PENDULUM was written in my senior year of college.  After I performed the version with piano, I was encouraged by my teacher William Bergsma to orchestrate the piano part.  It was chosen to be performed with the Seattle Symphony in their annual reading of student composers' works.  The two versions ended up being quite different.  The title PENDULUM refers to how the accompanying material keeps returning at (different) regular intervals.  The solo part begins very low, utilizing the low C extension (I actually performed it on a 5-string bass) and is written at orchestral tuning (to sound darker).   Though the solo is freely composed, it gradually pushes higher and higher until it reaches and holds a high F#.  The accompaniment  keeps adding new ideas until it reaches a busy climatic section which ends with a downward glissando, leaving the double bass on a low F#.  The ending is also low, but not the same.  A returning fortissimo major second continues to remind us that you can never return home.

RETURN TO "WORKS" PAGE