Change
Soprano Soloist and Orchestra

16 min duration
[DMA Thesis]

email for score excerpt and mock up audio
*as of August 2020, this work is unperformed. Contact me if you are interested in the premiere

Emery_Matthew_202011_DMA_thesis

“Change” is a 16-minute composition for soprano soloist and orchestra. It uses shifting timbres, colours and the cyclic use of motives and harmonic ideas to evoke notions of the resiliency of human spirit. “Change” sets Raymond Knister’s poem of the same title, which is in the public domain. The orchestral instrumentation comprises of: piccolo, two flutes, two oboe, three clarinets (third double bass clarinet), three bassoons; four horns, two trumpets in B flat, two tenor trombones, bass trombone, tuba; timpani, three percussion (bowed vibraphone, bass drum, tubular bells, bowed crotales, glockenspiel, marimba, handbells); harp, and strings (suggested 16 14 10 10 6). “Change” uses a linear form in seven sections (relating to the structure of the text). The work in some sense is one large blossoming and decaying musical gesture; the composition slowly develops into a full tutti musical gesture which then gradually decays away into similar music to that which opened the work. “Change” explores various changes in orchestration and colour with most sections of the work exploring a variation in timbre or instrumentation. The music moves from hushed delicate gestures to a darker rich harp and marimba colour, and then to a full shimmering brass hue. The music shifts away from the brass texture to a more sparse colour; glissandi trombones, delicate string writing on harmonics with fleeting flute flutterings and lip bends above. Then the music beings to combine instrumental families as it builds to tutti writing for the orchestra. A chorale melody begins to drive the music to the climactic phrases. The piece ends in a similar style as it began, with delicate, hushed gestures, though developed through inversion and slight variations in retrograde: motifs are re-interpolated and transformed as if upon reflection they have grown and evolved, akin to how humans grow and reflect at certain stages in our lives; we may continue to live a similar life as we did years ago, but we change and reorientate ourselves. The music is left open-ended, peacefully evaporating into nothing, it’s as if moments of our life pass us by and are now only a memory.

Emery_Matthew_202011_DMA_thesis

Instrumentation

Instrumentation

Piccolo
2 Flutes
2 Oboes
3 Clarinets in B flat (3rd doubling Bass Clarinet) 3 Bassoons

4 Horns in F
3 Trumpets in B flat 2 Tenor Trombones Bass Trombone Tuba

Timpani
3 Percussion

1: Vibraphone (bowed), Bass Drum, Tubular Bells, Crotales (bowed), Cymbal

2: Bass Drum, Hand Bells, Vibraphone (bowed), Crotales (bowed), Glockenspiel, Tubular Bells

3: Marimba, Hand Bells, Harp

Soprano Soloist
Strings (suggested 16 14 10 10 6) Score in C

Emery_Matthew_202011_DMA_thesis

Text

Text

“Change” Raymond Knister
The poem is in the public domain and is found on page 332 of The Midland 8.12 (Dec, 1922).

I shall not wonder more, then, But I shall know.

Leaves change, and birds, flowers, And after years are still the same.

The sea’s breast heaves in sighs to the moon, But they are moon and sea forever.

As in other times the trees stand tense and lonely, And spread a hollow moan of other times.

You will be you yourself,
I’ll find you more, not else,
For vintage of the woeful years.

The sea breathes, or broods, or loudens,
Is bright or is mist and the end of the world; And the sea is constant to change.

I shall not wonder more, then, But I shall know.

Raymond Knister (1899-1932)

John Raymond Knister was born in 1899 at Ruscomb, near Stoney Point, Lake St. Clair, where he drowned while swimming in August 1932. He wrote about the everyday rural farm life of Southwestern Ontario. His images are immediate and clear, they elevate the unremarkable. He wrote several collections of poetry and prose.