Repeat Offender (2003)

(click here to view selected score pages [pdf])

Repeat Offender contains three contrasting, yet related themes. After an introduction, including the main motive, the first theme appears in a traditional fugue exposition followed by a short percussion break. The second theme is derived melodically from the first, but the rhythm is modified along with the addition of a driving rhythmic support figure. The opening section ends with a return to the fugue subject—now in inversion and without a countersubject—followed by a transition preceded by the short percussion break. Theme Three is dramatically different in contour, style, and tempo, but the florid nature of the accompaniment reflects on the contrapuntal texture of the fugue. The fugue subject then returns, this time with the driving rhythmic accompaniment from the second theme, before a majestic coda including quotes of all three themes.

The work, ironically, has no repeats, but the title, “Repeat Offender,” instead depicts the imitative nature of the fugue along with the mild chromaticisms throughout the work. It is dedicated to a long-time colleague and friend, Linda Baker, of the Middletown [Ohio] School District, with whom I taught in the public school in the Cincinnati area. Her daily relentlessness for the highest standards was inspiring to me—even on the days when I tired of repeating the lessons from the previous day. Our youngest students required daily care on fundamentals to continue their development, and I always respected her assertive patience in pushing our students (and myself) to our best efforts. I offer a wholehearted “Thanks” on behalf of her students and myself for the tenacious drive and genuine commitment to our craft. Having strategies for correction is only part of teaching. . . the other part requires daily fundamentals for the “repeat offenders” that do not remember concepts the first or second times. . .