Hymntunes X: On Simple Gifts for eight flutes (2012).

A while back, I attended a concert that included a piece based on the hymntune Simple Gifts. The piece seemed pretty unremarkable until I heard the theme enter in canon. This is not unique, Copland did the same thing in his setting of the same theme in Appalachian Spring. But this time something different was about to happen. Players who had been resting suddenly raised their instruments. It looked like the simple canon would turn into something more complex, with each instrument entering with the theme closer and closer together, faster and faster, until there was a kind of grand cacophony. The players ended up playing something unrelated to the theme and the music concluded in a very conventional way, but it gave me the idea for this piece. The beginning of Hymntunes X consists of the Simple Gifts theme played in canon. It's a canon in which the theme piles up on itself. The theme sounds, then enters again 4 beats later, and then 2 beats later, then 2 beats later, 1 beat later, and finally a half beat later. In order to make the theme sound good when played with itself at this many different time intervals, I found myself changing it each time, making little changes in the pitches and the rhythms. This seemed appropriate, it reminded me of the tradition of Scared Harp singing. Scared Harp singers sing hymns in an unusual way. They are concerned about personal expression rather than group effect, so each singer sings the hymn however she wants to, often changing the pitches and rhythms of the tune. While the technique of the music reminded me of Sacred Harp singing, the cacophony of the sound reminded me of the Balinese gamelan. In Bali, they have orchestras of bells and gongs that play a music comprised of repeated melodic fragments. The extremely canonic texture of my piece created a very similar effect. This suggested to me that the middle of the piece should change modes, from the bright Western major quality to the a five note scale based on Balinese music. Gamelan style, multiple canons and Sacred Harp singing all tend to create a kind of grand swirl of sound. This swirl of sound should be the basic effect of the piece.

Hymntunes X was performed at the National Flute Association convention in Chicago in 2014. Paul Thompson conducted the Calliope Flute Ensemble.

Hymntunes X, Calliope Flute Ensemble (excerpt).