FLATIRON
classical guitar
Flatiron is a four movement guitar inspired by my memories of the Rocky Mountains, from my time as a college at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

In Boulder, the "flatirons" are large rock formations jutting out of the mountainside above a large park where I went hiking often. Movements 1, 3 and 4 are strongly influenced by my memories of this place. Movement 2, perhaps, then returns down to "street level" and is more a depiction of the youthful town of Boulder itself; this movement is influenced more by my background as a rock guitarist.

The composition makes use of several extended playing techniques for guitar. Several of these are in the second movement, the "rock guitar" movement. But others aim to capture my memories of being in the mountains:
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A prominent feature of the opening movement, and its reprise as the final movement, is a constant "timpani effect" utilized in the background of the texture, created by drumming the fingers on the bass string percussively in a tremolo motion, this is my attempt to capture the "white noise" of the wind that one hears roaring over the flatirons from all directions when standing in the mountains.