| Description |
Chiasmi 1999, scored for 15 wind instrumentalists, timpanist, and two percussionists, has three large divisions that combine to make one large A-B-A form. Three character ideas - Fanfare (mm. 1-5), Song (mm 6-9), and Frolic (m. 10) - form the Introduction. The Song becomes the lyrical theme of the piece and, from the Introduction through Part A-Section 1 (mm. 11-28), is continuous: the portions would fit together musically even without the interruptions. The transition (mm. 29-30) leads to Part !-Section 2, the fugato (mm. 31-48). In the fugato three thematic ideas emerge: subject Y (m. 31); countersubject Z (m. 32); and X (m. 34) which is Y's rhythmically varied inversion and the most important motive of the piece. The fugato is exclusively Y, Z, X, and their variations, with no episodes. Part B (mm. 49-100) is exclusively a transformation of the lyrical theme which by the end of Part B becomes a lyrical X. After the retransition (mm. 101-102), Part A' occurs (mm. 103-154). In the piece, the six ideas exploit devices such as development, interruption, canon, and combination. In the last four measure, X, Fanfare, Song, and Frolic merge to solve the drama with a melodic fanfare of 12-pitch, fortissimo chords on X and a playful but lyrical single-lime melody on X's retrograde. The title word chiasmi refers to a design with an inversion or reversal in two otherwise parallel structures or with two halves of a structure in parallel patterns to each other, i.e., synonymous, synthetic, antithetic. Part A is a chiasmus with an 18-measure section on each side of the transition. Part B with Part A' is another chiasmus, with a 52-measure part on each side of the retransition. The piece without the Introduction is a third chiasmus, containing the chiasmic structure A with its transition inside one part and the chiasmic structure B-A' with its retransition between two parts. Chiasmi occur on many levels. On a middle level, the beginning of Part A' is the return to the Introduction and Part A but with reversed events: Section 2, the fugato, returns first (m. 103), Section I second (M. 112), and the Introduction last and in two stages (mm. 127 and 146). Furthermore, X and Y are in reverse order, with X returning in M. 103 and Y in m. 103 and Y in m. 116; and the Introduction's opening pitches and rhythm return in the last of the two stages. Measure 127-128 present a simultaneously melodic and vertical statement of X, on row form P-2 which begins on D with X's original rhythm but some changed registers. |
