Ostinato for Four Bassoons

Program note

Alfred Hitchcock pulls perhaps the greatest cinematic sleight-of-hand in Psycho, the 1960’s psychological thriller in which its star actress (Janet Leigh) is unexpectedly and violently killed off not even halfway through the film. The film-goers are left to deal with the ramifications: a radical twist in premise and the direct confrontation of their own fears. Ostinato began as a personal exploration of texture within an unusual instrumentation as much as an undiscovered narrative, waiting to be told. In the midst of this difficult compositional process, I surprised myself as much as I hoped to surprise the audience during the performance.

Performance history

Premiered by the Katia Osorio, Davey Hiester, Josephine Whiteis, Aaron Meyers, for the CLUTCH Recital Series on April 2, 2019 at the Butler School of Music in Austin, TX.