Dirge in D-Flat

Download (06:55, 16.5 MB). To the memory of Dominic Frontiere (1931 – 2017)

Seventh and ninth chords abound. (At least, I think they do. I’ve mostly forgotten the single year of music theory I had in college and so compose strictly by ear. Not at all sure about the nomenclature.) The collisions of polytonal chords is another technique I return to (examples at 00:09, 00:16, 00:24, 01:04, 01:12 — and many, many others). These are my attempt to replicate the sometimes-mysterious, sometimes-foreboding, often brooding and somber harmonies of Dominic Frontiere’s superior music from the first season of the original “Outer Limits” (1963-64).

The dirge cycles from D-flat C-sharp^* minor to a center section in G minor (about 01:35 through 04:35), in which a “distant trumpet” sounds (starting at 02:53). Reverb and echo effects are used to make the trumpet sound like it’s off stage. (I love the trumpet solo in the third second movement of Ralph Vaughan William’s Fourth (“Pastoral”) symphony and seem to return to that sound often.)

At 03:30 or so, the trumpet persists in G minor, but I juxtapose it against a sustained C-sharp  minor chord in the virtual strings. I meant to do that!

After a brief detour into B-flat minor (04:37 – 05:17) I repeat the D-flat chords from the beginning, along with the Frontiere-ian dissonances. After sustained ninth chords, anchored by C-flats in the low strings and tuba, the piece ends on what I hope is a serenely unambiguous D-flat major triad.  The brief snippet of Taps from the distant trumpet has no particular programmatic intent. It just seems to wrap up the D-flat major resolution nicely.

^* I wrote “D-flat minor” previously, but that assumes that there’s an “F-flat major.” Ooops. This comes from composing on a virtual piano roll: it’s easy to just place the notes and forget that their names need to line up with actual key signatures. But, I’m not gonna change the post title.