Program note:

The Circle Closes is a short tone poem of sorts for a not so short novel: The Stand, by Stephen King. I had read this book years before and it had a great effect on me. Not in keeping with King’s usual horror aesthetic, the story explores what happens in society when forced to rebuild from scratch. I used elements of this text as a jumping off point. I wanted to create a musical arc that felt narrative and in some ways represented the text but could still be understood musically by a listener who isn’t familiar with King’s book. My primary interest was King’s commentary on history always repeating itself in some way. The music is built from a small set of musical ideas that are all used to flesh out five episodes, each named in the score after a different aspect of the story, guiding the listener around in a loop to the musical point at which the piece began.