Neon Sky (for trumpet, percussion, piano & contrabass) – COLIN McKELLAR


“Neon Sky” – performed by Tristram Williams (trumpet), Peter Neville (percussion), Michael Kieran Harvey (piano) and Ben Robertson (contrabass)


Program Note

Neon Sky uses motivic development of melodic material, some dating back to 1990, and originally written as jazz trumpet heads. Coloured with instrumental interplay, and conversational elaboration, the movement of the piece is underscored by the percussive rhythmic counterpoint, with the intention of pushing the overall dynamic forward towards unified completion. Of course, motifs can be developed in a variety of ways, including applying Intervallic or “Harmelodic” concepts; along with other transformations and permutations of the original.

The idea for basing a piece on motivic development is nothing new; however, it was only after reading and studying the book “Wagner’s ‘Ring’ and its symbols” by Robert Donington, Faber Press; that I became interested in exploring how one could work with this technique.