Pantheon Fanfare

Listen to the work here!
 
Pantheon Fanfare is a work for trombone and marimba, part of an ongoing series entitled M+1. This is a series of mixed duets featuring the marimba, alongside a variety of woodwind, brass, string, percussion, and other instruments. Thirty-six duets have been planned out, of which Pantheon Fanfare is the seventh, and these duets, following from the letter-and-number-infused title of the series, begin with letters or numbers covering the alphabet and Arabic numerals (A-Z, 0-9) once each.
 
This work, in a rondo form, is based on an earworm of a main theme that was stuck in my head for months and months before the piece’s composition. Oftentimes I know exactly what extramusical inspiration I would like a work to be based on before I start writing it. In cases like these, where the main theme of the work came first, I often wait until I can attach it to an existing idea, which was the case with this piece. I knew that I wanted this work in the M+1 series to feature the trombone, and be inspired in some way by Greek Mythology, after previously scrapping an intended work for trombone choir with similar inspirations. This melody, as it developed, took on a regal and energetic quality, and I found it a fitting match for this piece. The episodes of the rondo further expand on the Greek inspiration: the first episode uses the marimba in a lyre-like dance, and the second episode is the most strictly “fanfare-like” section of the piece apart from its opening, and the marimba here plays weighted arpeggio figures reminiscent of Zeus’s lightning bolts.