Skylines (2020)
Symphony Orchestra
(Approximate Duration | 8' 12’’)
Skylines was inspired by my personal love and fascination of cities and their grand skylines. I remember from a young age being captivated by the pure visual art of grand architecture showcasing breath-taking facades. In addition to a diversity in building designs, the sense of a cultural multiplicity is a feature truly special to these large metropolises. It was my goal to fully capture this beauty and depth that cities hold within this piece. The three cities I portray throughout this work include my home metro area of Akron, Ohio, the urban jungle of New York City, New York, and the windy city of Chicago, Illinois.
When initially conceptualizing this work, I didn’t want this work to become overly programmatic or for certain sections of the piece to be too literal. However, I had to find a way to effectively signify these areas in a way that could be effective to the music’s structural integrity. I ended up using a technique that I briefly explored in a previous work. This technique is referred to as a musical cryptogram, or more plainly, a cryptogrammatic sequence of musical notes, a sequence which can be taken to refer to an extra-musical text by some 'logical' relationship, usually between note names and letters. By creating a system, in which I could associate certain pitches to a set of letters and numbers, I was able to utilize various thematic material that in turn, would spell out the names of these cities.
When initially conceptualizing this work, I didn’t want this work to become overly programmatic or for certain sections of the piece to be too literal. However, I had to find a way to effectively signify these areas in a way that could be effective to the music’s structural integrity. I ended up using a technique that I briefly explored in a previous work. This technique is referred to as a musical cryptogram, or more plainly, a cryptogrammatic sequence of musical notes, a sequence which can be taken to refer to an extra-musical text by some 'logical' relationship, usually between note names and letters. By creating a system, in which I could associate certain pitches to a set of letters and numbers, I was able to utilize various thematic material that in turn, would spell out the names of these cities.