Impulse (2013)

for alto saxophone, bass clarinet, and piano
duration c. 00:05:00

Commissioned by Dave Franzel and Jonathan Sanchez

2014 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards Finalist

Program Note:

Writing Impulse was an interesting challenge. I was faced with two difficulties: a nonstandard instrumentation and the need to feature every instrument as equally as possible within this sonic palette, since the piece was commissioned for a joint recital. Although I wrote Impulse straight through from the beginning (as opposed to in sections), I actually pulled a theme I had written several years before from my collection of sketches to use in the section starting at m. 56. Impulse is highly modal, and makes use of intricate polyrhythms to give the sense that more than three instruments are playing at once. The title comes from the concentrated energy found in the opening E-flat eighth-note ostinato that later gives way to a general sense of motor rhythm.

Performance History: