DEIFIED

Commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Conservatory of Music, written for the National Brass Ensemble

Year composed: 2022

Duration: 11’

Aside from composing for the concert stage, I found work writing music for independent films while living in New York. In most cases, to get and maintain work, composers will have to learn more about filmmaking vs. filmmakers attempting to learn music composition. Upon learning this, I considered myself as much of a storyteller as my filmmaking counterparts and gave attention while viewing films to lighting, pacing, cinematography, and—the element relating to DEIFIED most—narrative structure. 

Most films have one forward moving narrative—that’s to say each scene is in chronological order. One particular film, though, that experimented further with narrative was Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2000). In lieu of having one narrative, Memento uses, (primarily), two—one moving forward in time (using black and white scenes), the second moving backward, (using scenes in color). Starting with the latter, the film begins at the end of the story and continues through a series of flashbacks within flashbacks—the effect comes before the cause. Inserted in between are the black and white scenes—cause and effect. These two timelines are moving toward one another making the film’s climax the center of the story. With my respect for form and structure in music, I became curious about witnessing this cinematic narrative structure being adapted to a musical composition. 

DEIFIED, like Memento, is comprised of two "narratives"—one more rhythmic, the other, melodic. The piece alternates between the two in a pattern that allows the former to decay measure by measure as the latter surfaces in the same way. The process is then reversed, creating a large palindrome before having both "narratives" played simultaneously in the finale. 

This palindromic work is composed with 383 measures and has two tempo markings—141 and 131 beats per minute, all numbers being palindromes along with the title's spelling, D.E.I.F.I.E.D.  

. . . .

DEIFIED was commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Conservatory of Music, written for the National Brass Ensemble with funding provided by Laurence and Michèle Corash. It premiered June 20, 2022 at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, CA.