Featured Video: AUTUMNAL OVERTURE by Marco Schirripa

AUTUMNAL OVERTURE was commissioned by Paul Millette and premiered at the University of North Dakota in 2014. I was concerned when he asked me for a piece that was sensitive and beautiful, as neither of those words even come close to describing my compositional style. The result of this challenge splits the difference in a way, with slow, chorale-style textures intermixed with small pockets of groove, and a mathematical harmonic style that is dissonant, but not abrasive. I did not intend for the work to be programmatic, so the title was derived from a certain landscape that comes to mind when I listen to it: a lush, colorful swamp darkened by the canopy of trees, but with sunlight intermittently shining gaining entry as one travels through. These pockets of light are represented by the two “groove” sections in the overture’s superternary form.