Mixed Barley Reber Clark

Band
Number of Players:Standard
Copyright:2008
Piccolo
Flute
Oboe (optional)
Bassoon (optional)
Clarinet in Bb 1
Clarinet in Bb 2/3
Bass Clarinet
Alto Saxophone 1/2
Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone

Trumpet in Bb 1
Trumpet in Bb 2/3
Horn in F 1/2
Trombone 1/2
Trombone 3
Euphonium
(Baritone T.C.)
Tuba

String Bass (optional)

Timpani, Tam-Tam, Triangle
Snare Drum, Bass Drum, Castanets, Tom Tom, opt. Triangle
Cymbals
Bells
Mixed Barley was commissioned by The Mount Saint Charles Academy Music Department, Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Marc Blanchette, Music Director. Mr. Blanchette asked me to write some music for his band's trip to Ireland, the town of Bunclody (County Wexford) specifically, and to produce a piece that his group could play combined with Mr. Geroid Grant's group while in Ireland. Mr. Blanchette suggested a listening of the tunes The Streams of Bunclody and Eileen Aroon (there is the Eileen Aroon Festival in Bunclody in July). I decided to use these tunes but needed something to tie them together.

I found the tune, The Wind That Shakes the Barley. It was an Irish air concerning the uprising of 1798 and the Oulart Hollow (Oulart Hill) confrontation. I then found out there is also a reel titled the same thing.

Barley was the chief medieval crop of this region (County Wexford) so these tunes seemed appropriate.

I didn't dig up much on why there were two of these tunes apparently so different in nature, but with the same name but then I noticed that the reel was traditionally in the key of D Major (a common tin whistle key) and that the air was traditionally in B minor the exact complement of the major key of D. Not to bore the uninitiated, but this means that the notes are the same in both keys it's just that the note that the melodies rest on or end up on, is different. So I put the tunes together with a little force and what resulted was what is presented in the first part of this work. I think the addition of the reel in counterpoint to the air makes the already sad air into a tragic one.

Because I've mixed the two tunes, the reel and the air, the title Mixed Barley, made sense to me.