Houseboy (2018)

Written for string trio, premiered by Corey Mike (violin), Jacob Hansen-Joseph (viola), and Lewis Patzner (cello).

Houseboy is the title I gave to my first piece for string trio, first performed by Lewis Patzner on cello, Jacob Hansen-Joseph on viola, and Corey Christopher Mike on violin. I wrote it in 2018 and it was premiered by the aforementioned at a new music concert for the Glenview Classical Series in October of 2019 alongside a string trio by Lewis Patzner and works by other bay area composers.

The inspiration for this string trio is an excerpt from one of my favorite books, Autobiography of Red by one of my favorite authors, poets, and translators Anne Carson:

Geryon: You are interested in justice?
yellowbeard: I am interested in how people decide what sounds like a law.
Geryon: So what’s your favorite law code?
yellowbeard: Hammurabi.  
Geryon: Why? 
yellowbeard: Neatness.
Geryon: For example?
yellowbeard: For example: “the man who is caught stealing during a fire is thrown into the fire.”  Isn’t that good?–if there were such a thing as justice that’s what it ought to sound like–short.  Clean.  Rhythmical.
Geryon: Like a houseboy.
yellowbeard: Pardon?
Geryon: Nothing.