reflects the coming together of cultures in a celebration of what Arizona is today.

There is still a lot of work to be done so that this overture can be performed by many different musical organizations during the centennial. I will be discussing the process during my next posts. I welcome my readers comments at any time.

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