It was like watching an author kill off your favorite character half way through the book. Or watching the best actor in a movie get five minutes of screen time. The longing for something unfulfilled was almost painful. How could they? A beautiful melody would sweep in as the song was fading out. Or the singer would toss off an amazing little melody into the background like it was nothing. Or the composer seemed infinitely prolific, generating so many melodies that all of them could be their own piece of music. Imagine what these could have been.
“Possible Futures” is a set of variations on four different melodies I always found unfulfilled or overlooked. I began imagining “possible futures” for these melodies, but in the process I began to connect the music to the concept of the future on a broader scale. Each melody became inextricably tied to some prophetic vision of civilization. What resulted is a piece that looks both forward and backward. It envisions what these lost melodies might have done if the composer plucked them out of the music and let them run rampant on fertile ground. It also examines how the passage of time blurs and distorts, remembers and misremembers. What will our future look like, but also, how will our present look to us ages from now?
Listen to Movement III (my favorite movement) below:
Written for Advanced Concert Band (Grade 5+)
This piece has yet to receive a world premiere. Please contact me if you are interested (andyjarema@gmail.com)
Listen to Movements I, II, and IV below: