Program Notes

Pins and Needles was composed in the summer of 2006 for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble.  Basing the entire piece on a half-step motive, it is often inverted into a 7^th or expanded into a 9^th but is ingrained in every aspect of the piece.  The half-step motive is and creeps slowly up throughout the piece, making the piece into essentially a slow chromatic scale and a large crescendo over the long-term, intensifying at almost every single possible moment from the beginning to the end, aside from a few resting spots.