Symphony #2 “Foundations”

Movement IV "Epilogue" begins with an original lullaby tune in the clarinet, accompanied again by the gentle high strings in tremolo. There is a slight Scots-Irish flavor to the tune, reflecting at least a part of the composer’s heritage. After the initial sounding, the tune is taken up by the full string section, oversounded by a trumpet descant, which will return later during the grand fugue. The woodwinds have their turn at the tune with some little variants before the brass visit us again in climax. Some connecting material ushers in a return to some of the Rondo treatment of Movement I. The great summation moment if the symphony begins with that "Shortnin’ Bread" theme in a fugal treatment. The brass climb in with the first three tones of the lullaby repeated three times, each with great intensity, before giving way to the low brass section treatment of the lullaby, this time in an augmented form. Sounding over the top, the fugal theme has become a single line in full force, with the Piccolo Trumpets sound the earlier descant high above all else, in thirds. These two trumpets (any tune sounds better when played in thirds), represent the “significant-other” relationship in life everyone needs. The Idee Fixe now revisits in its final form, fully developed and mature, as any life would. The climax almost complete, we revisit "Shortnin’ Bread" one final time to the source of our life. The symphony scampers quickly to its conclusion, using a brass fanfare heard only once earlier, at the conclusion of the first movement. Then, inconclusive and questioning, this time: triumphant and fulfilled.