for steel pan
duration: 8′

Program notes

I have always been interested in the film medium, and specifically music scored for it. Countless soundtracks have been part of my go-to playlists, from the pastoral Shire theme by Howard Shore to the militaristic music of John Williams in Star Wars. While the genre is extremely diverse, there are certain tropes and chord progressions that consistently show up in movies, which are there for a reason since they can be very e􏰀ffective. When I was improvising on the piano, some of these progressions lit up under my hands, so I decided to center this work for steel pan on one of them, which I generally associate with superhero music, though you can be the judge of that.

I began working on this steel pan piece for percussionist Bensen Kwan at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020. Large ensemble pieces were not going to be programmable for some time (and mostly still aren’t at the time of writing), so like many other composers, I resorted to more intimate pieces that could be performed from the safety, and comfort, of the musician’s home. It received its premiere in the first night of the virtual pre-recorded concert New Music Collage, on October 24, 2020 via Facebook Live.