An Imperative of (Desire | Design) (2011)

bassoon solo & string octet

written for the Wellesley Composers Conference Ensemble, James Baker, dir.

Adrian Morejon, bassoon

An Imperative of (Desire|Design) was written for the Composers Conference at Wellesley College, where I attended as composition fellow in the summer of 2011. My choice of instrumentation came from a compositional desire to create a musical situation unfamiliar to me, yet one which could yield exciting possibilities. After a visit from bassoonist Pascal Gallois to UC Berkeley in the fall of 2010, I became intrigued by the sonic potential for the instrument in conjunction with strings, where the strings would act in opposition to and in concert with the solo instrument; in effect, I attempted to create a hyper- or “augmented” bassoon.

The title touched on the duality of my compositional impetus—that the subjectivity of desire should have its counterpart in the systematization of design.

Imperative was premiered by the Composers Conference Ensemble, directed by James Baker and featured bassoonist Adrian Morejon, at Wellesley College in July 2011.