Premiered by the USC Thornton Symphony, conducted by Donald Crockett.

Several of my recent pieces concern themselves with dichotomies, or pairs of ideas that push and pull against each other. I find that I have difficulty writing unless I have at least two opposing concepts that I can somehow “compose between.”  Rest and Restless carries this process out with regards to emotional states – I would describe the piece as an “emotional landscape.”  The music slowly alternates, pendulum-like, from low angst-broodings to brighter hopes, back and forth, but without letting either mood "win" over the other. These forces eventually come to a head in a tutti explosion, followed by a stark coda that, to me, feels either optimistic or dejected, depending on what mood I am in. Whenever I try to write this program note my mind keeps coming back to an image of looking out my bedroom window at the evening clouds, my imagination being ignited by the simultaneously serene and troubled shapes of grey. Perhaps the music reflects that fantasy in some emotional fashion.

The piece was originally composed as a solo for double bass for a concert I was giving at university. Without any significant pre-compositional preparations, I set about writing the piece with only a few simple goals in mind: that the piece would be overtly expressive yet interesting to listen to, that it would be manageable for a player to learn quickly, and that it would demand a diverse range of a playing techniques from the single instrument. My decision to orchestrate the piece was based on the impression that the almost constant double stops and high range harmonics on the bass created a texture interesting enough to hear with an orchestral palate. I have tried to preserve the feeling of low, open strings throughout the piece, while adding a greater variety of timbres and layers to the melodic passages.

Rest And Restless (for orchestra)

Patrick O’Malley is a composer of orchestral, chamber, and media music. He is inspired by mysterious dichotomies in nature and art, writing music that often embraces abstract worlds and emotions rather than concrete images. Through balancing challenging techniques and traditional expression, O’Malley’s goal is to ignite the listener’s imagination and memory in enduring ways. His works have been performed across the United States and also in Europe.

Most recently, O’Malley has been recognized or performed by organizations including the Albany, Minnesota, Ft. Wayne, and Milwaukee Symphonies, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s National Composer Intensive, The ASCAP Morton Gould Award, and The Aaron Copland House Residency. He was named Composer of the Year by the Sioux City Symphony in 2018, and made his Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Youth Symphony in 2021. O’Malley also serves as the arranger and a conductor for the video game concert series Journey LIVE with composer Austin Wintory. O’Malley completed his masters and doctoral degrees in music at the University of Southern California where he studied with Andrew Norman and Sean Friar. He divides his time between living in Los Angeles California, and Lake Charlevoix, Michigan.

Rest And Restless (for orchestra)

Patrick O'Malley, composer