New Beginnings

On September 30th, 2011, my daughter Gretchen was born. After a few months of not composing, I returned by Writing this piece. Not surprisingly I wanted to involve this major life event in my writing process. I took the three numbers of Gretchen’s birth date (9, 30, and 11), and assigned three pitches based on the chromatic scale starting with C. With this simple process, I came up with the notes A, B, and F #, which begin the piece as a saxophone solo. With the entrance of the marimba, subsequent phrases expand upon this small motif to create a theme. The theme is followed by three variations, each a new idea based on the original thematic material. The title reflects the newness of each variation as well as the new life which began in September.