Lakeway Tribute

Greetings!

I'm pleased to share a piece that was commissioned by a Community Band in my region and premiered in April 2018. "Lakeway Tribute" depicts the region of Morristown, TN, historic as the location of Davy Crockett's family tavern with rolling mountains and known locally as the community of Lakeway where homes line the Cherokee Reservoire, a lake community. 

So, I created a theme to represent the scenery, a theme to celebrate the festive spirit of the community, and to honor the memory of Davy Crockett's last stand at the Alamo. The form of the piece is mostly an ABCBA with transitions in between that seek to evoke a journey into the area. 

The piece is scheduled to be published in Spring 2021 and will go into the engraving process soon. You'll see in the score that, for the most part, everything is where it ought to be except the suspended cymbal. I didn't correct this for... reasons I won't get into here. But yes, I know it's out of place and it will be corrected anyway in the final product when my publisher engraves the score and parts. For now, please enjoy "Lakeway Tribute!"

Wow - I can't tell whether this is an extremely realistic rendition or a real wind ensemble/band!  My favorite section is the carnival-like syncopated part.  I really enjoy how you feature each of the sections of the band in the different sections of the palindrome-like form (I love your use of pitched percussion which I feel I under-use in my music).  I read the description both in this post and the score which is great by the way.  Your use of triplets in this piece was to me a little reminiscent of the "E.T." soundtrack.  I noticed that at 4:24 (measure 156 in the score) you have quite a striking and deliberate (it sounds deliberate to me anyway) cross-relation where the flutes, oboes, xylophone and marimba play Gb's while the instruments playing the melody have a concert G natural on beat 4 - maybe you could discuss how you came by that choice?  Great job!

The E.T. Soundtrack holds a very special place in my heart, so I occasionally call back in appreciation of Williams’ influence on me as a composer. Those transitions are inspired by the E.T. soundtrack, a quite intentional nod. Windfall is another piece - you can find it here on YouTube - where I also call back to E.T. at the climax near the end. 

In fact, when I rehearsed this piece with my band, I constantly referred to these as the E.T. / Williams measures. True story. 

So, about that b9 interval in beat 4 of 156...

Maybe the Gb bass note along with the Gb in woodwinds, mallets, etc is setting up a sort of resolution that G natural thwarts? If we look at these two measures, the linear material is building into the final conclusion of the work, so when the last beat of this line extends us suddenly to a b9, I think it fulfills the point of these two bars building to 157.

I distinctly remember spending more time on these measures than other measures of the piece thinking, “Why does this seem to sound more effective when the line goes to G instead of Gb?” And I remember reading somewhere that the b9 interval is actually one of the most dissonant intervals in large orchestrated works (this is probably more debatable in theory, so don’t take my word as law on that), so b9 has its uses if you’re aware of its dissonant impact. I may have ultimately, and accidentally(?), discovered a moment where it actually works. 

Thanks for listening! I hope some of this is helpful in explaining things in a way that’s beneficial to you. If not, I’m happy to break it down more in discussion. Cheers! 

@Salemosophy Thank you!  That's been very beneficial and now that I've looked at it more closely it seems to parallel what a great YouTube video (that I can't seem to find right now) said about harmonic tropes within superhero movies such as Spider-Man using IV and bVI in series.  Since those chords alternate between using a b6 degree and a natural 6 I thought it pertinent to mention since you also do this in the main A theme in this piece.

Ha! I don’t really even analyze as I go much anymore. So when you point out that I did something theoretical, I’m thinking, “I did? Ha! Cool.”

I created a personal harmonization method to mitigate my over-reliance on theory to pick chords. Instead, I harmonize with basic functions and choose chords based on chord substitutions. It dramatically sped up my composition process since I don’t spend hours belaboring theory to lead me through a progression.

Instead, I compose a melody and bass line, fill in basic I, IV, V chords of the key or mode, then substitute chords for those. Of course, I’ve been doing this for so long that now I just go straight to chord substitution as I harmonize. So that probably is a IV and bVI progression there. I haven’t analyzed the piece since I wrote it in 2017, though. 

@PaperComposer,

You should analyze the chord progression from 92-101 and figure out what I did there. I remember harmonizing it quickly and not really knowing what it would end up being. Looks like Gb, Bb/F, Gb, Bb/F, F7, and then we end up in Ab Major in 101, which is just delightful. “Hey, here’s this transition where I’m setting up Bb Major, but nope! Let’s go to Ab Major instead!” Composing this way is a lot more fun to me. 

That is a trick I sometimes use as well where I substitute a bVII in place of a tonic chord (or just a b7th degree in the bass).  I think I learned that from "Earth, Wind & Fire" LoL.  As for the chord in 156 - it seems to be a C half-diminished chord with Gb in the bass which to me is implying more of a bVI function but then you borrow that G natural from the major mode to me implying a IV (although the chord all along there has really been a kind of ii which I guess is what you mean when you say that you substitute chords) and you resolve the piece of course, in Bb as a sort of half-cadence overall.

This is really really great! I love your inventive orchestrations and the variety of tone colours you use.

I like your main themes and the accompaniment patterns with the semiquavers (Bar 2 etc.) I think sometimes when you change to the repeated quaver patterns they lose some of the momentum. However, they do provide a contrast.

Fantastic! Congratulations on getting it published. Is it at all likely that there may be rehearsals/concerts for it in near future? 

aMC

3 hours ago, aMusicComposer said:

Is it at all likely that there may be rehearsals/concerts for it in near future? 

aMC

 

There have already been 3 performances of  the work, twice by my band (who really enjoy playing it) and a world premier by the band that commissioned the work (at least that I know about). 

6 hours ago, PaperComposer said:

As for the chord in 156 - it seems to be a C half-diminished chord with Gb in the bass which to me is implying more of a bVI function but then you borrow that G natural from the major mode to me implying a IV (although the chord all along there has really been a kind of ii which I guess is what you mean when you say that you substitute chords) and you resolve the piece of course, in Bb as a sort of half-cadence overall. 

 

Your guess is as good as mine. Measure 156 could also be a polychord. Cmin/Gb5. I do think we need to distinguish between harmonic content and melodic content as well.

The harmony is clearly Gb Db with C as an accented non-chord tone on beat 1 of 155. This is a Lydian #4 tendency tone. We get it again in 157 in a C minor arpeggio.

But the line isn’t necessarily “the harmony.” It just kind of maneuvers through the Gb Db power chord while bumping up against the pillars of the Gb harmonics.