for brass quintet
Rust Belt is about an region of the United States and its culture. I wrote Rust Belt for the Meridian Arts Ensemble to perform at June in Buffalo in 2015. I was inspired to write the first movement, Waterfront from sitting by the harbor, listening to oil tankers and feeling the wind brush up against my face. In Trucks, I also explore the sounds of machinery, assigning each player a limited amount of pitch variation, but ask the players to create pulses at different tempi.
Men and Music have a contrasting feeling. Unlike the minimalism of the first and third movements, these selections are busy and densely polyphonic, with fast, chromatic runs, glissandi, and occasional tonal sections.