Whirlpools, clip 1 Whirlpools, clip 2

         Composed in the Fall of 1999, while I was studying with Frank Ticheli, Whirlpools actually began as a spur-of-the-moment jam session. My brother, Brendan, and I each came to Phoenix, Arizona to play at our grandmother's 90th birthday. He had brought his soprano saxophone and I had brought my accordion. I also brought my 4-track and a couple of microphones, so at midnight on a Saturday night, we set up a mini-recording studio in the weight room of our hotel (using exercise bikes as mic stands!). We recorded a couple of tunes, including an improvisation that would eventually grow into a piece for accordion, soprano saxophone and chamber orchestra. After we finished, our father told us that he could hear us loud and clear from the hotel room, two floors and a wing away.

         I immediately fell in love with the scraps of melodic material we had put together that night, and was very excited about expanding the piece into an actual composition. However, my spirits darkened upon returning to Los Angeles to find that my accordion (a family heirloom) had been badly damaged by the airline. The reed blocks rolled loosely around inside the bellows, and the casing was severely dented in several places. However, my friend Doug Lacy graciously donated a full day to repairing the instrument with me. My accordion was restored to beautiful condition and I used it to compose Whirlpools.

Torin Olsen, flute Mia Navarro, clarinet Luis Gascon, soprano saxophone Anna Marsh, bassoon Teresa Flores, percussion Jeff Olsen, percussion Krzysztof Szmanda, percussion Allison Allport, harp Derek Polischuk, piano Doug Lacy, accordion William Ozaki, violin Joel Pargman, violin Megan Julyan, violin Matt McBane, violin Fernando Vela, viola Andrew Norman, viola Joe Mendoes, cello Mark Foster, cello Ben Joella, contrabass Sharon Lavery, conductor

         The piece is very simple harmonically. The first half is in F-Lydian. During the development section, the scale inverts on itself, slowly modulating to B-Lydian at the climactic moment in the middle of the piece. From there, the recapitulation stays in B-Lydian. I was fascinated by the relationship between the two keys. Since I used the tri-tone more predominantly than the 5th, it became the defining interval of the key signature. As a result, F-Lydian and B-Lydian, while technically very distant from each other, are closely related in this piece. The symmetry of the tri-tone between F and B helped to inspire the circular nature of the piece's title.

         However, the complexity of Whirlpools lies in the orchestration and contrapuntal layering. There are many levels of activity during this piece, each developing at its own pace and in its own direction. Melodic and accompanimental figures are always shifting and growing, although some much slower than others. As a result, there is very little strict repetition in the work. As I composed the piece, I felt that the motives were constantly swirling in unique, layered circles. This image also helped to inspire the title, Whirlpools