Ecstatic Noise - for full orchestra

first-place winner of the 2018 Austin Symphony Orchestra Young Composers Competition

Year: 2018

Grade: 5

Duration: ca. 4:30

Purchase: Ars Nova Press

Recording: Austin Symphony | Peter Bay, Conductor

Ecstatic Noise takes its title from the work of Jonathan Newman - specifically, the final climax of his work Avenue X, an excited, celebratory clash of sound that is described in the score with this titular phrase. This phrase was the springboard for every note and sound within the work, which cycles through several moods but retains a sense of excitement and resolve throughout.

Ecstatic Noise, unlike many of my works, is not programmatic in nature. The work was conceived as a musical portrait of my hometown, and a celebration of its growth in the time I’ve spent within it- from the small town it was when I moved there at the age of one to the now daily-growing city it is as I am a young adult. While writing it, I began to take a broader view of the work; my focus shifted away from my home and towards the general idea of celebration. By the time I reached its completion, Ecstatic Noise was a work made to celebrate, and to do so for anything and everything. In hearing the work, I invite the listener to consider this interpretation in context with one’s personal life, and to celebrate whatever one feels deserves to be celebrated.