Glass Cannon

Clarinet - Lloyd Van’t Hoff: linktr.ee/lloydvanthoff

Viola - Carrie Frey: linktr.ee/carriefrey

Piano - Konstantin Soukhovetski: linktr.ee/konstantinstar

Engineering - Omar Surillo linktr.ee/surillo_theband

Composer’s Note

For the Del Mar International Composers Symposium, the summer of 2024, I composed two pieces that together are Growing Up Glass. Glass Child, an art song, and this piece — Glass Cannon.

Both terms are slang that have come to be fairly well known.

Glass Child – the sibling of a person with a high-support mental and/or physical disability. Glass children tend to have their wants and needs set aside because of the high-support needs of their siblings; they tend to set higher standards for themselves to not burden their parents. Glass children tend to develop a sense of guilt about their family situation while simultaneously having to help serve a caregiver role — for many members of Generation Z and older this resulted in not knowing the difference between taking care of themselves and showing themselves care until adulthood.

Glass Cannon – is a popular term in role-playing games such as “Dungeons & Dragons” for a character that can pack a punch but is very fragile. They have strong offensive abilities, but weak defensive capabilities. The Urban Dictionary says, “The best way to fully embrace being a glass cannon is to be very careful when you attack, wait for an opening in which you are guaranteed a safe or almost safe hit to be as useful as possible.” I relate to both of these terms and how they are interlinked in my life. Glass Cannon explores how growing up as a glass child resulted in my developing glass cannon tendencies as the best-practice in how to live my life. The use of parallel 4ths, 5ths, and 7ths, in this piece is very purposeful — to not only create glassy overtones but also to reflect the lack of self-identity felt until adulthood. A stronger sense of tonality and eventually resolution is developed throughout the piece.

Sheet Music is available for rental through Black Tea Music: https://blackteamusic.com/contact/

This Piece Was Made Possible With the Financial Support Of: Arianna Joy Datu, Aris & Lisa Datu, Tanya Avendaño Stockler, Auntie Elsa and Family, Elisa Farmer, Dana & Mary Ann Whitesides, Jovelyn Sagory, Duane & Siham Toth, Paul & Gemma Toth, Steve & Perci Chase, A. Despres, ZW, Mike and Taeko, Tintin, Richard Kraft, Heidi Pancake, Reina Carreon, Andy Hui, Sonja Thoms, Amanda Jose, Emily Schaub, Nicholas Ward, MaryJane Powell, Cristanta Malig, Ellen Reese, Laura, Bryan Grosbach, and 17 anonymous donors.