Circus Waltz: Dementia

A musical description of various stages of dementia.

There are two main themes, one in a major key and one in a minor key. The beginning of the piece and the statement of the main (major key) theme is meant to evoke an artificially induced sense of happiness by being an outrageous caricature of a waltz. When the minor theme enters it is similar to the inevitable change of mood that accompanies the initial feeling of euphoria upon initial inducement of the drugged state of a person suffering from psychological issues.

The two themes are then combined, one still in major and one in minor. This use of polytonality is like the person experiencing a mixture of the positive and negative mood, and creates a nice polyphonic effect. Here we see the first use of the minor second above the tonic as a kind of single-note harmonic motive of its own. The occurrence of this raised tonic appears more and more frequently as the piece progresses, evoking the effect of the anti-dementia drug wearing off and insanity knocking at the door of the persons consciousness. There is then a brief interlude section where the accompaniment figure is built up and increases in intensity. It also includes dissonance in the offbeat figures to indicate the continued progression of the insanity.

In the third recombination of the themes, the second theme now appears in major to indicate that the person no longer feels sad, but is now experiencing some major symptoms of insanity because of the even more prevalent use of dissonance, in particular, the B-natural insanity motif. The themes are combined in full one final time with an additional element: the offsetting of the main theme in the tuba and the horn which is yet another element in the additive process. The whole construct builds up to a climax utilizing the descending eighth note pattern from the end of the main theme (and an inversion of it) as well as continued longer duration statements of the insanity pitch, all of which leads to a final B-natural in octaves that signifies the complete shut down of the brain or consciousness.

The reapplication of medication is then signified by a quintal stack built on the very note of insanity, which leads, via some other tonalities, to a B-major chord with an added ninth. There is then a slow, deliberate recapitulation of the original outrageous accompaniment figure. Overtop of the accompaniment, there are various kinds of fragments of the first theme, including one that is modified to fit into a minor key that leads to the final climax. The piece then comes full circle with a return to a B flat major chord at the end.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• brass
• brass quintet
• trumpet
• horn
• trombone
• tuba
• waltz
• dissonance

[bkv22]

@Davidt33 Thanks, this is my brass quintet from school.

[Davidt33]

Which brass quintet is this? This sounds really good.