The Hero’s Journey is a nineteen-minute work consisting of four movements scored for a small chamber orchestra of fifteen performers. The title of the piece references the work of American mythologist Joseph Campbell (1904-87), who believed the mythological and religious narratives of all societies could be condensed into a singular generic narrative, the monomyth, which he described as the “Hero’s Journey.” For the purposes of this work, I have identified ubiquitous archetypal protagonists – the wide-eyed but hesitant Innocent, the vindictive and brooding Avenger, the cunning and mischievous Rogue, and the far-seeing and selfless Giver – based upon their association with particular phases of the journey and how their attempts to reconcile the ‘light’ and ‘dark’ elements of their subconscious determine their motives and methods.
The work opens with a prologue in which is presented the titular “Hero’s Journey” motive with its broad, lyrical leaps followed by a meandering, rhythmically active yet hesitant “Innocent” theme. The second movement resembles a rondo form as the disjunct, highly symmetrical “Avenger” and the sinister, chromatic “Darkness Within” themes battle for control. In the third movement, the “Darkness” returns in dense, low-pitched clusters subtly but steadily overtaken by the leaping lines and bounding rhythms of the swashbuckling “Rogue”. In the fourth movement, the “Giver” motive with its flowing, mystical lines contends with and transcends the “Darkness”.
The harmonic, melodic and rhythmic languages of this work are all driven by the portrayal of each archetype. For example, melodic materials reflect the trepidation of the “Innocent” through short, meandering lines or the drive of the “Avenger” through repeated assertion of a central pitch. Harmonic intervals broaden to portray the world of possibilities in the “Hero’s Journey” and collapse to portray the clinging, suffocating “Darkness Within”. And while bounding dotted and triplet rhythms depict the energetic “Rogue”, free, chantlike lines portray the mystical, transcendent visions of the “Giver”. While many harmonic structures have diatonically centric connotations, the tritone serves as a vital structural interval throughout and chromaticism is prevalent horizontally and vertically.