Flat Circle (2023)

Instrumentation: 4 Percussionists, 1 Marimba (Opt. Drum Set)

Duration: 4 minutes

Premiere: Gabby Brady, Jacob Dill, Luke Eckles, Gavin Gillespie, Kevin Lloyd; March 29, 2023; Lincoln, NE

Program Notes: Flat Circle is a musing on the adage, “Time is a flat circle.” The piece loosely depicts different states of consciousness that often accompany existential thought, from mindfulness to madness and everything in between. Some sections are meditative, and others are disorienting, dissociative, and even dreadful. My hope is that we identify the beauty in all of it.

This piece is designed for young percussionists who are just beginning to learn 4-mallet technique. The majority of the piece involves double vertical strokes on comfortable intervals (4ths and 5ths). There is 1 repeated single stroke permutation that is present in all 4 parts. Finally, the entire piece requires just 1 shared marimba. Although 2 of the performers must play the marimba backwards, they play almost exclusively on the upper manual (the “black notes”), limiting the number of possible pitches.

Metric Diplomacy (2022)

Instrumentation: Saxophone Quartet (SATB)

Duration: 5 minutes

Premiere: Joanie Dyer, Hannah Gardner, Nate Hammond, Madison Kroes; July 14, 2022; Brevard, NC

Program Notes: Metric Diplomacy is evidence that disparate things can coexist. There is space in society for a diversity of people and opinions. With enough effort and understanding, we can reconcile seemingly incompatible ideas. This piece shows diplomacy is possible not only with meter and melody, but also with people.

Polarized (2022)

Instrumentation: Alto Saxophone (dbl. B-flat Clarinet) and B-flat Clarinet (dbl. Alto Saxophone)

Duration: 8 minutes

Premiere: Aaron Burr and Kaitlyn Neufeld; April 30, 2022; Greeley, CO

Program Notes: The first two movements of Polarized depict the horrid state of current political discourse in America. Individuals regurgitate toxic sentiments, ignore the views of people from differing backgrounds, and explode when confronted. However, the last two movements demonstrate what we can achieve through reflection, education, and adaptation, showing how we all can grow through a diplomatic exchange of ideas.

Meditation 2 (2021)

Instrumentation: Bassoon Duo and Live Media

Duration: 10 minutes

Premiere: Ryan Morris and Mackie Thomas; July 31, 2021; 2021 International Double Reed Society Virtual Conference (Online)

Program Notes: Meditation 2 is the second piece in a set of structured improvisations for live performers and electronics. A Max patch was created so that a computer can “improvise” alongside two live performers.

Matrices (2020)

Instrumentation: String Quartet

Duration: 6 minutes

Premiere: Beo String Quartet; June 26, 2020; Charlotte New Music Festival (Online)

Program Notes: Matrices is an experiment in contrasts. Passages that are grounded and meditative unfold into music that is anxious, frantic, and aimless. Then, forged from chaos, a haunting chorale emerges. This chorale circles back through the opening material, this time in reverse, completing a cycle that feels inevitable and infinite.

Fallen Angel (2019)

Instrumentation: Piano Trio

Duration: 8 minutes

Premiere: Mandy Wang, violin; James Alexander, cello; Yi Zhang, piano; Nov 25, 2019; Lawrence, KS

Program Notes: Fallen Angel explores the idea that surface beauty does not equate to virtue. Rather, beauty can corrupt, as it does in this piece, spawning something hideous and deviant. This work is loosely inspired by biblical texts and John Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Spectrum (2015)

Instrumentation: Percussion Quartet

Duration: 13 minutes

Premiere: Jason Ahl, Tony Batenhorst, Aaron Mathis, Ian McCollum; April 17, 2015; Lincoln, NE

Program Notes: Spectrum is an experiment in tone color. Essentially, it is a survey of the full spectrum of colors offered by the percussion ensemble. Each movement explores a particular subset of percussion instruments: Crystalline uses metal percussion; Membranic uses drums with membranes; Ligneous uses wood percussion. Similar musical ideas return in every movement, but they are altered slightly to more appropriately fit the character of that respective subset. The metal instruments evoke a cold and eerie feeling. In contrast, Membranic presents similar material in a more intense and aggressive manner, and the wooden instruments of Ligneous provide a more organic, “folky” character.