In Autohoodening: The Rise of Captain Swing I used harmony to showcase on a macro-structural level the main plot development of the piece: the rebellion of the exploited workers against their algorithmically-controlled mechanic bosses. In the piece’s narrative, this is represented by the death, resurrection, and “rise” of Captain Swing, a fictional character that inspires and helps the pickers, packers, and eventually the line manager to change their initial situation. In the composition, this idea of “rising” is associated with harmonic changes in the Songbook[2].
At the beginning, the main tonal centre in the songbook is C major, which is derived from the relentless appropriated Amazon tune present in the whole piece[3]. Within that harmonic centre of C, the chorus of pickers and packers would occasionally sing the borrowed hoodening song in D minor (as in the original Ole Poor Hoss song seen in Example #14 in 2.1.2.2.1 Autohoodening: The Rise of Captain Swing), or material derived from it. The C major key is, then, associated with the public image of success of Amazon, whereas the song in D minor is associated with the actual reality in the fulfilment centres. This also affects the material in the folk band: the reel tune, for example, written to represent the workers, is played in C[4], a tonal centre less common in the British and Irish folk traditions[5].
From the first appearance of Captain Swing, there are hints of singing in D major (Figure 2). This key starts to be established from the resurrection and coronation of Captain Swing, a scene written in D (Example #11 in 2.1.2.1.1 Autohoodening: The Rise of Captain Swing). From that point, the workers abandon the D minor material to, at the end, after their victory, fully use D major as their main tonal centre, harmonically rising up. This is evident in the last scene, a recapitulation of the Introductory Song, with the return of the reel. The reel is played now in the more idiomatic, and typical in folk music, tonal centre of D[6]. The hoodening song is also played and sung now in D major (Example #1).
In this work, the idea of the workers’ rise is therefore associated musically with harmonic rising. It happens in two forms: the general harmonic shift from C to D[7] as tonal centres, and the workers’ rise in the hoodening song from the minor mode to the major mode.
Example #1
Final scene in the tonal centre of D, stressing harmonically the rising of Captain Swing and the workers. The reel tune [00:00:23], the trumpet improvisation [00:02:52], and the “folk song” [00:00:45] are performed in D Mixolydian. The hoodening song is played and sung in D major [00:02:18]. Compare with the "Introductory Song" presented in Example #16 (in which the tonal centre is C major, with the hoodening song being sung and played first in C major and, at the end, in D minor).