This is my first major completed composition, a true “Opus 1” (save, perhaps, for a few chamber pieces). I completed it prior to having any formal composition study, and is the result of my awakening to classical symphonic music as an expressive avenue for me. My original symphonic influences are worn on its sleeve. As a percussionist/timpanist I was first inspired by the Late Romantic canon (Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, etc.) and early 20th Century masters (Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky, Bartok, etc.), as well as the wind ensemble music I was even more immersed in. As youthful compositions commonly go for all composers, it changes themes frequently and development is negligible. Yet I pursued one idea: a chorale followed by a fast percussive dance pattern from which other melodic themes emerge. The “dance variations” are in the form of returns to the dance patterns with small changes. Finally it drives to an explosion of sorts out of which emerges a timpani ostinato that builds and aims for a triumphant return of the chorale.

It was not until COVID, sometime in 2020, that I finally placed this score into computer notation and created a MIDI recording. By so doing, I was able to clean up a few terrible orchestrational decisions. I consider the work in shape for performance for anyone who wishes to do so.