One day, I decided I wanted to put a trap beat on a concert stage.

In adapting black popular genres for my suite Soul Album, I readily tackled funk, soul, and R&B but hesitated when it came to hip-hop. Despite being my most listened to genre of music, or perhaps because of it, the prospect of doing the medium justice was daunting. How do you wordlessly adapt a musical tradition built on lyricism? The answer I found lay in rhythm, articulation, and ENERGY. This piece’s working title was simply “Defiance”, a codename capturing the adolescent angst I poured into the work and the expectations of band music I aimed to defy.

AUDACITY. (all caps when you spell the name) is a bold, frenetic tribute to hip-hop music, beginning with thunderous drums and a cloud of ascending woodwinds imitating a riser synth. Timpani and basses become 808s, and the percussionists become a drum machine as braggadocious brass blare an anthemic four note motive. The movement gradually moves backward in time, starting with aggressive trap hats and triplet flows, moving to the underground with jazzy chords and boom-bap beats, and finally to the danceable rhythms of the 90s. The piece is bookended with an explosion of energy based on the original material, and marked by one final statement of the main motive before the final chord rocks the ensemble. The influences of artists like Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, MF DOOM, Nas, Run-D.M.C., and others all shaped the final work.