Brandon Nelson

I think we’re all aware of local band programs that take on a certain legendary quality over the years. In my area, one such program is that at Kingsford High School (Kingsford, MI). For many years, under the leadership of Ben Sherk, the KHS Bands attained a very high level of musicianship and, in the case of the marching band, showmanship. The whole community fell in love with its unique band program.

Of course, one person can’t keep going forever, and so, at the beginning of the 2022 school year, Mr. Sherk handed over his baton to Jacob Barnby. It’s always a formidable challenge to “fill the shoes” in a legendary program, but through intelligence, determination, and lots of community of support, Mr. Barnby has successfully begun a new chapter for Kingsford. With this piece, I want to both honor the incredible legacy of Mr. Sherk and to wish Mr. Barnby and the whole Kingsford community many continued years of great music making! Onward to new horizons!

About the Composition
It’s always been a struggle for musicologists to describe the functional nature of the harmonies of Late Romantic composers, such as Wagner, Liszt, and Debussy. Familiar triads are often deployed in unfamiliar ways. Traditional Roman Numeral analysis is often difficult or impossible to describe this music.

In an attempt to understand the unique nature of this type of tonality, German musicologist Hugo Riemann came up with a simple, elegant way around this problem: describe the motion between triads rather than focus on the “function” of the individual chord. There are several “operations” that Riemann came up with, and musicologists since have greatly expanded on these concepts (under the heading Neo-Riemannian Theory). It is those essential operations that I have deployed in devloping the harmonic framework for this piece.

Those operations are described with letters:

P – the third of the chord moves up or down by a 1/2 step to create the opposite quality (e.g., C major becomes C minor)

R – in major, the 5th of a root position chord moves up to the 6th scale degree (e.g., C major becomes A minor); in minor, the root moves down a whole tone (e.g., A minor becomes C major)

L – in major, the root moves down a diatonic step (e.g., C major becomes E minor); in minor, the 5th moves up a diatonic step (e.g., E minor becomes C major)

N – a major triad is exchanged for its minor subdominant (e.g., C major becomes F minor); a minor triad is exchanged for its major dominant (e.g., C minor becomes G major)

S – the exchange of triads that share a third (e.g., C major becomes C# minor)

H – the exchange of triads around a doubly-chromatic mediant relationship (e.g., C major becomes Ab minor)

The first theme in this piece uses operations P-R-L-N-S-H beginning on C major. The second, lyrical theme in this piece uses the operations H-S-N-L-R-P (the retrograde of that of the first theme) beginning on Db major.

Melodically, the lyrical theme is a variation in augmentation of the subsidiary of the first theme and the coda trades material from the primary and subsidiary portions of the first theme. In this sense, the piece is highly self-referential (organic).