New Music Upload!

Hello everybody!

This year, autumn takes off with a new piano trio called On the Wing ! This piece of music was written to celebrate the recent birthday of Gary Schue. Happy birthday, Gary! On the Wing can be found on the Works page.

The artwork for the cover this month is actually a photograph I took from the cockpit of a small airplane on a trip with Gary. It was perfect for this piece since you can clearly see the wing of the plane in the photo.

On the Wing is an expression that means flying. This piece attempts to capture the thrills and dangers of flying a plane. The quick tempo (quarter note = 150) keeps things lively, while the 5/4 time signature of the first section keeps you on the edge of your seat. The ascending melodies and descending arpeggios represent gaining and losing altitude.

There are many passages full of extended harmonies (9th, 11th, 13th chords, etc.) which give the piece an almost dreamy feel. Another harmonic characteristic of this piece is the unusual chord resolutions. An example of these strange resolutions is at the end of the piece, where an A major chord resolves to an Eb major chord. The sound of this chord change is striking due to the root of the chords being a tritone apart.

The instrumentation of On the Wing is piano trio, which means a piano and two other instruments. In this case, I chose the cello and the clarinet. However, the clarinetist must also switch to the bass clarinet in the middle of the piece. I chose to have this switch so that the cello could have a turn with some of the high melodies without the overall mix losing some of the powerful low end rumble. I think that this group of instruments sounds exceptionally good together, each one's timbre complimenting the other and contributing to the overall mix.

I hope that you all enjoy listening to the high flying adventure that is On the Wing ! Please like and share on your favorite social media outlet if you get the chance. I appreciate all of the support from all of you listeners.

Until next time!

Nathan C. Curtis

#NewMusic #NathanCurtis