Orchestration
flute, oboe, clarinet/bass clarinet, bassoon, horn

Duration
9 minutes

Premiere
Premiered by Plaza Winds, March 2020.

Program Note
This work was the result of the residency I had with Plaza Winds in 2019. Right before I started graduate school and just two months before my wedding, my father-in-law had a near fatal motorcycle accident. He suffered significant head trauma and at the time of writing this piece, we did not know if he would ever wake up again, or remember us, or remember who he was himself. At times, the only way we were sure he was alive was the mechanical breath of the ventilator. Parts of this piece were written in his urgent care room, listening to the rhythm of his and our breathing, when we became to tired to talk or cry. It became clear that when he did awake, he would not be the same before the accident, but I had hoped that internally, the essence of himself would still shine through; the father who raised my wife and the friend I had come to love.