if it broke

for chamber orchestra

Performed by Alarm Will Sound (http://alarmwillsound.com)

Live at the 2025 Mizzou International Composers Festival, July 26, 2024.

If it broke takes its inspiration from the overused, staid colloquialism, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But if it did break, then who would fix it? How would it be fixed? Or was it actually broken long ago? Throughout the work, various conversational modules of sound, consisting of off-kilter hockets, dense microtonal harmonies, and improvisational outbursts, are subject to various timbral and textural permutations. The work therefore functions as a sort of “themes-and-variations.” Despite their distinct sonic identities, the variations presented never do truly shake the core motivations and foundations present in their initial forms. What results is a sonic hall-of-mirrors, an argument consisting of parroted reflections looping endlessly back in on themselves.