RAINBOW VARIATIONS
Concert band (gr. 4)
I’m not quite sure why, but I’ve always held a certain fascination with color symbolism. I like how each one has its own associations and meanings that are immediately understood by society, regardless of the medium. In a strange way, I thought this would make for a great theme-and-variations piece, where a theme is presented and then I show what I think that theme would sound like if it were red, or orange. I had wanted to write this piece for a while, but I eventually went and did it, and it took three-quarters of a year to complete.
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It starts with an original theme of mine, employing modal mixture in order to achieve some more ‘colors’ within the music. It’s intended to be bright and sparkly-sounding, as to better represent the rainbow.
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The first color is red, which is a bit odd because it is commonly associated with rage and love, two very different things. I believe the common ground between these to be passion, so the red section is a juxtaposition of these two things with passion in the middle. It starts out very percussive and Mars-like before a more passionate, secondary theme sets in. The trumpets and trombones present the 4 notes of the main theme like war horns, and the brake drum sounds like the clanging of metal weapons, and the rhythmic current underneath creates a march-like feeling, all evoking images of war.
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Orange is a bit strange in terms of symbolism, because there really isn’t any strong symbolism society has attached to it. However, it occasionally has been associated with energy, and I ran with that concept. It’s written in an alternating 6/8 and 3/4 with a lot of sudden dynamic shifts. I hope that this, coupled with this section’s playfulness, gives the impression of a young child: curious and full of energy, but prone to sudden changes in mood.
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Yellow is associated with happiness, so I wrote it from the perspective of nostalgia for a carefree childhood. It’s divided into two sections: the first is more lyrical, and the second is more playful-sounding.
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Green is associated most with envy, but I found that very difficult to express through music. So, I gave it more of a smooth ‘nature’ treatment, in a cool-sounding aeolian mode. Lots of earthy-sounding percussion are used, such as shakers and marimba, and it’s intended to evoke the feeling of being in a dim jungle. I still tried to implement envy in a small way--I wrote the back-and-forth section between the band and flutes to be representative of an envious person rationalizing their envy to themselves.
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I thought that it’d be a bit trite to associate blue with melancholy, but I thought that I was an emotion that needed to be present in the piece. It beings with a woodwind soli to transition from the percussion/woodwind-heavy green to the brass-heavy blue. The horns and low brass take over, before grief strikes in as the whole band joins in. A woodwind feature gives a short break from the grief before it returns shortly after.
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While indigo is often considered to be a color of the rainbow, it is too similar to blue or violet to have any significant meaning attached to it, so I didn't include it.
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Violet has long been associated with royalty, and I consider it very lucky that the last color before the finale perfectly fit the ‘pre-finale maestoso’ that are often heard in pieces. It begins with a short trumpet fanfare before the theme is presented, and eventually the full band comes in with woodwind and snare drum flourishes.
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The piece then ends in a finale that harkens back to the beginning, with a colorful penultimate chord reminiscent of the ending of Gustav Holst’s Chaconne from the First Suite in Eb. That is, of course, before the bass instruments join in for a triumphant and full final chord.
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The piece was premiered in November 2021 by the Duquesne University Wind Symphony, under the direction of Dr. James Gourlay. A special thanks goes out him, as well as Rob Traugh and Jon Derby, who all helped shape the piece into what it is today.
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