Sunrise, Op. 54, No. 3 (2013)

Program Notes:

Opus 54, “A Smattering of Gebrauchsmusik”, borrows a German term often associated with Paul Hindemith. “Gebrauchsmusik” means “utility music” or – in a form I find more aesthetically pleasing – “music for use”. Rather than art music or music written for its own sake, gebrauchsmusik by definition implies a specific purpose – be it extramusical (e.g. political or commemorative) or simply written for specific people to play. This opus is decidedly of the latter variety – works written for small groups of specific people to perform.

“Sunrise” was over a year in the making. I promised my wonderful percussion friend Mariah Cummings a piece sometime during my senior year, but I simply never found the inspiration or time. In preparation for writing a double bassoon concerto, this summer (2013), I am seeking to polish off a number of smaller projects first, and this had been niggling at me for quite a while. The idea kernel was a melody I arrived at while playing around in Finale with MAtt Flournoy freshman or sophomore year that was later used in the “Suite of Unplayable Madness”. I found it a nice little theme and – given that neither of those will ever be performed – I wanted to find it a playable home. “Sunrise” is that home. The melody in question appears in mm. 31 – 34. While it is not prominent in the final product, it gave a lot of direction to the remainder of the piece in terms of feel, and particularly in the use of mixed meter.