for Brass Quintet: 2 Trumpets, French Horn, Trombone, Tuba

approximately 4 minutes

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” The piece starts like 1984 by George Orwell – in clockwork – lively, yet rigid. 

Just how the thirteenth stroke of a clock symbolizes a need for change, just following the thirteenth measure of the piece, change happens. In expanding the tonal bank, flaws within this rigid system are seen. The interchanges between tonal and alien notes to the tonal harmony, as well as the frequent mutations highlights an eccentric aspect of The Utopia, illustrating how Utopia actually quite literally means not “perfect world”, as frequently misidentified as the eu-topia in Greek, but rather “no world”. The adventure of such being primarily in the story told through the exploration of the flaws of The Utopia.