PENDULUM was written in my senior year of college.  It was chosen to be performed with the Seattle Symphony in their annual reading of student composers’ works.  I performed the solo part.  The title PENDULUM refers to how the accompanying material in the orchestra keeps returning at (different) regular intervals.  The solo part begins very low, utilizing the low C extension (I actually performed it on a 5-string bass) and is written at orchestral tuning (to sound darker).   Though the solo is freely composed, it gradually pushes higher and higher until it reaches and holds a high F#.  The orchestra parts keeps adding new ideas until it reaches a busy climatic section which ends when a bass drum stroke leaves the double bass on a low F#.  The ending is also low, but not the same.  A returning fortissimo anvil strike, continues to remind us that you can never return home.