Flowers

Flowers for two marimbas and vibraphone is a piece is comprised of three different movements, each dedicated to a specific flower, and inspired by the culture and symbolism they are each associated with.

Roses are seen as a symbol of love and passion, so much so that they feel like a cliché. Love is a complicated thing, yet is extremely hard to explain in words. It can be painful, but life wouldn’t be worth living without it. This movement is written in a typical pop form, to express the commercialization of roses.

The lotus is one of the most common symbols of spirituality, being linked with meditation and wellness. These flowers are often found in ponds, delicately floating on top of the water during the day, and at night, resting underneath the water. To create an ethereal and timeless feel, the movement expresses the naturally occurring harmonic series, as well as constant rolls and rhythmic displacement.

Cherry blossoms symbolize birth and death, beauty and violence, so on and so forth. Their falling leaves are a symbol of the fleeting nature of life and new beginnings. To communicate this symbolism, the movement contains a few different variants of a pentatonic scale, and alternating meters.