Any Thing Passes (2024)
Orchestra - 2(2=picc).2.1.bcl.2(2=cbsn)—4.3.3.1.—timp—2perc.—hp—strings
Duration: 10’
Premiered by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra July 18, 2026 as part of the Edward T. Cone institute. Read by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra January 16, 2025.
Program note
“They pass, I also pass, any thing passes, none can be interdicted/None but are accepted, none but shall be dear to me.” - Walt Whitman, “Song of the Open Road”
The initial inspiration for "Any Thing Passes" came to me while driving from Aspen, Colorado to Santa Fe, New Mexico in early July of 2024. I was staying in Aspen for the summer, and this was my first time experiencing the grand majesty and immensity of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. I picked up my rental car at 8am and began the journey by making my way towards Independence Pass. While ascending through the mountains, the light became increasingly golden by the minute, illuminating rushing rivers and lush, verdant fields. As I made my way upwards, I was listening to a work by Chief Xian aTunde Ajduah, his soaring, lyrical trumpet lines carrying the music upwards and upwards, which seemed to mimic my own journey through the mountains. The music reached a point where the rhythm section was grounded in a repetitive pulse, yet Xian had gone onwards, rhythmically free, like singing golden light from heaven with his trumpet; this, for me, created the sensation of an intense rift between heaven and earth, the sky and the land below. As I passed over the summit of Independence Pass, I felt like I had risen into the sky as well (considering I was above 12,000 feet of elevation, I was certainly closer to the sky than my sea-level hometown of San Diego). I saw snowlined peaks right in front of me, and miles beyond were valleys brimming with wildflowers and lush greenery. I was seeing so much, so much more natural beauty than I was used to. In light of family tragedy and its aftermath that I experienced since 2021, I never knew my life would be so beautiful. I was overwhelmed with emotion, and felt that from this moment forward, my life would never be the same. Upon arriving in Northern New Mexico, the roads were lined with towering sunflowers, a sign of arrival. The title "Any Thing Passes" is a play on Independence Pass, and also a Whitman-inspired mantra to myself, that the worst will pass, with lightness waiting on the other side.