“Bassist Patrick Dugan and I have been close since we met at Indiana University; he was finishing his undergraduate degree at the Jacobs School of Music when I began my first master’s. Three years later, we both serendipitously ended up together again at the Eastman School of Music, where he was finishing his master’s coursework when I started my PhD program. Patrick is an experienced performer of new music, so it seemed inevitable that we would eventually collaborate. The opportunity finally presented itself when he began programming his master’s degree recital. Patrick would be performing Johann Baptist Wanhal’s Concerto in D major with his instrument in the traditional Viennese tuning, in which the strings are tuned to a D major triad. In order to fill out the rest of the recital, he commissioned several composers to take on the challenge of writing new pieces using the old tuning. Patrick asked me to write a short and energetic unaccompanied piece to close his recital, and thus The Death of a Stag (2021–22) was born.

At Patrick’s suggestion, The Death of a Stag is loosely based on the Greek myth of Actaeon. The myth describes the hunter and hero Actaeon stumbling upon the goddess Artemis as she bathed. Artemis transforms Actaeon into a stag as a punishment for his accidental transgression, and he is subsequently killed by his own hounds. My imagined narrative for the piece begins with Actaeon’s metamorphosis, extends through his pursuit by his hounds and his attempts to hide, and ends with his final moments, his fate having been sealed upon becoming a stag. ”