TRAY (2018)

difficulty: hard

duration: 10’

instrumentation: flute, clarinet + horn (percussion) - optional visual component. The scored percussion parts, which are performed by the wind players, consist of stomps and claps which are scored for one or more members of the trio at a time and are instrumental to the context of the piece at any given moment.

This multimedia piece is composed of simple variations on the d Dorian mode. Cinematic, yet symphonic, the piece begins in two four time where a halftime variation of the often heard melody is introduced. After a moving fermata, the piece migrates into nine eight time, back to two four time, later to twelve eight time and finally ending where it started, in two four time, with a restatement of the original melody. “Tray” is filled with arousing glissandos from the horn and flute as well as drone sustains from all, with seemingly improvised melodic lines, and superimposed Negro Spirituals of two blatantly different tonal centers. The piece takes the listener/viewer on a vivid journey, as it depicts the controversial stalk, tussle and eventual shooting of an unarmed black teen named Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch volunteer one February night, as he walked back to his father’s house inside of a Central Florida subdivision. This is followed by a depiction of the trial for his murder, where the young man’s killer was found “not guilty”, as well as the moments following this trial, which came to be the earliest stages of the renowned Black Lives Matter movement in 2013.

The piece ends as it begins melodically, harmonically and in time signature. As the piece winds down, the visual component pays homage to the lives lost due to the senseless occurrences of violence caused by the unfair stereotypes perpetuated and justified by the American caste system.