Pannio: Scherzo for Ensemble (2010) – Scherzos. Never wrote one until my last theory class and we were digging into them. I didn’t realize how much fun that could be! And in this piece I wanted to show the playful side of my personality (well, that’s most of my personality :P ). To prove my point, I start right up at the beginning with the musicians playing a way where the listener can’t feel the beat. Keeping it simple, I picked only a few rhythms that are depicted throughout the piece. I tried to give everyone some love in sharing the melody at different moments of the first half of A section starting with the flute and clarinet in unison then octaves. I hand it completely over to the horn in the second half, where I extend the phrase and progression. In section B, I pass it along to the piano playing a simple, beautiful sequence as it switches up the manner from short and pointy to long and smooth. Once again going into the final transition, the melody is spread throughout in quick two measure phrases. I suddenly jump back to the short and jumpy texture for the end of the transition back to section A, where the piece ends sharply.

Advertisement