this is a track I wrote for the original score of Kosmonauts by Alice Wyrd featuring vocalist Jude Fox.

Différance Macabre

reverie no. 1 : inspiration is the first in a series of brief character pieces for solo instruments. Pulling elements from Erik Satie's Chapitres tournés en tous sens, the Préludes of Claude Debussy and Henry Cowell's The Tides of Manaunaun, reverie no. 1 for solo piano is meant to illustrate the inspirational process that produced it. The "steadily plodding" tempo marking paired with the chords that open the piece expose the mental state of the composer as he begins to work on the composition. As the "plodding" gives way to "pondering..." with no stand-out results, frustration sets in (which he vents upon his instrument). Then, after taking a brief break, he breathes deeply, clears his mind and tries again, starting out in a similar direction to the one explored at the beginning of the piece. He tries varying the ideas he came up with before, simplifying some elements and ornamenting others until he finally achieves satisfactory results, finishing the piece with a prolonged triumphant chord. Performed by Kaylyn Middleton.

reverie no. 1 : inspiration

reverie no. 2 : entranced for solo harp is the second in a series of pieces I plan to write for various solo instruments. This piece depicts an individual caught in a dream, lured away from normal reality by a phantasm glimpsed through the haze. Performed by Denise Rudell.

reverie no. 2 : entranced

reverie no. 3 : mercurial for solo cello is the third in a series of pieces for solo performers, following the first (inspiration) for solo piano and the second (entranced) for solo harp. Each work is centered around a single motif or "character" which undergoes a transformation across the duration of the work. The character in this piece is one who is imprisoned, in a sense; as a result, they have developed an obsession with regaining freedom. there is a ferocious rage building inside, an agitation which causes them to become frenzied to the point of uncontrollability. They have begun to reach the breaking point and can no longer hold their agitation inside where it is safe; it is bursting through the surface and, try as they might, they cannot stop it. Their final attempt to suppress this rage results in failure; they break free, launching haphazardly into the open. Now entirely unconstrained, they are lost, purposeless, a string of meandering thoughts with no context or direction; they had become entirely defined by the tension between their desire for freedom and the limitations imposed upon them and without that struggle, they have nothing. Performed by Pai Liu.

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