To the Land of No Return
To the Land of No Return: A postlude that opens with a minor romanesca and reflects on the opening track.
Figure 1: “To the Land of No Return” Motif
The piece opens with a minor romanesca, and perhaps one anticipates a minor prinner in the 0:9 mark.
To preview the track (then go grab the album for “name your price” in Bandcamp!):
However, what could also be thought of is the descending upper tetrachord. Heard this way, in that same 0:9 mark, we can hear the descending lower tetrachord. What is nice is the analogy between the VI chord in the 0:7 mark and the bII chord in the 0:14 mark, and how the latter transmutes into the half-diminished harmony. The aforementioned bII or phrygian chord leaves its mark: in 0:24 the arpeggio motif is heard in bII (or its inversion, if that’s relevant). The 0:28 mark doesn’t exactly have a chromatically descending tetrachord schema, since it occurs in the middle voice instead of the bass. Interestingly, even if the bass lingers on scale degree 5, I can’t hear a ponte in it: rather, I hear roaming or seeking quality in the harmonies. In the 1:07 mark, the bII or phrygian occurs once more, affecting the descending lower tetrachord.
Here’s the recording session video of the piece: