Richard Burdick's Symphony #2 "From Spectrum to Hipster and Beyond" , opus 143

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Opus Tour

The musical compositions of Richard Burdick

Opus 143:

Symphony #3 "From Spectrum to Hipster and Beyond"

I.	"Spectrum" Moderato	4 minutes
II.	"Cuckoo" Moderato e legato	3 minutes
III.	Adagio ala Shostakovich, seriously	4 minutes
IV.	"Rush Hour" Quickly and agitated	6 minutes
V.	Beyond	2.5 minutes

My symphonies (Now two plus the nine chamber symphonies) in general do not following any standard sonata-allegro or other standard symphony form, but are a presentation of four or five stylistically contrasting movements.

I began this work as a revision to my opus 2 "Spectrum for Organ and Strings" and continued it as my Second Symphony.

I have plotted out eight movements in the revision of opus 2, and if I ever finish, the revision it will have a couple of movements that are very minimalist with a very long crescendo. I composed the eighth movements of the revision, mostly on my visit it Carefree, Arizona for the festival there in February 2005. This last Movement of the revised opus 2 is now both the last movement of opus 2 and the first movement of this symphony. If Bach can repeat music, so can I! Opus 2 could flow directly into opus 143 as an twelve movement concert work.

Movement one is a "spectrum" it contains a row of twelve different intervals: octave, m6th, p5th, M7th, P4th, m3rd, M2nd, M6, d5th, m2nd, m7th, M3rd. This although is interesting and sort of fun to do, lacks any real way to organize larger chords, and ultimately has nothing to do with music except a throw back to the twentieth century.

This is a midi sample version of the first movement; it's just a sample, not a musical interpretation that it needs.*

Each movement is for a slightly larger group of musicians:
The first is written of the Regina Symphony Core orchestra of single wood winds, trumpet, horn and strings (11 parts) 1111 1100 & five string parts.

Richard Burdick's Symphony #2 M.1

Movement two was written during the "Music in the mountains festival" in Grass Valley California during June of 2005. The initial inspiration was two fold: Delius's Cuckoo and the melody which includes a 7^th harmonic and an eleventh harmonic, but can be played in "normal" orchestra temperament, which as you know is almost equal with some lowering of 3rds and 7ths and a touch of enlarging the fifths . . . and vibrato to hide the poor intonation. The piece is in I Ching scale # 49 which is the one that fit the melody the best.

This is a midi sample version of the second movement; it's just a sample, not a musical interpretation that it needs.*

The second & third movements are for 2 piccolos, 2 oboes, 2 Eb clarinets, 1 Bassoon, 2 trumpets, 2 horns,1 trombone and strings. (2221 2200 strings).

Richard Burdick's Symphony #2 M.2a

Movement three and four are in four keys. After practicing my ascending and descending harmonic minor scales, I started thinking about pairing up scales in ascending and descending combined forms SO I used 38 & 64 (G & A )and 54 & 40 (B & A) in pairs.

This is a midi sample version of the third movement; it's just a sample, not a musical interpretation that it needs.*

I feel the opening scales of M.3 could sound really stupid if it is not taken really seriously like Shostakovich.

Richard Burdick's Symphony #2 M.3

The tonics of these four keys is how I arrived at the initial theme of M. 4: G -A -B -A

In developing movement four with the initial four note theme, I had been trying to add percussion to the piece all along, and finally got the idea of a hip bongo solo. I like the theater aspect of having a bongo player run out to the front of the orchestra and play a "hot" solo. Then for the final coda I am accepting the attitude of Carl Nelsen and bringing in a brand new theme to bring to symphony to a close in I ching #58 (D major).

This is a midi sample version of the fourth movement; it's just a sample, not a musical interpretation that it needs.*

The fourth movement changes the piccolos to flutes and adds three percussionist play Tubular bells, gong and bongos.

Richard Burdick's Symphony #2 M.4a

The Fifth:

This is a midi sample version of the fifth movement; it's just a sample, not a musical interpretation that it needs.*

Richard Burdick's Symphony #2 M.5a

* The midi samples presented here are in no way musically expressive, the balance is poor, there are no trills, no mute contrasts in the brass, no portimenti in the strings, and the third movement gong sounds like a steel drum.