Freedom Suite (2018)

Written for string orchestra, composed in residency with the Oakland School for the Arts, a nonprofit charter school for grades 6-12 in downtown Oakland.

I. OATH
Ominous low dissonances in the violas and cellos marches on with slow inevitability.  High glisses and punching rhythmic flurries swell through the violins like the crying of distant crowds, rising and falling.  Within the violins, a small musical cell begin with one violin and cascades through the others, which are split into seven parts. Tension builds, and then a solo melody emerges in the violin. This melody repeats with growing energy, and the piece ends with a long, terrible glissando and four final repetitions of the statements that began the movement, completing the endless, vicious circle.

II. GREATNESS
A quiet, fast, dissonant line spreads quickly from one player throughout the entire orchestra. It sinews through different registers, splitting and licking aggressively into the air like a flame. This is the cathartic anger, the mob mentality, the disease of hate and fear. It is contagious, irrational and immensely destructive.

III. DREAM
A slow, triumphant, strictly American choral builds from the lowest voice to the highest voice. This melody was first heard in the first movement, but now wearing harmonies of open, major chords instead of the previous minor crunches.

I wrote this piece from spring of 2017 to spring of 2018 while in composer residency with the string program at Oakland School of the Arts. Justin Ouellet, director of the program there, asked me to write a three movement suite in which the orchestra would learn a piece every semester. In their spring concert of 2018, they gave the first premiere of the work in its entirety.

The orchestra is a combination of middle school and high school students in the program, and I got to know the kids over those two years quite well. As I wrote the music, I would come into class to rehearse with the orchestra and elaborate on my artistic intentions. I used a lot of extended techniques in this piece, such as over-bowing and aleatoric musical cells in which the performers were given the notes and asked to begin playing at their own discretion. It was a great learning experience for me and the players, and I formed some great friendships in that experience.