Orchestration
piano and electronics

Premiere performance
Jude Duane, piano, at Olive's Shed in Hamilton, New Jersey (October 19, 2024)

Additional performances
Jude Duane, piano, at Point CounterPoint in Leicester, Vermont (June 8, 2025)
Jude Duane, piano, at Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois (March 14, 2026)

Program Notes
Several years ago, I attended a sold-out concert in New York City featuring the compositions of a well-known contemporary concert music composer. During this concert, I suffered a panic attack. This was the result of an extended period of cognitive dissonance between what I was feeling and what the crowd around me was feeling. 

The cognitive dissonance I experienced became the conceptual basis of the work. Compositionally, this piece takes extensive inspiration from Frank Zappa's 'meltdown' works, which feature off-tune crooning accompanied by a vaguely-jazz backing. The sections that take influence from this are contrasted with smaller bits of alternative moods that reflect the story being told. This contrast gradually heightens the tension of the story until it explodes at the moment of the panic attack. Above all, the piece conveys the chaos of emotions, memories, and connections associated with the onset of a panic attack.