Elements Movement II

I have completed the second movement of "Elements," a piece designed to musically portray the essential nature of the Classical Greek elements, fire, water, air and earth and their astrological implications.

The water element's chief characteristic is sensitivity, therefore I chose a slow tempo and wrote a movement that is lyrical and harmonically rich. This movement is in an ABA' form. The B section uses some tone painting where the undulating 16th notes are designed to represent the flow of water.

From a compositional viewpoint, I feel that the things that make this movement work well are the subtleties. Phrases are interchanged between instruments so in order to create continuity, I often overlap the phrases. When the A section returns, try to note the differences from the first A section. Since this section comes at the end, it needed some slight variation from its opening statement. The meter changes throughout add an element of subtle irregularity so that the lines are not predictable. The ending has a delayed cadence that once again adds a subtlety that hopefully delights the ear.

I am now using flip pdf technology for the musical examples that go along with my posts. It uses Flash Player that most browsers come with. You will be hearing an mp3 of sampled sounds playing the music and you will see the score at the same time. You will need to turn the pages by clicking on the arrows at the appropriate time. To see and hear what I have discussed, go to http://www.cooppress.net/elements_blog.html.

As always, your comments are appreciated.

Dr. B