for clarinet, bassoon, guitar, marimba and percussion

Composed January - February 2019

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My friend, guitarist Josh Friedman, asked me to write a piece for guitar and bassoon.  As I was busy with other projects at the time, I put the idea on the back burner.  But after several months of Josh asking repeatedly when I’d start working on the piece, he finally wore me down and I accepted – hence the title of this piece, If You Say So.  This piece reflects that same spirit – the spirit of asking “why not?”.   To this end, the compositional inspiration is eclectic.  I utilize both Latin grooves and complex rhythmic structures; both folk-inspired melodies and twelve-tone rows. The instrumentation, too, is entirely strange: to the originally proposed ensemble I added clarinet, Latin percussion, drum kit and marimba.  

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The piece was premiered at the Rutgers Undergraduate New Music Ensemble concert in April 2019, with Angela Ortiz on clarinet, Peter Houdalis on bassoon, Josh Friedman on guitar, Andrew Bambridge on marimba, Mateo Urgiles on Latin percussion and Josh Persad on drum set.