PULSE (2019)
For Orchestra (3.3.3.2 4.2.3.1 Harp 3 Perc Strings)
Duration ca. 8:00
PROGRAM NOTES
Pulse is a word which can convey both musical and biological meaning. It refers, of course, to the movement of blood through the body; it has also long referred to music's perceived beat, which for many listeners has the effect of moving sound through time. For residents of central Florida – like the fine musicians of the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestras, for whom this work was composed – pulse has another meaning. No one in the Orlando area will, or can, ever fail to associate the word with the horrific nightclub shooting on June 12, 2016. At the time, this was the deadliest mass shooting in American history. Most of the victims were not much older than the musicians who will premiere this piece.
A lot of meaning for such a small word.
In this work, I strive to capture something of the essence of pulse in all its multifaceted nuance. My hope is that the piece will be meaningful to the musicians who perform it, and to the listeners who hear it, both in central Florida and wherever it may be programmed afterwards. This is, incredibly, the second piece I've been asked to compose in my relatively short career that deals in some way with a mass shooting – surely that is two too many. If you are, like me, sick to death and exhausted by the out-of-control gun violence in the United States, I encourage you to donate generously to Everytown for Gun Safety by visiting https://everytown.org.
Commissioned by the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra (FSYO). Premiered at The Church on the Drive, Orlando, FL (March 2020).
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