"↕️" ("in between") for Orchestra

Programme Note:

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Binaries are often positioned as being the backbone of human civilization: self and other; tonic and dominant; medieval and contemporary; sacred and secular; tuned and retuned.

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But the richest depths of the human heart exist at a point “in between” these binaries.

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My goal is to musically transition between sonic worlds, synthesizing into being rich, new colors existent between disparate musical languages.

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The origin of this piece is a musical binary: The “Ave Maris Stella,” a piece of Gregorian plainchant—and “Lontano,” a brief orchestral work by György Ligeti.

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While growing up singing The Ave Maris Stella as a boy soprano, I developed an intense emotional fondness for its modal color.

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Upon harmonizing this melody and transitioning from this “medieval” sound world to an almost “futuristic” palette inspired by Ligeti, I realized an important truth.

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My emotional relationship with the melody is more interesting than the melody itself.

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Thus, this piece exists “in between” my feeling of “Ave Maris Stella” and my feeling “Lontano”—using neither and both at once.