Description

Sonder for solo tenor horn (duration: 3’30”)

for David “Cookie” Koch

Sonder is a short rhapsody for solo tenor horn written as part of my project to take on “mini-commissions” for unaccompanied works during the spring and summer of 2020.

Sonder (n.): The profound feeling of realizing that everyone,
including strangers passed in the street, has a life as complex as one’s own, which they are constantly living despite one’s personal lack of awareness of it.

The concept of one’s self and their perception of others are represented through the alternating unmetered and metered sections of the piece, respectively. Over the course of the piece, the metered sections become longer and more complex, reflecting the realization described by the title. The piece ends with a profound reversal of the initial characters, depicted through a lyrical unmetered section which stands in stark contrast to the other unmetered episodes.