Transcend: II. Promise

Bitonality Example 1: G Phrygian (three flats: Bb Eb Ab) and G Minor (two flats: Bb Eb). The woodwinds are in G Phrygian, alternating between a Bb7 chord in first inversion (D F Ab Bb), and a Gsus chord (C D G). 

The strings are in G minor, most easily heard in the Cellos with their motif of ascending fifths (G D A natural). [NOTE: The most prominent dissonance is between the woodwinds' Ab, and the strings' A Natural]

Bitonality Example 2: G Major (one sharp: F#) and G Minor (two flats: Bb Eb). Let's listen to this quick section in the oboe and the flute. The oboe’s melody is in G major (motif in fifths: C G D, G B) and the flute quickly responds (G F natural Eb D), implying G minor. 

The strings playing beneath them primarily play G C and D, which are common tones between the two keys!

Bitonality Example 3: Two different Whole Tone Scales. The oboe’s melody uses a G whole tone scale (G A B C# D# F), and the flute follows with a melody using a C whole tone scale (C D E F# G# A#)

Atonality Example 1: The strings come in with a high D minor / diminished chord (D F Ab A natural), grounded by the low strings on a D natural. The oboe initially plays a D Pentatonic melody (B B B D’B A), then quickly descends in whole steps to a Db (A G F Eb Db). 

An F# minor chord is heard briefly in the brass at 15:19, with something similar echoed in the harp, before the strings reenter with their higher sonority and the material repeats.

Example utilizing Atonality / Bitonality / and Dissonance: Several minor 2nd dissonances (reduced from larger major 7ths and minor 9ths) are heard during the English horn solo as the surrounding material utilizes contrasting key centers: After the English Horn’s first phrase (G D A D F#), the cellos move from a G to a G#, and the flutes play birdsong using B and D, creating a half-diminished sonority around the English Horn’s F#. 

The soloist’s second phrase (12:25) utilizes a Bb whole tone scale, landing unconventionally on an A natural (where an Ab should belong). The A natural then descends to a G natural, and the flutes are heard using Bb, Ab, and Gb. When the soloist’s third phrase (12:32) opens with G D A, and lands on an F natural (instead of an F# as it did before), the oboe is heard imitating the flute’s birdsong using D and F#. The soloist’s fourth line (12:38) descends to E and D natural, and the flute is heard imitating the birdsong using A# and C#.