All life in Reverse

Written in 2023 for violin, cello, organ (20 minutes)

This was a slightly weird one. The impetus for this piece comes in two parts: the first being that the composers form from UNT wanted to host a concert at rubber gloves rehearsal studios of composers works, which is something that I was certainly interested in participating in anyway and something that I would love to you write a new piece for in the first place. The second being that I was really interested in finding some sort of portable instrument that I could take around with me to concerts and perhaps write several pieces for to play with my friends.

I’m still looking through the Facebook marketplace… it's constant looking, looking, looking for something like an organ or something that would get me away from having to use my bass or a flute or something where I need to worry about playing in tune - something I have honestly never been quite that good at, at least with any instrument that doesn't have a keyboard... Eventually, I found a small plastic and electric Magnus keyboard from the 60s or 70s for $20 and I thought it would be perfect to try something with.

When I started writing the piece, I knew I wanted the organ with violin and cello for Marijn and Colin, so I thought a good writing technique I would be to write the organ part with the organ (obviously), and the violin and a cello part at the piano with the piano and organ next to each other in the studio - one for each hand. It was only at that point that I realized that the organ that I had bought is a perfect 1/4 step sharp… and being too lazy to rewrite the score I was already working on, I never thought to ask them to tune down and transpose but rather tune up and finger the written pitches... which resulted in extremely bright sound from the strings… and Colin snapping his A string at the first rehearsal.

The piece still feels like an experimental work, and this is something that I haven’t really revisited since writing this piece, nor have I really touched the organ all that much… even though I can see it in my office as I write this note. It was a fun show. It was a fun hang. What more do you need?