When Joe Holmquist approached me wearing a s*** eating grin on his face. I knew something was up, and indeed it was, a commission to write a solo snare drum piece!

I immediately fell into panic mode, thrashing about for some concept that would hold me in good stead, eventually narrowing in on two quite different solutions: 1) a Euro-American modernist aesthetic reflecting composers like Carter, Berio, and Martino that emphasized extreme surface detail through timbral variety and metric modulations,  and 2) rhythmic patterns (Changdons) of Korean traditional music, based on compound metrical ostinati.

Eventually, unable to choose between the two, decided to cut my losses and incorporate both into a diverse two-movement structure. So as I stealthily flounced away from Joe's house having secreted the finished piece in his mailbox it was I who was wearing the aforementioned grin.