You Also

for Alto Saxophone and Piano

2017

Program Notes

When I wrote “You Also” I was thinking about the direction of melodic lines. When a line changes direction from ascending to descending, or vice vera, how do we emotionally react? I wrote this piece as an attempt to subvert the change in melodic direction. Almost every line in this piece is ascending. This constant direction gives the music a somewhat stubborn characteristic at times. It is (in part) because of this stubbornness, that I titled from a latin phrase, “tu quoque”. Tu quoque is a fallacy known as “the appeal to hypocrisy.” It is used to counter the criticism of someone by claiming they are being hypocritical, and therefor their criticism is not valid.