Travelstead: The Cost of Courage
For Piano, Horn, Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Bass
Duration: approx. 9 minutes
Premiere: April 2017 - Columbia, SC
I was asked to write a film score for a documentary about a former
Dean of the University of South Carolina’s College of Education,
Chester Travelstead. In 1955, following the Brown vs. The Board of
Education decision, Dean Travelstead spoke out about the importance
of school integration. His stance led to his dismissal by the Board of
Trustees in an event that was said to be “remarkable yet unfortunate.”
As I screened the film for the first time, I scribbled in a notepad “the
cost of courage,” which became the driving force behind the piece.
The piece begins with only two pitch classes a perfect fourth apart,
and over the course of the first few minutes adds new pitch classes
as it works its way to its first arrival: a chord stacked in fourths,
alternating between perfect and augmented fourths. This chord, which
I labeled the “Travelstead” chord, serves as a defacto “tonic” for the piece.
A theme continues to try to emerge, and only does so at the very end -
a theme triumphant, yet unresolved which attempts to capture the
essence of the cost of courage.