The Week’s Progress
I based this five-movement work on a literal transcription of a recording of myself reading a haiku I wrote in the final year of my undergraduate degree. Each melody is adapted from the pitches and rhythms from one stanza of the poem. The resulting movements take on the energy of the lyrics of their respective stanzas, even if the lyrics are no longer present. The work in its totality represents the all-too-familiar cyclical experience of the work week.
Tell It Well
“Tell It Well” sets to music a text by the same name, written by one of my first teachers in music. Though he passed away over a decade ago, his love for others and his faith continue to resonate through the words of this short tune.
Arcs of Dissonance
This improvisational structure explores the elements of music as rhetoric, with harmony as the chief rhetorical vehicle. A theme (essentially in E major) gradually unfolds, underneath which the rest of the music shifts kaleidoscopically, from the accompanying chords to the pitches, rhythms and textures of the ensemble and soloist.
Blackbird
While the music of the original “Blackbird” suggests hopefulness and optimism, it was written as a protest song. My arrangement of this tune delves deeper into the unrest and struggle behind the text.
