Circle o Fourths Joe Wole
Circle o Fourths Joe Wole Three lutes, one doubling iccolo One oboe and one cor anglais Two clarinets and one bass clarinet Two bassoons Four horns Two trumets Two trombones and one bass trombone Tuba Timani (ideally our, but layable with two) Bass drum, cymbals, tam tam, congas, timbales. At least three layers String orchestra The brie or comosing a celebratory iece or the UNSW Orchestra's 100th concert was simle: 4 or 5 minutes o un, using everybody and not to comete too much or rehearsal time. The orchestra's archivist (cellist Eric Sowey) was keen that the iece incororate the number 100. The Old Hundredth is a chorale, so named because its words are rom salm 100: 'All eole that on Earth do dwell'. I took the irst ive, our or three notes, added syncoation, and used them as seeds or the three tunes in this iece. There was another idea that I've wanted to use in a short orchestral work. Nearly every musician sends some time, irst in wonder then in worry, on discovering the circle o ourths (or iths 1 ). Play our ascending notes in a major scale, say C-F. Then another: F-Bb. Continuing thus, and setting Gb = F#, we have C-F-Bb-Eb-Ab-Db-Gb(=F#)-B-E-A-D-G-C. On a iano, Gb = F# so, ater 12 ourths, we have covered ive octaves and come back 'home' to C - hence the circle. The worry arises because a erect ourth has a requency ratio o 4/ and an octave 2/1. So 5 octaves = 2 5 = 2, while (4/) 12 = 1.6. Out by 1.% or a quarter o a semitone, called the Pythagorean comma it's not a new roblem! Minimising the otential mistuning thus caused is called temerament. There are many temeraments, all with disadvantages: Lakes o ink have been oured into the roblem o temerament over more than two millennia. But quite aart rom the historical, hysical and hilosohical interest in the circle, I was attracted by the melodic and harmonic ossibilities o successive ourths. Stacked u over ive octaves, the circle is an interesting chord and building it rom the bass creates musical tension. By keeing the edal notes loud and distributing it through the orchestra, I exect that we shan't have serious temeramental roblems. There is, however, the interesting question o where to go ater a chord that contains 12 dierent notes: this work has a ew answers. The iece is mainly in 8:8 time (++2 quavers) with, or contrast, some interjections o +++2+2, a :4 slow section in the middle and some syncoated our at the end. While I was writing this iece, Larrikin Records surrisingly won a court action against a band that had wittily quoted 11 notes rom 'Kookaburra sits in an old gum tree'. So I wondered about the roriety o borrowing u to 5 notes rom Lloys Bourgeois, who wrote the Old Hundredth in the sixteenth century. Or rom the unknown inventor o the descending major scale, because Bourgeois, in turn, had already borrowed the hrase! However, i Larrikin were to buy u the old chorales I exect that they would start suing Bach irst, so I'm robably sae. I not, I'm leading syncoation. But i Pythagoras sues me or the circle o ourths, I'm in trouble. About the comoser Joe Wole is a hysicist by day, but has written several orchestral works. The irst o these, his most notorious, is the Stairway Suite: a set o seven orchestral variations on the o song Stairway to Heaven, each in the style o a dierent comoser (currently being rehearsed by community orchestras in Korea and the UK). Sydney Sketches is music about the city, Conjunction is an interactive introduction to the orchestra. He also wrote a celebratory overture or the UNSW orchestra's tenth anniversary, and a jazz-lavoured concerto or SSO trumeter Anthony Henrichs. 1 A ew eole have asked: Why a circle o ourths, rather than iths? First, a circle o iths is seven octaves, which stretches the orchestral range and would make it diicult to balance chords. Second, when musicians deart rom erect tuning, they usually stretch intervals. Stretching a circle o ourths reduces the temerament roblem, stretching iths increases it. Third, and most imortantly, I reerred melodic and harmonic ossibilities o the ourths.
Piccolo/ Flute Flute 1 q.=68 q.=84 Circle o Fourths Joe Wole, 2010 q.=68 q.=84 Flute 2 Oboe Cor Anglais 2 Clarinets in Bb Bass Clarinet in Bb Bassoon 1 Bassoon 2 4 Horns in F 2 Trumets in Bb 2 Trombones Bass Trombone Tuba Timani Bass Drum Timbales Cymbals Tam-tam Violin I Violin II Viola Violoncello Double Bass m q.=68 m m m m m dam dam m q.=84 q.=68 m m m m m q.=84 m m m m m m tune E, A and B,D our m m m izz arco m m izz. arco
2 Pic/Fl B. Tts. B. Tim. I 9 on icc. l.v. al niente al niente al niente al niente al niente
Pic/Fl 15 B. m Tts. B. Tim. I normale bouché bouché normale bouché dam dam m m m m m izz.
4 Pic/Fl 24 B. Tts. B. Tim. I normale normale normale bouché m dam i 4 tims else tacet i 4 tims solo
5 Pic/Fl B. Tts. B. Tim. I a 2 m dam m m arco a 2 normale m m i 4 tims i 4 tims a 2 m m
6 Pic/Fl B. Tts. B. Tim. I 41 semre icc. al niente muta in lauto m m l.v. l.v. tune E,A (and D,G i 4)
7 Pic/Fl B. Tts. B. Tim. I 47 q.=68 m solo m q.=68 l.v. l.v. susended l.v. l.v. l.v. al niente solo touch 5th on A o o a 2 solo m m solo m m m m solo al niente m al niente al niente semre m m
8 Pic/Fl B. 58 sul lauto a 1 solo m solo m solo a 2 m Tts. B. a 1 Tim. I izz. o o o o o izz. o izz. m tutti m m izz. m
9 Pic/Fl 68 B. Tts. solo m B. Tim. I arco m arco m arco m arco m izz. m
10 Pic/Fl 78 muta in icc. solo m B. a 2 Tts. B. Tim. a 1 m m m m solo m m a 1 a 1 I izz. izz.
11 Pic/Fl B. 89 match discord with l2 sul icc match discord with icc a 1 Tts. B. Tim. I izz. izz. s arco arco
12 Pic/Fl B. Tts. B. Tim. I 99 oco rit. muta in lauto oco rit. bouché, a2 m bouché, a2 m hands, not sticks! m m m susended dam l.v. dam l.v. m m arco m semre izz q.=84 q.=84 a 1 m m m m m
1 Pic/Fl B. Tts. B. Tim. I 108 lay m bouché m m dam take sticks dam bouché arco m m m l m
14 Pic/Fl B. Tts. B. Tim. I 115 muta in iccolo solo a 2 con corni m normale a 2 normale a 2 a 2 i only 2, omit D&E dam l.v semre l.v. m dam sticks m m semre arco izz. izz. semre izz.
15 Pic/Fl B. Tts. B. Tim. I 121 P P m 1 P P P P P P a 2
16 Pic/Fl B. Tts. B. Tim. I 128 arco icc a 2 arco arco
Pic/Fl 14 17 B. Tts. B. Tim. I i enough layers these could be crash
18 Pic/Fl B. Tts. B. Tim. I 140 a 1 2nd a 1 4th dam m izz. m div m
19 Pic/Fl B. Tts. B. Tim. I 147 Vcl m Vcl arco m on icc.
20 Pic/Fl 152 B. Tts. B. Tim. I semre, non semre, non dam l.v. dam l.v m m solo dam dam