Ripple Infinity (2026)

General Information

Commissioner: Written for the USC Thornton Symphony
Written: January 2025 – January 2026
Duration: ca. 14’
Instrumentation: 3[1.2/pic.3/pic] 3[1.2.3/ca] 3[1.2.3/bcl] 3[1.2.3/cbn] - 4 3 3 1 - tmp+3 - hp, pf/cel - str

Performance History

February 27, 2026: the USC Thornton Symphony Orchestra on USC’s New Music for Orchestra program, led by Donald Crockett, Bovard Auditorium, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (World Premiere)

Perusal Score

~ Perusal Score coming soon! To obtain performance materials, please click here. Thank you! ~

Program Note

Much of my recent music has been interested in slowing rhythmic processes that don’t easily conform to the standard metric system used in most classical notation. After extensive experimentation, and a good deal of math, this interest led to Ripple Study I (for a quartet of two pianists and two percussionists). The title reflects my experience of the music’s rhythmic onsets and gradual decelerations, paired with descending pitch patterns, which abstractly evoked the image of ripples dissipating on the surface of a pond. I wasn’t finished exploring the idea, and soon after I wrote Ripple Study II, translating the same principles into a short orchestral work while maintaining the mathematical rigor of the first piece.

Ripple Infinity grew from a desire to take these “ripples” further, loosening the mathematical constraints of the earlier studies. I set three guiding axioms. First, the piece functions as a single large “ripple”: it unfurls across seven sections, each with a descending key center (alternating major and minor thirds), and each expanding in duration. Second, I sought to generate as much material as possible purely from the core ripple idea. Third, each section was designed to be as distinct as possible from the others, like seven contrasting character studies, or variations on a theme.

The resulting construction became symphonic in nature: despite the freedom I allowed myself, nearly every note in the piece can be traced back to the ripple idea, much as Beethoven or Brahms might take a single thread of musical material and weave it through an entire movement. As I continued working with this material, however, I came to realize just how expansive the ripple concept could be. Even in the seventh and final section of the piece, where I set aside the ripple’s expanding rhythmic processes, the harmonic possibilities of the pitch sequence alone continued to feel inexhaustible. The ripple idea permeates the work at every level, from large-scale structure down to microscopic detail. But if there is an infinity of ripples, it lies not in this piece, but in the still-unexplored possibilities for musical experimentation and play that still remain. – BSB