The Freeloader for guitar quartet

a peculiar stranger

This piece is essentially “Alex discovers the octatonic scale and 7/8 time”. The first idea I sketched out for it was the ostinato that begins the fast 7/8 section. I began composing this piece in my last year studying at SUNY Fredonia, and I had no particular inspiration that I was drawing upon at first. Until...

I encountered a certain individual. In the fall semester of my senior year, I had to take HIST 101 World History I. It was the last gen ed course I needed for my degree. I was not thrilled about taking it. My lack of investment in the class was due in no small part to the professor's droll, scripted, overly formal lecture style that left no room for students to engage.

There was a student in this class. I never spoke to him, I never learned his name, and I knew nothing about him other than what I witnessed from him. He would frequently stroll into class 15 minutes late, prop his longboard up against the wall, and sit in the closest empty seat he could find to the professor's podium. Some days, he would leave class halfway through and return with his breakfast that he bought at the FSA cafe at the other end of the building. He appeared to feel no guilt about doing this, or about crinkling wrappers while the professor was speaking. He would also raise his hand to make useless comments or ask irrelevant questions to help himself stay engaged, which visibly threw off the professor's rhythm.

Normally, I would have felt whatever I was going to feel about the things he did and forgotten about them. Except, I started to see him around campus. One day, I was eating lunch in one of the dining facilities, and I saw him eating with his friend. The friend got up to order something, and he waited until his friend was at the front of the line ordering to shout over to him and ask if he could get him a bottle of water (and mooch off his meal points). I would see him do similarly odd things in other places as well. He was everywhere.

None of this was doing me any harm, of course. I wasn't seething at the sight of him. I just couldn't help but notice these little behaviors and actions that would leave me perplexed. I felt like Larry David in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, just without the reckless tendency to actually go up and say something.

One night, I was sitting in the hallway of the athletic building waiting for my girlfriend to get out of dance team practice, and I was passing the time by sketching out ideas for this piece. The little things I had observed about that guy were fully circulating in my head at this point, and the most serendipitous thing happened. He appeared from around the corner, threw his longboard on the floor, and rode it all the way down the long hallway to the building's exit. In that moment, I stared down at my manuscript paper and knew that this piece would be about that guy.

I give you The Freeloader. Nearly every musical idea you hear is recycled in each new section, as if freeloading off of what came before. At the very end, there is a direct quotation of the "Infernal Dance" from Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird, just for a little freeloading off another composer.

To whatever ensemble plays this piece, I wish you a thrilling journey on this ten-minute octatonic monstrosity. It's all in good fun.

The full score and separate parts are included. Each part is presented in standard notation only, as well as standard notation with tablature.

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