An Approximate Measure of Two Years begins with a brooding, slow section comprising stacked chords that become increasingly contrapuntal. After a climax, this section dies down before taking off into a fast, driving section. A predominant feature in the harmonic language of this piece is the use of split thirds. Throughout each section, the associated anchor pitch is accompanied by ambiguity in tonality. For example, the centricity of `A' in the beginning of the fast section encourages neither major nor minor tendencies. In addition to these thirds, a spread of other intervals is sometimes used to fill out chords (see the piano in mm. 217-221).Perhaps one of the most interesting components of this work is its title. It is the product of a growing trend in social media known as crowdsourcing, the idea of asking a community to vote on a number of submitted proposals -- the winner being incorporated into the final realization. On November 11, 2010, I asked the online community to vote (through my website) on a number of submitted titles I had received from colleagues earlier in the week. David MacDonald's An Approximate Measure of Two Years won with more than half the votes (PROOF, Permissum Mihi Obduco, and Dolphin Safe Tunage were some of the other submissions). Naturally, "our" title is supposed to represent the work in terms of my compositional style and development after spending two years earning a master's degree in composition.
Read
