My work came to a close last Sunday. I woke up and swore to myself that I would not leave the room until my piece was done. It took a good 7 or 8 hours and a lot of coffee, but I got it done. I had a good idea of what I wanted so I just stayed in bed and through-composed the entire work. I enjoy through-composing, I find that it is the best way that I get results from my brain.
I was just coming to the end of my first imitative section (the very Baroque-like section) and I was unsure how to conclude it. The thought came to my mind to quote an old chorale in a sort of North German Baroque style. I thought for a bit and Vor deinen Thron tret' ich hiermit (Before thy throne I now appear) came to mind. It is a lovely Lutheran chorale and is allegedly the last piece of music J S Bach wrote. Well a chorale prelude harmonization, which we dictated from his deathbed. My first section was in minor tonalities so at first I quoted the first line but changed it to the parallel minor (instead of its original major). Throughout the day I pondered this and was unhappy, but by the end of the day I decided to make the thirds (from the tonic), major in the melody and the concurrent accompaniment. I love the result. It creates a jarring mode mixture which I find is beautiful and a good lead into my second section, the extended harmonies section.
For the second section I first thought to use a lot of added note chords, such as 7ths, 9ths, and 11ths and so on, but then I thought of modes and the Dorian mode became very attractive. I wrote a motif that emphasises the raised 6th, then wrote a trio style section where this Dorian melody gets passed around. This section features voices dropping in and out and even a solo for the harpsichord, which if I may add, neatly modulates to a G tone centre. I end by quoting the second line of Before thy throne, with added note chords accompanying.
The last section is my atonal section. I can't recall whether it was in Schoenberg's second string quartet or in Pierrot Lunaire that he had large sections where the strings where in constant tremolo. Either way, I wanted to use that in my section, in a sort of homage, as well as the use of 12 tone rows. Using what knowledge of serialism I have I found a random number generator online and made two sets of numbers, one was a row of 12 using all numbers from 1 to 12 (I waited till one came with a contour that I thought would be "musical") and then I made a second row of 6 featuring numbers from 1 to 12. The first was the subject then the second the countersubject. I used these rows in all the voices to make a fugetta. As it comes to an end I quote the third and fourth lines of Before thy throne, first in the violin then in the violin and harpsichord. During the fourth line I retrograded the 12 tone row and put it in the cello and second violin. The two quotations of the row were continuing up the circle of 5ths in relation to the beginning tone. Almost magically the two rows retrograde to a progression that comes easily out to unison. It is from this unison that I inserted a plagal cadence. I do agree with Dr. Ross that this is a bit cheesy. I will leave it as it is for now, but I plan on continuing work on this piece, and it will be removed later, and end in a more fitting manner to serialism.
One word inspired the extended harmony section and the atonal section: Transfigured.
When I hear this word I think of two phenomenal pieces of music. First being Death and Transfiguration by Richard Strauss. A piece of the very late romantic where extended harmonies is the foundation, along with chromaticism that Wagner would be proud of. This became my inspiration for my second section which is in the Dorian mode with added chords. The second piece is Schoenberg's Transfigured Night, another late romantic piece, but one that is so extended and chromatic that it mingles with atonality. This piece is written for string ensemble, so this atonality factor as well as lush romantic string dominance takes precedence in the third section. The 12 tone rows draw their inspiration more from the last movement of his second string quartet, but are symbolically Schoenberg none-the-less.
This inspiration by Transfigured is why I titled my piece what I did:
Before thy transfigured throne I now appear.
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