The composer's comments:
As the performance deadline approached, I ran out of time to write out all of the parts. I wanted to ensure that the other composer/musicians had neat copies to read, so I left my own for last. "Pg. 14" refers to the full score, which I used during the performances to read the ending of my part.
--- Glen Newton
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From letter K through N, the bassoon and bass clarinet play 8th note sequences that delineate the harmonic background for the middle section of the movement. At letter O, they drop out, and it's the 8th notes played by the piano and temple blocks, mirroring the bassoon and bass clarinet parts, that create the underlying musical texture while the slide trumpet plays a contrasting line.
The composer comments again:
I used the solotone-muted slide trumpet at letters Q and R partially because I felt that a change in tone was desirable and partially because I thought I might be the first composer to call for this particular combination of mute and instrument. This mute gives the instrument a filtered tone reminiscent of the sound of an old 78 RPM record on a cheap record player. It's similar to the effect you can get with a Harmon mute with the plunger pushed all the way in, but with a lower and stronger formant in the audio spectrum, in the octave and a half above middle C. In the performance I made it a point to play loud enough to give the muted tone an "edge" --- a bit more of the higher partials in the sound.
--- Glen Newton
The shawm reintroduces the second theme at letter S, and the shawm's duet with the muted B-flat piccolo trumpet starting a measure before letter T completes this variation on the second theme and leads into the bass clarinet's restatement of the first theme at U. Although not shown here, the open piccolo trumpet finishes the movement (and the entire work, "The Elements") with a short chromatic run ending on the tonic note an octave above the shawm, in contrary motion to the bass clarinet's descending run to the tonic.
Click here to see the first page of the brass
part to "Fire" (600x735 pixels, 90K).
Click here to see Glen Newton playing the slide
trumpet, a.k.a. the soprano trombone.