SHEET MUSIC STORE
I wrote Fossil Light for an orchestration workshop in graduate school back in 2010-11. The title was inspired by a line in a book where the author referred to starlight as "Fossil Light." Each movement depicts a different viewpoint of the light: the bold, intense sight at the source of the star, the faint, ages-old dots we see in the sky, and the traveling of the light particles in between.
Though score and parts are unfortunately unavailable, I'm always up for a commission! Please send me a note if you would be interested in collaborating!
About the Work
I completed Steps for tenor saxophone and wind ensemble in 2015. At that point in time, Steps was the second movement of a two-movement work, That Takes Care 'a That (silly name for a dissertation!). Since then, I have decided to turn it into a stand-alone piece. Below, you'll find the original score and sample recordings. Though revisiting a work that is a few years old can be a daunting task for a composer, there are some moments in Steps that I'm truly excited about developing more. My goal is to complete the work by 2025.
Are you a saxophonist, conductor, or member of an ensemble that would be interested in being part of the process and premiere? Or, would you simply like to be among the first to know when the score and parts are available? Please let me know by filling out the form below. I'm open to putting together a consortium, and I would much appreciate any help or feedback.
AUDIO
Synthesized Recordings
SCORE PREVIEW
Program Note
A moiré pattern is an interference pattern in art and mathematics that is created when one image is overlaid with another similar, semitransparent image. The resulting patterns can vary when changing the degree of rotation of the second image. In the first movement, Gradient Shapes, I envisioned various figures overlapping, twisting, and morphing into new ones. On a large scale, the movement is about a battle between stability and instability, similar to the way that distortion can weave in and out when rotating images in a moiré pattern. It is bookended with settled tones, but in the middle, it goes on a journey of interference and restructuring. Stability tries to return, but it is shut down by waves of detuned pitches, canonic-like passages, and emerging new patterns. The second movement, Scribble, continues to explore shifting patterns. Eerie harmonies hover and weave like overlaid, scribbled pictures that churn slowly, but they also transition into fast grooves that constantly change.
I wrote this work for my students in the Six Four Quartet at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA, and am thrilled that we were able to premiere it at the 2019 NASA Region 2 Conference!