The Light Through the Trees (2017)
For electric string quartet and electro acoustic sound in Ableton Live
Premiered at the 2017 ACCelerate Festival in Washington, D. C. by Bryce Martin, Sommer Altier, Daphne Waggener, Brittni Dixon, conducted by Logan Castro
Program Note
The Light Through the Trees, in seven movements, is an autobiographical reflection on my struggles, and their subsequent resolution, experienced during my teens and early 20s. The work's character has an overall arch form centering on the fourth movement; darkening to it, then brightening from it to the end.
I. The Ravine By Jaret's House depicts the promise and exploration of youth, which, for me, is most succinctly represented by the place that seemed to be my own personal "Garden of Eden".
II. Lost communicates my getting off track in my late teens when I sought to escape deep personal problems through substance abuse.
III. "Quiet Room" is the actual name of the room I was temporarily put in at the psychiatric unit of a hospital when I had a mental breakdown near the end of my senior year in high school. The first part portrays my fighting against the door when the hospital staff was trying to close it. The remainder of the movement seeks to relay my experience of the sharp June sun cutting through the room's window, my caged pacing, and my loud internal meltdown in a completely calm and silent space.
IV. Night Sitter is based on a night of minimal consciousness in the hospital, which followed an overdose on prescription medication. I only have a few dim and faceless memories of a kind hospital staff member holding my hand when I would rouse confused and troubled. On a spiritual level, I believe Jesus Christ was also holding my hand through my darkest hour.
V. Pill-Grin's Progress seeks to combine into one title my bumbling efforts to seek Christ and my difficulty with psychiatric medication, which seemed to only treat the symptoms of much deeper problems.
VI. Good Sams & Number Five is the counter-part to Lost. It was through the very kind help of older mentors that I was able to get on the right path in life--the first of whom was Sam Weirbach (the title is a play on his name and "good samaritans"). "Number five" refers to the frequently cited quote my boss and mentor, Conrad Spens, put on the auto body shop wall, which read, "Just deal with it". Its surface may seem harsh, but it was said in love, and its core taught me the invaluable and ever-profiting skill of problem-solving.
VII. The Path On Pages brings the work full circle. The "forest" that enveloped and darkened my life was transformed into pages that would record my journey--in both story and in this music. The pages of the Bible have also been God's instrument to guide my path out of darkness and into His light.
Blissfully Yours (2017)
Guided improvisation for solo flute, controllerist, and electro acoustic sound
In collaboration with a David Rodriguez art film of the same title
Performed December 8, 2017 at the 621 Gallery in Tallahassee, FL
Last Letter Sent (2018)
Solo oboe, MIDI controller, live processing in Max
Premiered June 30, 2018 in Charlotte, NC as part of the Charlotte New Music Festival’s Max Computer Music Workshop
Ruminations (2014)
Fixed media
Program Note
Ru.mi.na.tions
/ˌro͞oməˈnāSH(ə)ns/
noun
Thoughts focused on the symptoms of one's distress, and on its possible causes and consequences, as opposed to its solutions.