Score (pdf) 260 KB

Audio (mp3) 3.7 MB

 

Program Notes

Tuning In began as a solution to a problem encountered over years of playing in wind bands: namely, that there is often too much doubling of individual parts. This is especially true of young band music, and although there are practical reasons for this, I wanted to take the idea of doubling in another direction.
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While writing, this meant a preference for unison doublings, rather than the octaves commonly found in young band music. Instead of driving rhythms and winding melodies, subtle changes in color and harmony propel this piece and give it unity and contrast.
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The main musical material is the convergence of all but a few instruments on the pitch middle C. This over-doubling gives the music a white-hot energy, and creates interesting tension inside the interval of a “perfect unison.” Secondary to this is a harmonic progression of two chords. Stated first in F major by the brass, these harmonies appear in various tonalities throughout the ensemble, culminating in a tutti scoring near the end.
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On another level, Tuning In also refers to the state of looking into oneself, an act inseparable from the process of composition. I find something meditative and non-Western about so many instruments playing the same pitch at the same time. The over-doubling of the pitch middle C, the use of silence, and the poignant dissonance of the two-chord progression are all musical illustrations of looking inward.

 

Tuning In was a finalist in the 2009 Frank Ticheli Composition Competition.