Honorifics

For bass-baritone and percussion
Performed by Theo Trevisan and Dylan Ofrias
June 11, 2025, Dublin, NH

Commissioned by the Walden School and Talujon as part of the 2025 Young Musicians Program Faculty Commissioning Concert.

Inspired by the success of Theseus Verbatim, I wanted to write another piece with compiled text for my own voice plus one other instrumentalist. The combination of voice and percussion was especially exciting because the percussionist’s approach to timbre has interesting overlaps with the singer’s detail work of manipulating parts of text and speech.

The idea of using a list of honorifics came after a series of ego-bruising audition failures. That prompted me to meditate more on my own occasional fixations on titles or status to feel validation, and the idea of repeating and deconstructing text to a point of meaninglessness seemed freeing.

Special thanks to the Walden School and Talujon for commissioning and performing the piece, as well as to Olivia Marckx, Aidan Gold, Reid Bruton, Dashon Burton, and Ted Hearne for their guidance at various stages of the process.

Text: a list of honorifics

Your Highness
Your Grace
Your Excellency
Exarch
Esquire
Doctor
Professor
Officer
Chosen Freeholder
Coach
Comrade
Commissioner
Emeritus
The Most Honorable
The Venerable
Viceroy
Suzerain
President
Citizen
Baron