As Fire Lights the Way (2024)
for woodwind quintet

As Fire Lights the Way establishes all but 99% of musical material for the rest of the work in just the first three notes. This pitch set is expanded upon, transposed, condensed, and varied in other ways to create the entire first movement. The second movement simply takes notes and themes from the first movement and stacks them on top of one another, creating an entirely different sound world. The 1% of music not created from the first three notes of the piece is the flute solo at the end of the second movement, which uses completely different melodic patterns and themes. All motion in the movement points towards this moment, which concludes the piece in a quiet, distant, and mysterious manner.