stars on the ground (2020)
String Quartet
Duration: 12’
Commissioned by MUSIQA as recipient of 2019-2020 Emerging Composer Fellowship
Premiered at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX, January 30, 2020 by Samuel Park, violin, Evie Chen, violin, Sergein Yap, viola, Max Geissler, cello
Broadcasted on Houston Public Media (NPR) on December 23, 2020
Performed by Hausmann Quartet at San Diego Maritime Museum in San Diego, CA May 21, 2023.
Featured on MUSIQA’s album Made in Houston: Volume 1, released September 23, 2023.
Movements and titles:
i. burning sunrises
ii. intermezzo
iii. beneath a sunburst haze (tonight)
program note
I grew up both in Galveston, Texas and San Diego, California. I spent my early years living on the gulf coast island, not so far away from where this piece was premiered. At age 7, I moved to San Diego, where I spent the remained of my childhood and adolescence. While most of my formative experiences took place in San Diego, Galveston has always occupied a nostalgic corner of my heart. I only remember bits and pieces of the town, and from the perspective of a child at that. The world seemed giant to me then. In August 2018, I drove cross-country from San Diego to Houston to begin my graduate studies in composition at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.
Stars on the Ground Chronicles my cross-country journey from my home in San Diego, California to my current home in Houston. The first movement, “burning sunrises,” is inspired by the brightness of the desert in eastern California and Arizona during the summer months. The second movement, “intermezzo,” distorts both the central melody and driving pulse of the first movement, while attempting to convey a sense of lightness and flight. The final movement, “beneath a sunburst haze,” draws inspiration from a humid night in New Mexico, when traces of orange, pink, and red from the evening sunset blended with piercing yellow lights from a Shell gas station and a smoky, humid, cloudy haze in the air.