The John Muir Notebook (2014)
Piano and Bodrhán
The piece is in ternary form, and it is constructed mainly of motives that are repeated over and over again in different variations.
The A section (bb. 1-51) is in Bb mixolydian with a tonic drone borrowed from bagpipe music throughout the whole section and consists of irregular quaver groupings in 4/4 divided as 3+3+2 and 3+2+3. The B section (51-141) is more atonal, beginning with a transition that changes the time signature to 9/8. The return of A (141-end) involves an extension of the coda, building up through dissonant chords before finishing on Bb.
The title refers to the Scottish-born environmentalist John Muir, as he sails for the Celtic ‘land of youth’, AKA America.
In this piece, I wanted to convey the excited anticipation brought about as John travels for the wilderness of the New World.
This piece was written for the 'Minimalist' module of my third year composition course, and forms the third and final piece of that year's portfolio.