Locriana (2007-2008, rev. 2011)

Professional level. Premiered by the Kandinsky Trio, with guest violist Hilary Herndon. These four movements include a wide variety of textures and moods flavored with the piquancy of the locrian mode.  Locrian is an inherently unstable scale with half steps between the 1st & 2nd and 4th & 5th degrees, a tritone from the 1st degree to the 5th, and a vague, dark and chocolaty flavor.  The music at once exploits and tempers these characteristics.  $40, including piano score, parts, and demo disk; order here.

I. Yin & Yangs (about 4:40) - A brief sonata form, in which 1st & 2nd themes are given very opposite characters.  After a violent, lurching introduction, the two themes are presented in the reverse of the traditional order—a gentle, lyrical 1st theme in pan-diatonic Eb in violin and viola (yin), followed by a forceful and ponderous theme in the piano made up of motives from the introduction (yangs).  A polyphonic development section begins gently (yin) and progresses to a bold conclusion (yang), followed by a shortened recapitulation that develops the two themes a bit more.  Finally, the introduction is briefly reprised and the movement ends with a grand gesture in A locrian.

II. Tango Excéntrico (about 4:35) - Off-center in approach—often detached and cryptic rather than passionate, missing half of every 4th beat—this movement commits itself only partially to the typical tango mystique.  The material appears and returns in a sort of rondo form, with each return varied in some way.  At the end it sputters out in fractured little tango rhythms in C locrian.

III. Night Music (7:30-8:00) - Dark, hazy and enigmatic, this begins by presenting previous melodic motives in scattered, ephemeral gestures.  The lyrical theme from the first movement appears in the middle section in a fairly recognizable form, but soon develops into a tangled web as all three strings present it in simultaneous variations.  A chorale-like section in the strings ushers in a third section that mixes and develops material from the first two and eventually dissolves in a quiet chord progression in D# locrian. .

IV. Modular Agitations (about 5:50) - In this finale blocks of music of various lengths make frequent reappearances, varied in their content and sequence— a sort of extended rondo.  Whether loud or soft or thick or thin, its temperament is generally unsettled.  The characteristic locrian half steps and tritones are subjects of obsession in the melodies of all sections.  The movement is keyed at beginning and end in F# locrian, but all the keys of the previous movements are revisited.  A long dominant pedal point on C heralds the ending in F#.