1. Fanfare
2. Aria
3. Elegy
4. Gigue

This work was written upon commission from the Lexington (Kentucky) chapter of The American Guild of Organists, in memory of their longtime member and past dean, John Courter (1941–2010), former organ professor and College Carillonneur at Berea College, Berea, Kentucky. John Courter enjoyed great popularity as a composer and arranger of music for carillon, with a steady stream of commissions coming from the US as well as from several European countries. I had the pleasure of working with him on many projects over the years, including my editing many of his compositions for publication, as well as his serving on two committees in The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America which I chaired. In the spirit of so many of Courter's own compositions, the movements explore various techniques and styles of carillon writing, while also being comfortable and idiomatic for the carillonneur. There really isn't any musical relationship between the movements, but they are conceived as a set, with the various pieces complimenting one another when played in order.

The relatively brief "Fanfare" features bright figurations evocative of a brass ensemble, with many sudden, intentionally dramatic, changes in key. The "Aria" generally follows the ABA form of an operatic aria. The B section is a bit more animated, and in a major key (in contrast to the minor A sections), ending with a sparkling figuration in the treble range. After the return of the A section, there's a short recitative, followed by a return of the sparking figuration, but this time in the minor key. This movement is lyric but melancholy, with a somewhat Spanish character (intentionally). The "Elegy" is a slow but passionate piece, written for the most part in the octatonic scale (alternating half-steps and whole steps, such as C, C♯, D♯, E, F♯, G, A, B♭). Many carillon composers have used this scale, including John Courter. In writing this piece, I used the scale in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the music of Olivier Messiaen, with many harmonies built from ascending or descending parallel chords within that scale. The extensive melody has only a little repetition, being mostly "through-composed," exploring all three transpositions of the octatonic scale along the way. Finally, the harmonies "melt" into major, as the movement comes to a tranquil, ethereal conclusion. The "Gigue" is a lively baroque-style dance in compound meter (6/8). This example is also written in fugue form, with the subject entering in once voice at a time, that voice becoming the accompaniment when the next one enters. A special musical twist is featured: an episode (section where the subject is absent) that is built on fully-diminished seventh chords (harmonies built entirely out of minor thirds). Minor thirds, as well as tritones, fit the bells naturally, due to the minor third harmonic present in the bells. That episode is a musical "tip of the hat" to 18th-century Flemish carillonneur Matthias Vanden Gheyn, the first carillonneur-composer to realize the power inherent in the minor third overtones of the bells, writing fully-diminished seventh arpeggios of his own. A joyous cadenza brings the work to a close.

—John Gouwens