Ambassador Sketches (2020)

For String Orchestra

Score sample here.

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My hometown of Detroit, Michigan is a part of North America’s most populous transborder metropolitan area, boasting close to 6 million residents. This piece calls to mind images of a bustling metropolitan area through soaring melodies, driving ostinatos, and unique harmonic textures. With the border closed at the time this piece was written (due to the COVID-19 pandemic), I sought to write a piece that listeners and musicians alike on both sides of the border could enjoy.

Polytonality and pitch serialism are ever-present in this piece; the motifs of Eb-Db-Eb and F-Eb-A (and their enharmonics, retrogrades, etc) are the result of converting the numbers of the Detroit (313) and Windsor (519) area codes into musical notation. These motifs appear in several forms throughout the piece, and often serve as the backbone of melodies and ostinati.