By My Side

The building blocks for this piece come from the use of a musical cryptogram. This approach assigns musical pitches to notes of the alphabet, allowing the composer to spell words musically. The main melody outlines the name of the dedicatee of this work, a high school percussionist and an avid runner. After the initial chorale-like beginning, a running theme is presented in a faster tempo; these two themes then combine for a stirring end which fades off into the distance.