Orchestration
solo bassoon

Commissioned by/Premiere
Dana Jessen, bassoon, at Point Counterpoint in Leicester, Vermont (September 15, 2025)

Program Notes
Toontown Online, a defunct online video game, has several private servers currently in operation. This piece is inspired by one of them, Toontown Rewritten (TTR). For years, TTR was the community's sole trusted private server, giving it significant influence over how the community experienced the game. This power led to a number of unpopular actions: hoarding internal documents from the original game, repeatedly delaying promised updates, and presenting themselves as the "legitimate" continuation of Toontown.

While I don't believe these actions were done maliciously, it is clear that the lack of competition they faced led to stagnation and malaise. This idea forms the conceptual core of this composition. Musically, the piece uses the blues scale, a key element of Toontown’s soundtrack, and rapid tremolos to evoke the nostalgic warmth espoused by TTR's branding. This is juxtaposed with growls and low-register multiphonics, which symbolize the underbelly of malaise rampant throughout the TTR team. The contrast between these timbres reflects the tension that existed in this period between TTR and its community.