Description

Relativity for solo cornet (duration: 3’30”)

for Oliver Williamson

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

Inspired primarily by the music of ska and ska-punk bands, Relativity is an upbeat, high-energy solo that additionally explores the distances between various genres through mutations of melodic material. While writing this piece, I noticed that many of the technical passages that stem from characteristic ska-punk horn licks also feel as if they could have been lifted from the contemporary brass band repertoire and I often leaned into this aspect. Similarly, the cadenza in the middle of the piece, which develops some of the material that precedes it, hints at the style of 19th- and 20th-century cornet solos. Although these styles seem quite distinct from one another on paper, when referenced in relation to one another they appear to be more alike than they are different— hence the title “Relativity”.