This movement shows frogs jumping around. Dissonant chords show that the jump failed while beautiful chords show that the jump was a success. When the chords start multiplying and getting faster it shows that more frogs have joined the fun.
A hare and a turtle are racing. The long notes in the piano represent the turtle slowly walking while the hare is the quick notes in the treble clef. The hare falls asleep, and I show the hare snoring with dissonant chords. They both lost because I’m a nice composer.
Two squirrels are doing different challenges, running races, and seeing who can forage nuts better. I used different leaps in the octaves to show jumping between trees. (One of the squirrels wins.)
The deer is frolicking in the forest when it senses danger. I used triplets to create tension and I used stepwise motion and some rests to create a sense of anxiousness.
Quick motion, how salmon is swimming around, liquidy motion
It starts slow and starts increasing in speed. The ostrich has just marked its prey and it doesn't let hold back and runs full speed towards the prey and captures it.
I imagined in the end that all the animals were coming back one by one like they wanted to come as one. Some of the animals combined together while others were playing together.
I Used a triplet idea, I wanted to start the bassoon with a moderate speed. I feel like every time we hear the triplet idea, it's like someone is asking a question. So the question I used was, “What's there?”
This piece is called Moody Baby because it's about a cranky baby who changes their attitude. It's a story about a parent and a child. The child hits an object and starts crying, and the adult rushes in. The adult scoops up the child and the child stops crying because it just needs to be carried.
I was imagining something flying but stopping when it heard music, so I thought about a funny animal like a hippo. I got the rhythm from an experiment I did with double dots a few days before I started working on the piece. Then, I tried to make it contrast with a very fast part.
I was imagining something singing to make the hippo stop. But, instead of happiness I thought of sadness, so I made some strings hold long notes while others were doing quarter or half notes. Then I thought about adding some trills to show them vocalizing over something.
I thought about everyone playing together, but doing it with a fast rhythm so they played the same notes and it would flow and have bursts of speed.
The Inspiration for String Quartet was written in the summer of 2024 and it is in 3 movements. It is named The Inspiration because it uses preexisting materials from different composers. The first movement uses L’Homme arme, a very ancient tune used by many other composers. The second movement uses the slow second movement of Telaman’s viola concerto and the third movement is free composition and has the flavor of Bartok and Messiaen. Although I use preexisting material as my starting point I have composed something free and new using these ideas. In the first movement, L’Homme arme is always present in two of the parts and the other two instruments decorate it with effects also the two holding the melody of L’Homme arme one of them is reversed. In the second movement, it starts as if it is a classical piece, but I used dissonance to turn it into something new. In the last movement, I have new material that sounds like the work of Bartok and Messiaem, it is not only dissonant, but all the voices play against each other.
The Ghoul is a one-movement chamber ensemble piece in which a ghoul slowly creeps into existence, lurking in the shadows before retreating once more. The piece begins almost imperceptibly, with quiet, eerie whispers from the instruments – soft tremolos, harmonics, and hollow tones – which make it feel as if something is watching from the dark. As the ghoul starts to stir, the piece grows in intensity with jagged rhythms, sudden bursts of dissonance, and overlapping lines that swirl like a restless spirit. However, just when the ghoul seems ready to strike, the music begins to dissolve, unraveling into fragmented echoes. In the final moments, the piece fades back into silence, leaving only a lingering sense of unease, as if the ghoul is still there, waiting.