Hymn To The Blue Hour by John Mackey is a fine, chorale style piece for wind ensemble. It starts off with a very stark first flute solo. The C could be a piercing factor but it is really appropriate. Upon looking at the sample score, there are a wide variety of time signature changes from 3/4 to 4/4 to 4/2 to 7/4 and others. Note, these are not in any sort of order. But it is a great Mackeyism to have this as a trait, but it is nonetheless beautiful. I do like the echoing dissonances in the first section in the seeming flute quartet section. The horns joining in in their higher harmonies is glorious. I am a big fan of the chorale like music, especially in band music.
The C minor section is fabulous in how the harmony starts thin, but then goes broad and wide-ranging. There is a grand key change to an F minor sounding tonality with the silvery brass lining that is so bright, glistening—so reflective and jaw-dropping. I love the dissonances as in the bluesy sounding riffs, how Mackey plays around with the third of chords when he (for instance) has a D major with an add 2 in it and then he puts an F natural right in the texture. I like the reaching fourths that he brings in that are not part of the chords that the band is playing underneath (for example the D-G notes sounding out from an F chord or a C tonality).
There are some soft timpani roles that repeat all throughout the first two pages of the texture. It’s just a beautiful presentation of what band music should be. The wide-ranging dynamics are just spot on. It’s almost 20 pages of pure bliss and the picture just gets brighter and brighter as the piece goes on. It is all one big swell—starting out soft and whacking you over the head with fortissimo at the climax with accents and then quickly quieting back down to the surface of where it began.
It is classic Mackey subdued somewhat. It is one that is one for the ages. It is one that would go on to be played on and on for many different concert bands around the country.
