Emperor

Written March 14 1987, Emperor began as a stand alone work featuring strings and brass. It was quite basic, but the melodic line in the B section was strong so I kept intending to get back to it. A decade later, I finally updated the work and added woodwinds and timpani. The result was never quite satisfactory; the B section theme had weakened for some reason. Not sure what was wrong with it, I got away with doing nothing until I recently received a score request from an orchestra regarding performing the work.

The problem was quickly resolved and the B theme stronger than ever; completely beating the first version hands down. I added that theme in the beginning as well which was not the old beginning. The overall flow is much better and guaranteed to win over the audience. it’s also relatively simple so it should work for college orchestras.

Breeze

Written in 1987, Breeze is the journey of the invisible wind that gently moves across the land, at times so subtle it is barely noticeable, at times playful and whimsical. It was never really intended as an orchestral work, but a few years ago I heard it just like that.

The first orchestral rendering was a bit of a disaster. Sure, the melodic theme carried nicely enough, but it was far too crowded. Three new themes were also introduced; one of them the waltz, the two others of more experimental nature. While passable as draft, I always intended to finish it but left it hanging until a certain J.R. contacted me about the score for potential performance. Utterly excited and honored by the request, cold shivers ran down my spine when I looked at the draft score and listened to the demo mp3 (using Propellerhead Reason samples playing the Sibelius MIDI file). There were three major problems with the work:

1. Overcrowded: Too many voices playing simultaneously.

1. Amateurish modulations: There are more elegant ways to modulate than I had done at the time.

1. Sequentiality: Of the three themes introduced, only the waltz was kept. The other two were tossed and for good reason; they caused the work to fragment and get seriously boring halfway through. Another aspect of sequentiality was to shorten passages and rearrange the work a bit.

The result is a much wider soundscape where the instruments get ample space to be cleanly heard. Thinning creates spaciousness, simple as that. The waltz has also become much lighter as voices were thinned and used with nice effect in the pizzicato part following the descent into tranquility (listed for a heartbeat in the bass drum). I’m quite satisfied with the result and hope you will be too. Breeze can be performed by anything from student to professional orchestras.