Score (excerpt)

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wind ensemble

8:00

Weird Birds is my first piece for wind ensemble. My goal was to write a colorful piece that focused on soloistic writing. The quick tempo and busy flourishes sit in contrast to the broad melodic lines that rise and fall throughout. Harmonies were intended to grow outward from tight intervals, only to contract again before fully expanding. The title has no exact meaning, though it makes me think of these things: penguins, the Wright brothers, Charlie Parker, a loose flock of parrots that frequent my neighborhood, lovers on different continents, cloud-seeding, the National Science Foundation employees that work Antarctica, criss-crossing jet contrails that glow orange in the evening sky, and other anomalies in life that seem quirky, beautiful, heartbreaking, and ominous.