86’d

for countertenor and chamber orchestra
commissioned by Alarm Will Sound

The attention grabbing headlines given to mass shootings in America indirectly obscure a far more troubling fact: an average of 86 lives are lost to gun wounds everyday in the United States. While it is unreasonable to point to a singular cause, the willingness of our elected officials to auction off legislative power to the highest bidder has greatly influenced the way gun legislation is both debated and regulated.

86’d (2014) is based on a patriotic song that gradually reveals itself through a musical form generated by gun violence statistics. By abstracting the original song’s text, the listener is invited to consider the words anew and ponder a fundamental question: for whom does liberty and justice serve in America?