By My Side was commissioned by Mike Carnahan and the South Tama County High School (IA) Band in loving memory of Ian McFate, and premiered by that ensemble on May 6, 2014, Ian’s birthday. Ian was an eighth grade percussionist in the South Tama County Band program who was killed by a car while crossing the road during cross-country practice. My piece attempts to capture Ian’s personality and character, using music with a Celtic quality to acknowledge his heritage and love for Irish music. The structural concept for the work is inspired by the words of what is often called the Runner’s Prayer, which begins with the words “Run by my side,” using three sections in which the first presents “Ian’s Chorale,” the second presents a “Running Theme,” and the third and final section combines the two.

The basic building blocks for the piece come from the use of a musical cryptogram, a compositional approach that assigns musical pitches to notes of the alphabet, allowing the composer to “spell” words musically. In this case, the notes B-A-G spell I-A-N and those notes become the melodic and structural basis for the piece. The opening melody is the last three notes of a descending major scale, presented initially in the key of G major as part of “Ian’s Chorale” at the beginning of the piece. The musical texture during this section uses two mallet players and a flute solo, since Ian’s sister Morgan was a flute player and he and his other sister, Mackenzie, were percussionists. The melodic line that grows out of these three notes is also very similar to another melody I wrote for a piece called I Am, referencing a connection I have with the band’s director, Mike Carnahan.

After “Ian’s Chorale” builds and eventually subsides, a new theme emerges in F major, faster and more energetic. This is the “Running Theme,” a pentatonic melody derived from “Ian’s Chorale,” which also develops and builds toward a climactic phrase before shifting keys into E flat major for the final section, during which “Ian’s Chorale” emerges alongside the “Running Theme,” in effect joining us and running By (Our) My Side, before finally disappearing into the distance.