Stories for Shahryar

A piece written for Brass Quartet (Trumpet, Horn, Euphonium, Tuba) that depicts the idea of repetition in 1001 Tales of Arabian Nights (Shahryar being the sultan to whom these tales were told).There is a central theme that is repeated, with differences each time, reflecting certain stories that are told in variations in the 1001 tales.

Stories for Shahryar

A cool combination of instruments: I like the sonority of the quartet.

The chords sound great, especially the dissonances; this and the driving rhythm in some parts reminded me a little bit of Michael Torke's early orchestral music where groups/sections of instruments play nice syncopated chords that seem to use a lot of seconds and sixths.

I think the four instruments trade foreground and background positions quite well, and it's nice to hear the various instruments coming through the texture. The opening sounded especially contrapuntal, and I found myself wanting to hear a small return of those bars somewhere in the second half of the piece. The opening is also interesting, because the first few seconds sound as if the instruments are trying to find their place within the ensemble, eventually locking into the vertical chords at around 0:31. Perhaps it's because of this strong impression that I hoped to hear a similar section later in the music.

Overall, the form indeed seems to reflect the idea of repetition; I like that the repeating theme has a strong forward momentum not unlike how a story might be told. The quiet, unobtrusive opening also reinforces the idea that we've entered not at the beginning of the long series of stories but rather in the middle, the music allowing a glimpse of only a few of the 1001 stories and leaving us with a cliffhanger at its end.

Great piece! I much enjoyed it.

Thanks!

I considered putting a restatement of the opening just before the end (not immediately at the end because I wanted a strong ending), but I was concerned that since the section is very loosely structured and lacking a very clear motif, that it would be difficult to convincingly lead into it. I was unsure as to how I would lead from a highly structured and rhythmic section into this unstructured and more "free-flowing", contrapuntal section.

Thanks again for your input! :)

Hi JAlee!

Very nice melody hear. I enjoy the African-y feel you gave this.

The 9ths that came in at 3:02 were perfect! A nice surprise indeed.

I also like how you took 1 melody and made it go throughout the piece, but somehow, it didn't end up boring. Good job, that's not easy!

Is there any reason in particular that you wrote this for?

Thanks,

Hekla

Thanks!

I wrote this piece because there was an informal concert (of student compositions) that I was invited to participate in, and so, I decided to write this piece. That is also how I chose my instrumentation, since I just chose instruments that I knew I could get performers to play (and instruments that blended well, but it explains the unusual use of Euphonium in place of a trombone).

-Aaron