Point of Resonance - sonata for trumpet and piano

Year: 2022

Duration: ca. 13:15

Purchase: Murphy Music Press (for C trumpet | for Bb trumpet)

In February 2021, during my junior year at Illinois State University, Collin Halihan approached me and asked to commission me for a trumpet sonata. Collin was a grad student at ISU, and not only was he an excellent musician; he was also a total beam of light. He was kind, warmhearted, and compassionate, so much so that it was infectious to those he interacted with. So, obviously, I said yes. I asked him if he had any themes he wanted to explore with the piece—he responded by saying, "honestly, I was wanting this piece to be as much you as possible". I was honored by his belief and his confidence in me. We planned for me to write the work over the rest of the year and for Collin to premiere it in the Spring of 2022.

The title of this work, "Point of Resonance", came to me in a dream. I dreamt that I had composed a piece with this title, and was quite proud of it, and although I didn't remember any of the music when I woke up (I never do), I remembered the title just long enough to jot it down and fall back asleep. Later, I researched this term to see if it had any significance, and the only context I found was in the work of famous educator Dr. Shinichi Suzuki, founder of one of the most ubiquitous methods for teaching string instruments to young musicians (whose work I had never studied before; I'm a band kid through and through!). It refers to the phenomenon in which, for example, if you play an A on the D string of a violin with perfect intonation at the right place on the string, the A string will resonate sympathetically. I thought this was ridiculously cool, and since dreaming up my own title is more "me" than I could ever intentionally make my work, I decided I would explore this dream-based concept further.

Then, in June 2021, Collin passed away unexpectedly. For me, it's nearly impossible to know what to do or how to respond when such a hard thing like this happens. I shared the story of our plans on Facebook to try and honor him. As I wrote, I realized that the phrase Point of Resonance had more significance—just like that perfect place on the violin string, Collin was a point of resonance. I wrote the following: his kindness, his generosity, his humor, and his warmth caused a sympathetic resonance in the people he interacted with. I can attest to that with certainty. He has left echoing reverberations of love in all whose lives he's touched.

Not long after I posted this, I was approached by Collin's teacher and Assistant Professor of Trumpet at Illinois State University, Dr. Anne McNamara. She asked me if I could complete the work in Collin's memory, and not only did I want to, I felt that I needed to. Supported by a consortium of wonderful people who knew and loved Collin, I began to bring this work to life. It was incredibly difficult; I felt as if I needed to make it absolutely perfect to honor Collin. But as I began moving through the process, I recalled what he had told me: that he had wanted this piece to be "me".

In that spirit, the completed Point of Resonance is "me", in the sense that it is guided musically and extra-musically by my experiences both in the world and in my dreams. The first movement is dark, fiery, and romantic. Collin told me once that he enjoyed playing "in the basement" of the trumpet's range, so the work begins with a cadenza starting on the trumpet's lowest standard note, supported only by the sympathetically resonating strings of the piano. This cadenza presents the work's primary motive, a half-step-based gesture that will remain ever-present through much of the piece. As the movement develops, intensely seething music trades back and forth with calmer, more reflective music, but it always maintains an anxiously forward-pushing pulse. The second movement is bright, brash, and mischievous. Loosely following the standard "sonata allegro" form, this movement introduces a confident, playful primary section that eventually transitions to a more serious, contemplative secondary section. These materials develop and build up until they crash into an intense climax that gives way to near silence. Both the trumpet and piano take a turn to play a cadenza on their own in a cathartic unleashing of energy, after which they join forces again and push forward relentlessly into a recapitulation of the work's material. Together, they sprint to the end, crashing down once more into the final note of the work.

It is my deep and sincere hope that this work can serve in some small way as a memorial for Collin's life and his musicianship. I am endlessly grateful to the organizations and people that made the completion of this work possible: the Illinois State University School of Music, the Illinois Wesleyan University School of Music, Jennifer Brown, Trevor Gould, Anne McNamara, and Katherine Shindledecker.