you say you're ok

for Lead Steelpan and Cello

Written for Mike Schwebke

This piece follows a recent trend of mine to attempt to reflect daily life in music.  It is an expression of my frustration with the shallowness of so may interpersonal relationships in my and other people's lives.  Social media has changed our interactions in way where it is almost unacceptable to be anything less than "fine, ok, good."  We present the most perfect version of ourselves whenever possible.  The primary compositional premise of this piece is two instruments engaging in a dialogue.  The dialogue begins quite superficially with the steel pan and cello essentially imitating each other.  Once the tempo picks up the two instruments begin to develop each other's ideas finally settling into different but complementary roles.