Romance

Something about Romance for wind quintet wasn't working—my teacher Amanda Harberg couldn't shake the feeling that the static background texture was bogging down the whole piece. I installed an ostinato of five flowing, legato sixteenth notes in the flute against six in the clarinet that I liked, but something still felt off. On a whim, I changed the articulation to staccato, and the pattern transformed into flecks of moonlight on a rippling ocean; at last, the piece was right. Four years later, I met my Ivy, whose eyes always remind me of the ocean at night, and Romance finally earned its title.