"Every beginning comes from some other beginning's end." — Seneca

2020 was a year defined by loss and isolation, yet for my family, it was also the year we welcomed our daughter, Sienna. She became a beacon of light in a season of darkness. This work was born from that spirit of "restarting"—of finding one’s way to a destination only after several failed attempts.

The structural blueprint for Chapter One was inspired by Rabih Alameddine’s novel I, the Divine, which is composed entirely of first chapters. I was drawn to the unique kinetic energy of a beginning; that moment of pure potential before a narrative settles. In this piece, each movement acts as a new start, titled after a specific literary genre with its own distinct tropes and "flavor."

The movements are designed to end abruptly, right at the precipice where the listener expects a development. However, a thread of coherence runs through these disparate starts: a common melody that acts as a recurring "punchline" to several different "set-ups."

The finale is the longest section and the only one to reach a true sense of finality. It is built upon a gently rocking ostinato that is frequently interrupted by "magical" gestures and allusions to folk music. These interruptions mirror the prose of Gabriel García Márquez, where the wondrous and the mundane coexist seamlessly. The movement also pays homage to Vallenato, the Colombian folk style that García Márquez so dearly loved and popularized, weaving a thread of regional heritage into the work’s closing resolution.