Pet Suite

We live in a strange world, friends! With a few taps or clicks we can listen to recordings of just about anything ... from Palestrina to Daft Punk and everything in between, in every direction. And I do! Isn't it cool and fun and amazing?! How does that impact me as a composer? Well, for instance I'll be humming a line from a De Lassus motet and it will morph into a line from a Stevie Wonder song. I'll be writing a serious orchestral piece and I'll think to myself, "Ohh, you know what this needs? A Gil Evans moment!" (Gil was a famous jazz arranger, notable for his work with Miles Davis.) I've loved Debussy's music from the time I was a young piano student. Debussy was a rule-breaker ... but a very informed, skillful, creative rule-breaker, which is probably why he succeeded so well. Another of my favorite rule-breakers is Brian Wilson, one of the founding members of The Beach Boys and the mysterious genius behind their landmark album Pet Sounds. Wilson knew the rules of Southern Cali