Stirring the Coals (2020)

I started this piece before COVID, originally conceiving it as emerging from a feeling of stress and burnout, but quickly realized that this piece could represent more than my stress. The form of “Stirring the Coals” starts very energetically in a ⅝ time signature but gradually deconstructs into a bizarre and creepy sounding world. Once COVID began, I reconceived this piece to dissolve from a bustling texture representing what our world was into a texture representing the odd world of COVID lockdowns. As the piece grinds to a halt, I used some techniques like octatonic and twelve tone for the first time to create some other-worldly sounds.

Once the motion stalls, a hopeful theme grows representing the world as we try to wake up from two years of COVID. Complex time signature changes and polyrhythms build the texture to a reflection of where we were before the pandemic but with new elements we’ve learned through the journey.