Name: Sybil's Theme by Gregory M. Hodges | Composer
Duration: 6 min 11 s
Description: This is the theme I wrote for a character from a recent autobiographical novella I wrote. She wavers somewhere between reality and dreams in the mists of my imagination.

If you ever make a film of your novella, this would be great sound track theme music for this character! I enjoyed listening!

FROM THE SHADOW OF THE MOUNTAIN (2001)

AFTER SPRING RAIN (1982)

This is the theme I wrote for a character from a recent autobiographical novella I wrote. She wavers somewhere between reality and dreams in the mists of my imagination.

Sybil's Theme

Live recording March 9, 2024, Tlouhill PAC, St. Louis, MO. Yoko Reikano Kimura, Koto and Voice Sumie Kaneko, Shamisen and Voice, James Nyoraku Schlefer, Shakuhachi, and The Arianna String Quartet

Tommy – a musical fantasy based on a true story is a musical interpretation of a real historical event. It brings together two of my worlds; that of a native New Yorker and of someone who has a deep interest in Japanese music and history. The true story goes like this…

Beginning in January 1860, a group of 77 samurai sailed 37 days across the Pacific as part of the first Japanese Diplomatic Mission to the United States. They came as ambassadors, to secure the Treaty of Kanagawa which was signed on March 31, 1854 as facilitated by Commodore Matthew Perry. After a stop in San Francisco, the group sailed on to Panama, crossed the isthmus by railroad, and sailed to Washington DC. Official business concluded, they stayed to sightsee and visited Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. It was a remarkable first encounter between two peoples and two cultures.

As the samurai’s journey progressed, one of the translators-in-training – a very handsome young man with a witty and cheerful nature by the name of Tateishi Onojiro – became a celebrity. Nicknamed “Tommy,” his fame preceded him and by the time the mission arrived in New York, he was avidly sought after for autographs, photographs, and bragging rights. This was especially the case with the women of New York, who pestered him relentlessly. (Noted in newspapers of the time as “the crinoline crush.”) When not fending off the fairer sex, Tommy and the others attended an opera, a minstrel show and a parade with hundreds of marching bands. They visited Central Park, a school, a rich person’s mansion, did a great deal of shopping, and were fêted with a grand ball at the long-gone Metropolitan Hotel, where they were lodged. 

Tommy’s fame became so great that the prolific American composer Charles Grobe even composed the popular Tommy Polka in his honor. (Yes, I have included a musical quote in this piece.) The polka’s lyrics pretty much summed up the local adulation: "Wives and maids by scores are flocking; Round that charming, little man; Known as Tommy, witty Tommy; from Japan."

Tommy’s adventures inspired my composition. While not literal depictions, the movements are musical imaginings of his experiences and emotions. Tommy is represented musically with an idée fixe – a recurring melody that is heard at the opening of the piece and throughout the work. There are three vocal sections with poetic Japanese lyrics: preparing for the journey; being the object of relentless attention; looking forward to the familiarity of home. 

In reading the many accounts of this history in the NYC newspapers of the time, one gets the impression that there was a significant amount of culture shock. My juxtaposition of Japanese instruments with string quartet highlights this reality. At times the music attempts to represent the homesickness that Tommy no doubt would have felt, using classic Japanese pentatonic scales and heterophonic textures, comingled with Western harmonies and homophonic textures. Overall, Tommy is my musical response to the complexities inherent in such a seminal cross-cultural exchange.

Tommy

Watch the official video at https://youtu.be/56kSHL9WWGk?si=_OsPHTPuarRU4VUd

© 2024 DiGiorgi Music (ASCAP)

A Curious Dream

Strings Quartet featuring a number a extended contemporary classical techniques, textures, new tonality and custom scale.

Flux Lila

Written in B major and B myxolydian

Made with Spitfire Audio's Chamber String Essentials, BBC Symphony Orchestra (Bass Clarinet, Bass Flute, Vibraphone, Viola Leader), Embertone's Bass Recorder and Fractured Sounds Gentle Winds and Electric Keys.

Image by Dids from pexels.com

Dreamy Afternoons

Dies liquidus

Performance from the New Music Ensemble Concert on 4/16/16 at Florida State University. 

Elaine Bastos and Jocelyn Hsu, violins
Joseph Koeferl, viola
Logan Castro, cello

String Quartet

Olle Persson, baritone, St. Jacob's Chamber Choir, S:a Clara's Motet Choir, (choir master: Gary Graden), Uppsala Chamber Orch. cond. Paul Mägi

Anders Nilsson: REQUIEM

The third movement of my sixth symphony is an Adagio, in memory the many victims of the Covid-19 pandemic in Sweden. During the three weeks in May I wrote this movement, the death toll raised from 3000 to 4000.
Midi version made by Vienna Symphonic Library

Symphony VI 3rd Mvt - ¨The Diary Of Sorrows¨

I am a composer in the tradition of Western art music.  My goal is to create original works in a time-honored musical language with the hope of contributing to the continuation of classical music’s rich legacy.  All simulated musical performances are made possible by Finale music notation software and the NotePerformer virtual instrument playback engine.

Sybil's Theme

Gregory M. Hodges | Composer

Recent comments

Martin Max Schreiner, composer

Related tracks