Night Cycle

Joshua Whited

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Quartet

2022

7 min.

Euphonium

Tuba

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Program Notes: One special note before establishing the premise of the piece: Any time 7/16 appears, the tempo remains consistent, meaning in the 7/16 sections are double time 7/8 measures. Please listen to the audio of the work to view this. As for the story: This piece originally went untitled for the longest time after its completion. To me, this piece felt very cycle-like to begin with. I spoke with one of the performers that premiered this with me, Daniel Rehberg, and he gave me this title while we talked about it. "Night Cycle" is an exploration into the nocturnal life of nature. The calm beatings of animals awaking is demonstrated with the 1st Tuba's sparse entrances, followed by the 2nd Tuba, then the 1st and 2nd Euphonium begin to add more complexity, using 16th-note "delays" as to achieve an echoing effect. The cycle grows stronger as it crescendos up and down as the life of the night finally awakens. This chorus finally gets its first melody and then the life of the night flurries in a foray of sound, as the time quickens to 7/16 before dying back down. The life teems to its usual nightly routine of hunting as the music grows chaotic, indicating the animals flying around on a search to kill before finally the sounds begin to dissipate. The hunts are over as quick as they came. The night air now grows still as dark undertones of the tubas come to represent the emptiness of the air now that all the commotion is over. All the while, the euphoniums indicate the winds of the day approaching. In the final section, the sun begins to emerge again as the tonal center shifts to major from its minor counterpart. The sun arises and casts its beams across the land in a fanfare-like end to the "Night Cycle". All of it to be repeated once again when the sun eventually goes down again to end yet another day.
Recording Notes: Premiered by the TuBa Four Quartet 10/16/2022 at Tennessee Technological University. Due to ownership of the recording, I am legally not allowed to post it on public forums such as this website. The audio provided is from Finale 25 with the Garritan Sound Library and ARIA Player Engine.
Ensemble Name: TuBa Four Quartet; Performers: Daniel Rehburg, Joshua Whited, Hannah Eitzen, Jonah Hammontree