something came from nothing

About the Piece

First commissioned by the Baldwin Wallace Symphony Orchestra, “something came from nothing” is an expression of time. From a merely human perspective such as my own, it represents a grand timeline of the universe we know from the beginning to the inevitable and imagined end.

something - Whether you view the beginning of time from a scientific or religious standpoint, perhaps somewhere in between, one of the great questions we ponder is how something could come possibly from nothing. This piece begins with a steadily growing string texture on the note “A” (the note that all orchestras tune to and that also embody an essential sound that precedes all music) that represents the mysterious, highly compressed energy that preceded the Big Bang. This moment expands into a full orchestral cacophonous explosion (the Big Bang) of individual musical material. These musical fragments represent the elements and laws of physics that made possible the galactic and solar systems within our universe.

limbo - I imagined this section to consist of the millions of years just after the Big Bang. Using just the notes C and Ab, the piano, harp, and strings produce a hollow and ominous sound world of major 3rd/minor 6th that evoke the unstable nature of a newborn universe. The strings state the spacey limbo theme a few times with growing orchestral density and important chord alterations. This section transitions into a fluid string texture with harmonically polarizing brass swells that culminates into a moment of psychosis that restates the individual material of “something” in groups to represent the forming of galactic and solar systems that makes possible the next section.

life - As if the concept of existence isn’t bewildering enough, the fact that life exists in the variety of ways it does is just as confounding. Is there life so individual beings could appreciate and enjoy the existence that fosters them? Early into the process of writing this piece, I decided the life theme that I wrote was going to be the quintessential part of the piece. It is first introduced by the alto sax in what I imagined an earthly orchestral texture to sound like. Beautiful and pure, this theme of life then blossoms into fruition by the string section.

consciousness - There are few things natural about how we live our human lives. From the advancements we’ve made to the atrocities we’ve committed, they are all possible due to advanced intellect and awareness that separates our experience from that of “wild life” on Earth. To embody the complexities of intelligent life such as the human brain through music, I wrote a supremely thick and dramatic texture using only two alternating chords. The soaring melody in the violins undergoes a dramatic shift in the orchestral texture that represents a further enlightenment before this section ceases.

horrible nightmares - With complex and wildly intelligent beings such as ourselves, it is almost certain that some amount of evil will inevitably always exist. This section has the piano and harp innocently state the life theme that is almost childlike. It is corrupted by the instruments around it, as some violins are instructed to slowly begin to play out of tune. The orchestra then erupts into dreadful noise that ends with a few disgusting orchestral blocks of sound. I conceived these moments meditating on the most unimaginable horrors that have happened and are bound to happen in this universe. The only response to such terrible devastation is pause and reflection, which is then portrayed by a hopeful conversation between a solo violin and a solo cello.

beautiful dreams - This section was driven by my optimism in humanity. As cynical as I can be, I still believe in a future where humanity evolves and grows through generations to rid some of the atrocious realities we know and to share beauty with everybody on this planet. In this section, I merged both the limbo and life themes into one for a final thought before the entire orchestra victoriously states the life theme for the final time. Life will prevail through its obstacles. Exactly opposite to horrible nightmares, this final statement embraces all the brilliant majesty we experience in our lives every day.

nothing - “All good things must come to an end.” This universe has an expiration date. Many scientists believe in a hypothetical ending to the universe in which it will eventually diminish to a state lacking enough thermodynamic free energy and therefore can no longer sustain its stability. This gradual heat-death of the universe is represented by a slow disintegration of the final major chord that typically ends much music. This piece ends as it began but in reverse as the orchestra slowly disappears through ambiguous sounds leaving just a single violin on an E, a fifth up from A (where all things began), concluding our journey through time.