Orchestral
Atlantis: A Musical Journey for Space Shuttle-less Orchestra (2019)
Duration: 3’30”
Instrumentation: 2+picc.2+ca.2+bcl.2+cbn./4.3.3.1./timp.perc.hp.PF/str.
Program Note:
Completed in just a few short weeks during the spring of 2019, Atlantis: A Musical Journey for Space Shuttle-less Orchestra is a fast-burning fanfare for symphony orchestra. It was premiered on 29 April 2019 by the Boston University Symphony Orchestra with conductor Bramwell Tovey. A study in orchestrational color, Atlantis opens with a distinctive chord progression in the brass, which serves as a kind of musical signpost as the piece unfolds. A series of rapid figurations in the upper winds quickly asserts itself, but is soon given over to the strings. Underneath, a low, organ-like melody is intoned by the lower strings and winds, provoking a contrapuntal build-up. A return of the brass signpost heralds a return of the fast figuration, now as an off-kilter flurry which is tossed from the low strings to the upper reaches of the orchestra. As this subsides, a new, slower section punctuated by mournful solos and disquieting trills appears. Eventually, the brass reemerge from the gloom, and the fast music of the beginning returns in reverse order. The piece then ends with a final triumphant statement of the brass motif. Though the title came only after the work was mostly completed, one might read a program into the music: the space shuttle launches in a blaze of glory, slowly decelerates as it soars upwards through the atmosphere, then orbits in mysterious wonder before traveling back through the atmosphere to Earth.
Scherzo Diabolique (2019)
Duration: 5’00”
Instrumentation: 2+picc.2+ca.2+bcl.2+cbn./4.3.3.1./timp.perc.hp./str.
Program Note:
Work on Scherzo Diabolique began in the summer of 2018 while I was on a trip to London and was completed the following spring upon my return to Boston. The piece was first performed in April of 2019 by the Boston University Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Bramwell Tovey, and was, in fact, the last piece he conducted as Director of Orchestral Activities at BU. As the title suggests, the composition follows the form of a traditional scherzo and trio, but with some ‘devilish’ twists. Structural repeats, for instance, are treated developmentally, with thematic material appearing altered at each successive recurrence. The ‘A’ theme of the scherzo, for example, returns at various points in fiery fugato and maddening mixed-meter variants. The ‘B’ theme, meanwhile, takes the form of a fiendish fiddle tune (built, of course, around the tritone), complete with twisting trills. The middle of the piece is a disquieting trio, replete with perverse half-waltzes and unstable major seventh chords. Dramatic tension is forged at the work’s conclusion through the rapid juxtaposition of motifs from the scherzo and trio, with one frantic outburst bringing the entire ordeal to an end.