Demolition

In October of 2010 while walking through Eastern’s campus I had been searching for inspiration to start writing my next piece. I had been pondering this for a few weeks after finishing Iridescent Winds and couldn’t decide what I wanted to begin working on. As I walked home and kicked the autumn-colored leaves around my thoughts somehow made it to John Mackey. Then I started thinking, what would John do? It had been a while since I had written just a wind band piece, so that was the answer to one question. My next question was, about what? John had recently been posting on his site about the latest renovations happening at his house in Austin. One of their bathrooms was the last room in their house that was to be renovated. Bingo! I practically ran the rest of the way home, sent John an email, and began working on the piece immediately. Demolition, simply stated, is the destruction of John Mackey’s bathroom. From loosening screws and pounding out boards, to water spraying everywhere and knocking down a wall, Demolition takes the listeners and musicians on a chaotic musical journey of destruction. The repair man is called in, takes out his screw driver and begins to loosen the hinges on the door. After working hard disassembling, it’s time for a lunch break. From here on out its mass destruction until the wall is brought down. Once the demolition is finished, he walks out dropping his last screw on the floor.