Blue Shades (1997)
Frank Ticheli (b. 1958)
11 minutes

In 1992 I composed a concerto for traditional jazz band and orchestra, Playing with Fire, for the Jim Cullum Jazz Band and the San Antonio Symphony. I experienced tremendous joy during the creation of Playing with Fire, and my love for early jazz is expressed in every bar of the concerto. However, after completing it, I knew that the traditional jazz influences dominated the work, leaving little room for my own musical voice to come through. I felt a strong need to compose another work, one that would combine my love of early jazz with my own musical style.

Four years, and several compositions later, I finally took the opportunity to realize that need by composing Blue Shades. As its title suggests, the work alludes to the blues, and a jazz feeling is prevalent -- however, it is not literally a blues piece. There is not a single 12-bar blues progression to be found, and except for a few isolated sections, the eighth-note is not swung. The work, however, is heavily influenced by the blues: "Blue notes" (flatted 3rds, 5ths, and 7ths) are used constantly; blues harmonies, rhythms, and melodic idioms pervade the work; and many "shades of blue" are depicted, from bright blue, to dark, to dirty, to hot blue.

At times, Blue Shades burlesques some of the clichés from the Big Band era, not as a mockery of those conventions, but as a tribute. A slow and quiet middle section recalls the atmosphere of a dark, smoky blues haunt. An extended clarinet solo played near the end recalls Benny Goodman's hot playing style, and ushers in a series of "wailing" brass chords recalling the train whistle effects commonly used during that era.

Blue Shades was commissioned by a consortium of thirty university, community, and high school concert bands under the auspices of the Worldwide Concurrent Premieres and Commissioning Fund.

- Program Note by composer

Blue Shades opens with a quick minor third — a critical interval that appears throughout the work and threads together its various tunes and melodies. After a brief swung moment led by the clarinets, strict time resumes and the listener is taken through a series of melodic episodes. As the music progresses, the minor third appears in countless iterations, from harmonic support in the low winds to persistent ostinatos passed between the woodwind and percussion sections. The first half of the work is laden with colorful techniques and percussion instruments, from fluttering flutes to vibraslaps and a rowdy cowbell.

A slow and quiet middle section recalls the atmosphere of a dark, smokey blues haunt beginning with a series of solos in the flute, oboe, clarinet, and bass clarinet. Additional instruments gradually join in, leading to the section’s high point, marked “Dirty” in the score.

The music then regains its momentum, accelerating into a driving walking bass in the marimba, derived from a melody heard much earlier in the piece, which accompanies an extended clarinet solo reminiscent of Benny Goodman’s iconic playing style. The work’s final section recapitulates many of themes heard earlier in the work, layering in wailing chords in the brass, horn rips, and virtuosic runs in the upper woodwinds. The piece ends with a serene chord played by the flute and piccolo, humorously interrupted by the splash of a cymbal. An unmistakable wink to the audience.