Verdant Constellation for Guitar and Mandolin, Op. 79
After writing a series of compositions comprised of larger-scale movements, I wanted to challenge myself to write a series of miniatures. That being said, my goal with this piece is not to anthologize, but rather to create an overarching coherence of structure across the eight movements by way of contrasts of character and energy wherein each miniature is self-contained thematically and a complete artistic statement unto itself while simultaneously contributing to a larger macro-shape that is mercurial almost to the point of the subliminal in nature, thus the “Constellation” portion of the title. I’ve wanted to write a guitar/mandolin duo for some time, and I thought this instrumentation—two instruments rich in reflective and understated possibilities—would be appropriate for this sort of exploration. While the music that resulted contained a wealth of novelty in instrumental and compositional technique that I’m quite thrilled with, most of the music had some ethereal quality “of the Earth” which spurred me to use the “Verdant” descriptor in the title.