Fading Sun (2021) for String Quartet [9']
Fading Sun is about the struggle against the inevitable; against the nigh-unstoppable forces which will bring us to ruin. The piece begins with a dissonant chord over which the melody in the violin timidly floats before being passed between the instruments. The instruments then pair off and fragment the melody before a new forlorn melody takes its place, starting relatively consonant if not tonal and growing more dissonant as time goes by. The initial motive reenters, heralding a return to the beginning where both violins have the opening melody in canon. This recapitulation quickly builds up into a climactic moment which combines the transition into the second section with the melody from the second section. The music is cut off with an extremely dissonant chord before the soft chords of the opening return with no melody. This gives way to a coda where all four instruments play the opening melody in canon before dying away.
This piece has not yet been recorded or performed.
Delusions: Miniatures No. 4 (2021) for B♭ Clarinet, Trombone, Piano, Violin, and Violoncello [8'30'']
In the past, I have suffered from psychotic depression. It primarily manifested as paranoid delusions and minor visual hallucinations, and each of the movements of my fourth set of miniatures is named with those in mind. The first movement is a prelude consisting of a single melodic line split between all the instruments. The rest of the movements take fragments of the prelude and elaborate them, featuring one of the instruments. The second movement, “like clockwork,” features the violin and, true to the title, is made of metronomic staccato notes and accented slurred pairs of notes, with an explosive middle section that evokes the chiming of a loud clock. The third movement, “dances,” is a mazurka featuring the trombone. The fourth movement, “squall” is a brief stormy movement that features the cello. “a moment of peace” is a brief, lyrical movement featuring the clarinet. The sixth movement, “roundabout ponderings,” again features the trombone in a brief sonata form. The finale, “adjacent to reality,” is a series of tightly-connected episodes that recall the prelude explicitly.
This piece has not yet been recorded or performed.
Undercurrent (2018) for Pierrot and Percussion [6']
Undercurrent begins with a six-note motive that is established as an ostinato that runs throughout the piece. Other brief motives play over the ostinato, pulling it in many directions, with the quiet, plodding motion occasionally punctuated with sudden outbursts. The ostinato changes over time, further pulling apart from the textures above it, but as the notes that make up the ostinato change, so to do the notes making up the other material: no matter what direction these currents are going, they are all made up of the same stuff. When the currents finally align, a calm emerges from the busy texture. Motives that arose from the ostinato are stated without it before the ostinato gradually returns. The initial ostinato returns, but this time the currents converge and the piece ends.
Premiered 5 April 2019 by Ensemble Concept/21 at Indiana University South Bend.
The Trickster (2018) for Wind Quintet [7']
This playful and somewhat sinister rondo showcases the capabilities of all five instruments.
This piece has not yet been recorded or performed.
Abstractions: Miniatures No. 3 (2017) for String Quartet [10'30'']
This set of miniatures are all written somewhat serially, based on a six-note collection. The pieces alternate between expressionistic and free-form pieces (Prologue, Lament, Dialogue, and Epilogue) and classical-form pieces (Symphonia, Fugue, Canon, and Cantus Firmus). The set is unified both by the process used to compose it as well as the bleak soundscape it presents, broken only by a small number of major chords in the later movements.
Premiered on June 9, 2018 by the Euclid Quartet at the Mostly Modern Festival.
Reflections: Miniatures No. 2 (2013) for Flute, B♭ Clarinet, Horn, Vibraphone, Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello [6']
The five miniatures that make up this set all have some sort of symmetrical element to them. The Prologue is an impressionistic meditation on a whole tone scale, which abruptly transposes up a semitone before it ends.
The second piece, “Warcry,” is in two sections, one being an angry and shrill melody with a repetitive motto underneath, both based on the double harmonic scale and the other on the octatonic scale. The third piece, “Shards,” is a twelve-tone composition based on an invariant row—one that is the same in retrograde inversion.
The fourth piece, “Breathing,” is a series of six chords played three times with varying orchestrations. The Epilogue is a reprise of the Prologue, starting exactly where it left off, and developing the material until it transposes back down for a recap of the opening—and an extremely unsatisfying ending.
Premiered November 17, 2013 by Indiana University South Bend Students at the Campus Auditorium. This piece also exists in versions for E-flat Clarinet, B-flat Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Vibraphone, Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello and for Flute, Clarinet, Baritone Saxophone, Vibraphone, Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello.
Impressions: Miniatures No. 1 (2011) for B♭ Clarinet, Viola, and Tuba [3'30'']
This cycle of three miniatures combines an unusual instrumentation with impressionistic tonality and expressionistic texture to create a subdued and dark atmosphere. The 2011 version consisted of three pieces: I. Fire and Earth, II. Noise, and III. Deluge. The 2017 version renames them and switches II and III: I. Flames across the water, II. A Gentle Deluge, and III. Schizoid Noise.
The first miniature, “Flames across the water,” starts with a brief pointillistic gesture before the tuba states the primary motive, an angular and tuneless theme, which is then echoed in the clarinet. The tuba melody becomes more ornate as the Viola picks up the motive. The viola recapitulates the motive with the tuba echoing while the clarinet screams trills, after which a whole-tone flourish split between the clarinet and viola lead to a final decrescendo.
The second miniature, “A gentle deluge,” begins with the viola playing a long harmonic, out of which the clarinet emerges with a melody in the Locrian mode, which the tuba then joins. The clarinet then plays a symmetrical melody under which the tuba and viola play staccato acciaccaturas. This melody repeats, and then the piece ends with a coda that evokes the opening melody with the tuba continuing the acciaccaturas and the viola playing harmonics.
The third miniature, “Schizoid Noise,” starts with screaming trills on the clarinet and another tuneless motivic melody in the tuba. The clarinet and viola reprise the melody, and then the tuba and viola repeat it with different rhythms, with the tuba part being incredibly angular and difficult. The piece then falls apart and cadences, unsatisfyingly, on a major thirteenth chord.
2011 version premiered at the IU South Bend New Music Ensemble Concert, April 22, 2012. Revised 2017. This piece also exists in a version for Clarinet, Viola, and Euphonium.