Product Overview
The title of this piece is a musical pun. It refers to a Fourth-of-July celebration, with fireworks, games, and patriotic music. But it also refers to the musical interval of a fourth. All of the themes in the piece are built, in some way, around the interval of a fourth. The composition of the piece actually began as a musical idea – piling up fourths and resolving to a major chord. That idea led to the title of the piece and the decision to make the interval of a fourth a prominent feature of all the themes.
To convey the idea of fireworks, I used rising sixteenth-note runs in the high woodwinds, followed by a cymbal crash. That pattern appears at the opening, at the ending, and at one other point in the piece. To convey the idea of games, I used a playful theme stated by a solo trumpet and piccolo and repeated in the woodwinds; the second half of the theme is a counterpoint within sections. The patriotic music is suggested by two different kinds of themes – two anthem-like themes (think of America the Beautiful or God Bless America) and a vigorous march, which is introduced in the middle of the piece and repeated near the end. The piece opens and ends with the idea that led to its creation – piling up fourths and resolving to a major chord – accompanied by the sixteenth-note runs in the high woodwinds and the cymbal crash.
