Fantasy

About

'Fantasy' for flugelhorn and piano by Auckland composer, Chris Artley, is written in a jazz ballad style and is an adaptation of a song written by the composer in 2010, entitled 'What is this thing called love?' (words by Auckland poet Kevin Ireland OBE). The melodic writing was inspired by a mixture of the rhythmic flow of the original text, the underlying harmonies and a sense of wanting to grow ideas from the opening motif. The piano accompaniment is largely influenced by jazz piano styles, combined with elements from Impressionism. One of the starting points for this work, was an exploration of chord sequences and melodic lines that would work over a descending bass line moving by wholetone steps. Indeed, virtually every chord change in the piece features descending wholetone movement in the bass part. Structurally, the piece follows a similar pattern to a jazz tune. After a short introduction, the 'head' or main melody, is followed by an improvisatory style section, before concluding with a short coda based on the opening idea.