Jay Shankar

Theory 6

Project #1 “A City Called Heaven”

In his piece of music “A City Called Heaven”, Olly Wilson uses a variety of techniques

to create structure and goals. By using various analyzing techniques from Jackendoff and

Lerdahl, Morgan, and Kramer, we can begin to understand the way that this piece illustrates the

title spiritual.

The first thing to look for are places where we can break up the movement into smaller

sections. We see that the piece starts with an introduction of 6 measures where we are presented

with an opening thing that recurs multiple times later on in the movement. There are a couple of

motivically important things in these first few bars; the opening interval in the clarinet, a fifth,

will continue to be an important interval in multiple sections and the Eb in the cello is possibly

the most important pitch in the whole piece. Wilson changes sections using primarily different

textures, articulations, and rhythms.

The section after the introduction is immediately faster and more intense, as the composer

writes, due to the many accents in all instruments, the quick dynamic changes from fortepiano to

forte, and the quick sixteenth note interjections passed across multiple instruments. As we listen

to this second section from measure 6 to 20, something that texturally stands out in the

foreground is the passing of the Eb drone. It starts in the violin and viola and then goes to the

cello and it stays in the strings for most of the section. Each of the string instruments tries to

expand from the Eb but always returns. Because there is so much repetition of that note in this

section, and divergence from it stands out to a listener’s ear. For example, the violin is the first to

break away from the drone, it expands in both directions outward in measure 10 using intense
fortissimo before coming back to the fp to f Eb. As it is constant that every instrument goes away

from the Eb at some point, it is also constant that there is at least one instrument holding onto

that note at a time showcasing its importance. At the end of this section, we finally leave the Eb

and have a sort of cadence on sustained half notes.

The next large-scale section that occurs at measure 20 is slower and more relaxed,

seemingly related to the opening introduction. We can start to look at what is most important in

this section; in the last section it was the expanding outwards of the Eb and in this section it

looks to be the expanding of the minor third. The melody starts in the viola line with G to Bb and

then back to G, immediately followed by an expansion to B natural and then back to G. As the

melody finishes in the Viola, we again hear the Bb going back to the G. This group of notes

constitutes an {0,1,4} trichord. Immediately after, the clarinet takes over the melody. Its notes in

order are B natural, Bb and Db or (11,10,2) which also from an {0,1,4} trichord. This is followed

by the clarinet having an inverted minor third, a major sixth, from Bb to G again showing the

importance of that third. Just like the introduction, this section is only a small number of

measures. There is an accel in starting in measure 24 marking the transition to the next section at

30.

Just as in the second section, we again see a more agitated and intense scene with accents

and frantic sixteenth notes. We again get a sense that the focal point is Eb; the violin starts with

an ascending line to Eb which the piano takes over starting on the same Eb descending, all

meanwhile the viola is holding Eb using either tremolo or accents to make it intense. Something

that we also start to see in this section that seems to recur is the use of the minor second interval

however it is disguised as either a diminished octave or an augmented octave. This motive

actually goes back to the very opening cello line which starts on our Eb and leaps down to E

natural and then back to Eb.

A pattern seems to be forming as the next section goes back to the texture and character

of the introduction, a slow adagio with certain intervals having the main focus. The viola starts

again with the minor third interval before expanding outwards and then coming back to the

minor third. In addition, we start to see the minor second start to play an even bigger role; the

violin’s first phrase ends with one, the flute interjects with one, and the violin’s second phrase in

measure 42 begins with one. One thing that Wilson uses to show complete contrast between

these sections of intensity and of calmness is the texture of many instruments providing a

complete range of sound, and only a few instruments sticking close together in terms of pitches.

It is really highlighted in this section where its only strings, clarinet, and flute, all who are in a

relatively lower tessitura. Right before measure 50 we see that the clarinet has the expanded

minor second but in the character of the more intense sections and the piano has a cluster flourish

into another cadence like ending.

Here is where Wilson breaks the pattern; we think that it’s going to switch characters and

be more similar to the 2nd and 4th sections, but it falls back to the theme involving the minor third

interval. The violin opens with the minor third and then expands to the perfect fourth, and finally

for the first time, we expand to the perfect fifth after hearing it as our very first interval. The

viola then picks up the melody and the same expansion occurs all the way to the perfect fifth. It

seems to me that we have reached some sort of goal as soon as the violin gets to their D in

measure 54; we have finally reached the perfect fifth interval after expanding and building

towards it little by little. As if to highlight that the fifth is now again an important interval,
Wilson takes a measure directly from the clarinet’s opening line that starts with a D to A (Perfect

Fifth) and gives it to the clarinet player again at the beginning of a transition to a new section.

Now that the perfect fifth is reestablished, this transition between measures 61 and 68

take us again to the faster more intense character that utilizes the minor third and the accented

Ebs. The section at 76 shows even further expansion from the fifth and reaches the minor sixth in

measure 80 in the violin part. It also includes the clarinet having the expanded minor second in

measure 83 and continuing as a transition into 85, where we are back to the quicker and more

excited music. During this section, the strings have extremely quick notes that feel like tremolo

and cluster chords but it we look at the last note of all three string instruments in measure 93 we

see something interesting. The three notes form an {0,3,7} triad which we see has the intervallic

contents of a minor third and a perfect fifth. We see expansion again in the clarinet line at

measure 101; they start on an A, go up to a C then a Db and we are left wanting the D, the

perfect fifth, but Wilson does not give it to us just yet.

A ritardando brings us to the final section of the piece back in the original character,

functioning much like a coda. In this coda, we get hints of all of the motives that Wilson has

used in the piece. The piano has very large leaping 8th notes, but if we look closely we again see

the {0,3,7} trichord at the beginning of the first two piano lines. In addition, during the second

phrase in the piano, the left hand plays an Eb far away from any of the other notes showing its

importance as a sort of tonal center. The clarinet then comes in outlining the {0,1,5} trichord

starting with the minor third, expanding to the perfect fourth and then back to the minor third.

The clarinet finally ends this piece exactly how it starts it, by giving us the perfect fifth between

D and A being somewhat of a resolution to the clarinet line in measure 101.

 Wilson uses a couple of main motives (Eb, the minor third, and the perfect fifth) and uses

different techniques to expand on all of them. The style that he writes in seems fall under one of

the categories of time that Kramer discusses in his article, Multiple Time. Wilson does have

direction to goals such as the perfect fifth, but often times, it doesn’t resolve to there until a

different section later in the piece reaches it. We get a sense that the perfect fifth interval is the

most important motive in the piece for a couple of reasons; he starts the piece with it, he ends the

piece with it, and we build towards and away from its appearance in the middle of the piece.

Wilson could be suggesting that the interval of the perfect fifth is the ‘city called heaven” and

that we all start life with a clean slate. We face obstacles and explore other things/motives that

the Eb and minor third symbolize. But eventually we build towards the perfect fifth being our

ultimate goal and we end feeling satisfied.