Alléluia

duration - 6.5 minutes. tenor sax, vibraphone, electric guitar, piano, fixed media track

At the time of writing this piece, I was experiencing a creative drought, and I wanted to capture the joy I used to feel when writing music, which made me want to be a composer. The main motivic content of this piece derives from a simple choir round, Jubilate Deo, by Michael Praetorius, which was the first piece I ever performed on a stage, as part of Uniting Voices Chicago. At the time, as an elementary-schooler, I remember the pure joy and exhilaration I felt of just getting to perform, even if it was just this simple canon. Over the ten years that I was in UVC, performance and music became my religion, and although the original canon references a Christian god, I came to think of it as a way to honor my humble beginnings, and the art of performance.

Alléluia was recorded by Hypercube ensemble in 2023, and contains a sample of Uniting Voices Chicago, and their director, Josephine Lee.