Introduction and Fugue

Introduction and Fugue was written for the C. Milton Wright High School Orchestra in Bel Air, MD to help mark the 25th year of service by the music director and program founder, Sheldon Bair.

Introduction and Fugue uses the octatonic collection (e.g., C#-D#-E-F#-G-A-Bb-C). If played as a scale, it sounds a lot like the familiar minor scale – you can build it by taking the first four notes of the minor scale and then transposing them by a tritone. Each of these pieces employs different features of the collection. Introduction and Fugue is most apparently octatonic by its melodic constructions. Its principal harmonic sonorities sound like major and minor triads, although they function in ways different from what you might expect in tonal music. Although atonal, Introduction and Fugue is an interpretation of Baroque models both in form and aesthetic ideal.