Night Run

ensemble 2.2.2.2, 2.2.2.1, timp, perc, harp, piano, strings

written summer 2018

duration 10 minutes

premiered Oct. 7 2018, St. Catherine’s Church, Vilnius, Lithuania by Adomas Morkūnas-Budrys and the Future Symphony Competition Orchestra

2nd Place in the 1st Future Symphony Competition

Inspired by my eponymous nighttime jogs through the city, Night Run is an energetic and fidgety work characterized by dancelike rhythms, motoric kineticism, and furiously driving momentum. Initially hesitant, the piece sparkles to life with sprightly pianistics, rolling flute flutter-tonguing, and frenzied polyrhythms. The quicksilver atmosphere is one of rapid shifts and competing modalities, as likely to plunge into wild percussive beats as to sing a proudly melodic string interlude. The fast-pace ebbs and flows, eventually sinking into a placid restlessness. Oneiric harmonies and shimmering textures color the night as stillness and motion become conflated. Slowly, the initial sense of pace begins to return, though the cloud of dreamlike harmonies never quite dissipates. Plowing forward through the night’s final stretch, the music plunges through several violent exclamations before collapsing satisfied yet exhausted.