The ‘cone of uncertainty’ is a term used by meteorologists to illustrate the range of most likely tracks for a hurricane. The cone narrows as the storm approaches and the location of a strike becomes increasingly clear. For those in the path of the storm, their thoughts may veer between surges of anxiety, over-confidence, appeals to a higher power, and resignation…. as time inexorably erodes the cone.

Cone Of Uncertainty is constructed using a 12 note ‘row’ (B, C, E, Eb, F#, G, D, Bb, F, C#, G#, A) in a predominantly triadic-tonal context. The row or its 3 transformations are present throughout the piece, either in melody, bass line or harmonies, or a combination of these.

Cone Of Uncertainty was commissioned by Tim and Hilary Reynish in 2017 and revised in 2022.

Christopher Marshall 
Orlando, Florida 2022

Cone Of Uncertainty

The word ‘threnody' derives from Ancient Greek, meaning ‘song of mourning’. Humankind has always recognised the power of music to offer reflection, hope and healing in the darkest of times.

'Threnody' uses a 12 tone theme in a triadic-tonal context. The theme is heard in its entirety as the opening melody. In the second section, its retrograde (and retrograde-inverted) versions form a canon, starting in the cello. After the return of the main melody, a livelier section sees those retrograde themes as an accompanying figure in the pizzicato cellos. The music concludes with the theme in the solo violin. It is left incomplete, ending on the 6th tone.

There were three performances in 2021 in Aurora CO, by the Denver Symphony Orchestra directed by Lawrence Golan who directed another two the same year by the Lamont Chamber Orchestra, and two performances by the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra directed by Aaron Collins in 2022. 

The European premiere will be in February 2025, Douglas Bostock directing the Southwest German Chamber Orchestra. This recording is a MIDI simulation that reflects changes to the score since the previous performances.

You may view the score at Murphy Music Press: http://murphymusicpress.com/products/o-116a, where 'Threnody' is available for purchase or rental.

Threnody

Jack Stamp directs the University of Indiana PA and student soloist Adam Baruch in this performance of this work, previously the second movement of the Concerto 'Renascence' (2007) commissioned by an international consortium.

For What Is Lost

John Carmichael commissioned this work to be premiered October 1, 2015 by the University of South Florida Wind Ensemble under his direction. This performance is from 2017 in Austin Texas, the University of Texas Wind Ensemble, directed by Jerry Junkin.

The original version of 'Méndez' for large brass ensemble was commissioned by Summit Brass and David Hickman, and premiered by Summit Brass under Joseph Parisi in July 2015.

In the middle years of the 20th century, legendary Mexican trumpet virtuoso Rafael Méndez (1906-1981)presented hundreds of trumpet trio concerts with his two sons, Robert and Rafael Jr.

'Méndez' seeks to evoke the atmosphere of those performances and the spirit of the times. It uses as its inspiration five motifs taken from one of the lightest of the Méndez trios, 'The Brave Matador'. To these are added the kind of flourishes that feature in many Méndez compositions and that for many listeners characterise the folk music of Mexico.

This material is embedded in a 12 note theme(Ab Bb Db Gb D Eb E F G C B A) that, in addition to providing significant melodic material, lends the overture a cohesive structure.

Please contact me for scores of either of these works.

Méndez (for Wind Ensemble)

Magen Solomon directs the San Francisco Choral Artists in this performance of the 10th song from my 1990 cycle 'To The Horizon' commissioned by Karen Grylls and the Auckland Dorian Choir.

Elegy in a City Railyard

Slategrey stone grey smokegrey
The fag-end of evening smoulders away.
The girl from the store and the produce-broker
The teacher the wharfie the city clerk
The sportsgoods man and the barroom joker
Have all gone into companionable dark.
The ledger is closed; the hand comes down
Carefully blotting the graph of skylines
Scribbled across the dove-coloured town.
Like a woolworth diamond, Jupiter shines
On a sky as soft as an eiderdown.

Crème-de-menthe, ember-red, amber
The lights glow out and the day falls.
Tyres burr on the road’s camber
As they take the bridge above the fan of rails
Shining like lead and the sheeted steam
Tinged from below with boiler fires,

The roundhouse is silent – there seem
No live things here except the tyres
Of the buses, and the piston’s push and haul
And the signal’s unintelligible call
And the searchlights in their tall martian machine
Knifing the grey September weather
Where the voices of night come home between 
The engines talking quietly together.

							M.K.Joseph

Elegy In A City Railyard

Frank Albinder directed the Washington Men's Camerata in the world premiere of this 'Tihei Mauri Ora!' in the Kennedy Center in 2003. 'He Oriori' is the second movement.

Lullaby

Son, born on a winter morning,
Climb up, ascend my boy,
To meet your many ancestors in heaven;
Will you survive these evil times?
My child, go quickly
So you may reach the sacred waters of your forefathers,
And they may pass on to you the black dogskin cloak of war
To wear when the expeditions set forth.
I have bound the red kaka feather to my weapon,
I have caught the albatross feather from the foaming waves,
Just as it was sinking in stormy waters.

Noho-mai-te-rangi – high chief of Ngäti Kahungungu (Hawkes Bay) in the mid-18th century, composed this for his son, Te Hauapo. As with many ‘oriori’ it exhorts the child to seek the knowledge of his ancestors in order to rescue his tribe from misfortune, as his father has done in the past. 

In this case is that the lullaby is addressed to the spirit of the child as by the time it was performed Te Hauapo had already died. 

'He Oriori' from 'Tihei Mauri Ora!'

From 'Song Of Samoa' sung by the Auckland Graduate Choir.

Moemoe Pepe is a Samoan lullaby, the words obviously having strong links to the English lullaby Rock-a-bye Baby, though here the baby's demise is not actually documented.

Sleep, baby in the tree tops,
Rocking back and forth when the wind blows,
When the branch breaks the bed will fall,
Baby, you are content with your rocking.

Moemoe Pepe

The second song from the cycle 'O Fragile Human' performed by the Woodley Ensemble directed by Frank Albinder who was among an international consortium that commissioned this cycle.

As I walked along the street I heard
a transistor singing like a bird,
an advertisement from 4ZB
singing in the cherry tree.

I said, So high, so far away
you sing in the push-button sky.
Have you a message of faith and hope?
It said, Use Lily-Clean soap.

And I was angry then and tried
to forget the transistor bird
but its voice came loud in the world so green
– With hexachlorophene.

Then I smote the bird and I smote the tree
and the push-button sky fell down on me,
and dying I lay alone without hope
or faith or Lily-Clean soap.

- Janet Frame (with permission)

'As I Walked Along The Street' from 'O Fragile Human'

'The Rust Belt’ is a term for the region straddling the upper North-Eastern United States, the Great Lakes, and the Midwest States, referring to economic decline, population loss, and urban decay due to the shrinking of its once-powerful industrial sector.

     Rust Belt was inspired by a photo essay featuring images from this region, such as abandoned factories and derelict neighborhoods. The music suggests the vibrancy, the blue-collar energy and optimism that used to permeate those sites. It evokes the nostalgia of the inhabitants for the good years and their yearning for a return to relevance and dignity.

     The musical material is generated from a 12 note ‘row’ that is used consistently throughout, either in melody or bass, though always in the context of a triadic tonal harmonic language. In reflection of the industrial theme, much use is made of metallic percussion, including anvil and steel drums. And the siren is also prominently featured.

     'Rust Belt' was commissioned in 2017 by the United States Air Force Academy Band and premiered under the baton of Shanti Simon, with Tim Allums and Adrian Holton solo trumpets. After touring the piece through Utah and Colorado the band featured it in their performance at the 2017 National Trumpet Competition. It was performed that same year in Manchester UK by the wind ensemble of the Royal Northern College of Music under Mark Heron. In 2019 James Ripley directed the Carthage College Wind Orchestra in a fine performance with Jacinda Ripley and Kevin Natoli as soloists.

'Rust Belt' is published by Murphy Music Press (www.murphymusicpress.com).

Rust Belt

The setting of a poem by Denis Glover, the sixth of twelve songs in the cycle 'To The Horizon' (1990). It recounts an unsuccessful farming venture, the kind of small tragedy played out innumerable times throughout New Zealand history, and figuring in my own family's history too.
This fine performance is by i Coristi directed by Rob Curtis in 2017 in Edmonton, Canada.

The Magpies

When Tom and Elizabeth took the farm
The bracken made their bed,
And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies said.

Tom's hand was strong to the plough
Elizabeth's lips were red,
And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies said.

Year in year out they worked
While the pines grew overhead,
And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies said.

But all the beautiful crops soon went
To the mortgage-man instead,
And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies said.

Elizabeth is dead now (it's years ago)
Old Tom went light in the head;
And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies said.

The farm's still there. Mortgage corporations
Couldn't give it away.
And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies say.

- Denis Glover

Landscapes

'The Magpies' from 'To the Horizon'

A setting of the poem by A.R.D. Fairburn, the second of twelve songs in the cycle 'To The Horizon' (1990). This is the human journey ‘from womb to tomb’ through the eyes of a tramp. The Great Depression affected New Zealand as profoundly as it did many countries. Impoverished people took to the road in unprecedented numbers looking for work.

Please excuse the sound quality! This is the recording taken from a cassette tape before it fell apart, the only recording of the original 10 songs of 'To The Horizon' that still exists: the Auckland Dorian Choir directed by Karen Grylls who commissioned this work.

WALKING ON MY FEET

hitched up my bundle 
went down the street
long way to go
walking on my feet

went past Charley’s
didn’t turn in
broke to the wide
had a good spin

toting my gunny
hit the south road
long way to go
got a heavy load

tired already
walking on my feet
dust in my mouth
and damn this heat

bloke just passed
had a spare seat
left me behind
walking on my feet

all my life 
always on the go
keep on doing 
the old heel and toe

put one in front
then put the other
same old way
I learnt from my mother

blister on my heel
don’t know when I’ll eat
same old business
walking on my feet

I know where I’m going
walking on my feet
reckon when I get there 
I’ll be dead beat

won’t get a woman
won’t find gold
pockets will be empty
bed will be cold

never will be worried 
never want a snack
don’t worry lady
I won’t be back

I know where I’m going
where I’ll lie down
nice quiet place
long way from town

long way to go
I’ll sleep all alone
fingers round the earth
earth round the bone

living rent free
on easy street
never any more
go walking on my feet

A.R.D. Fairburn

'Walking On My Feet' - from 'To The Horizon'

'Transcending' is the fourth and final movement of 'Alafaya', a suite composed for and dedicated to John Lynch and the Sydney Conservatory Wind Symphony. This performance was recorded in July 2019 at the WASBE 2019 conference in Buñol, Spain.

To transcend means to surpass, to go beyond. One may transcend the joys and sorrows of this life through the attainment of inner peace. Eventually the soul will break free and drift unencumbered on the serene breezes of the universe. 

There can be few sounds so conducive to a transcendent state as that of waves lapping upon the shore. It is possible to calculate the interval between those waves, and so much more in the natural world, by means of the Fibonacci series. Accordingly the overlapping chords in this music are built around durations of 2, 3, 5, and 8 beats - the opening values of that series.

'Transcending' is published by Murphy Music Press (www.murphymusicpress.com)

Christopher Marshall

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