Program Note

As a kid, I vividly remember being entranced by one particular science experiment: the “soda geyser”. Dropping a Mentos candy into a Diet Coke beverage catalyzes the gas from the drink, creating an eruption where the liquid is shot out of the bottle. I would often have the urge to grab a few bottles and candies, run around in a park with friends, and blast each other with makeshift bottles-turned-spray-cannons. Unfortunately—or fortunately for everyone in terms of cleanup—this childhood dream never came to fruition. Thinking back to these simpler times, I wanted to write a piece that channeled the bubbling volatility of a soda bottle about to erupt, mixed with a cheeky dash of childhood shenanigans with friends.

Hijinks is a rather whimsical piece, propelled forward by a constant driving groove. Flashing colors of sound constantly bounce in and out of the texture via hocketed lines, while instruments slide and bend their notes in exaggerated, cartoonish gestures. Structurally, the piece expands on a chromatic wedge centered on D (before moving to C# and Eb, then E and C, etc.) but withholds the final two pitches—A and G#, for some special surprises. Always moving, constantly shifting, bouncing n’ bubbling, this work harkens back to a childlike dream filled with gloriously volatile hijinks.