Duration: 6'
Commissioned by and Dedicted to Augmented Triad: Amy Ian Hardemon, Chris Kawalewski, and Douglas Tiller
The title for this brief energetic work is taken from a commencement address given by Tim Cook, Chief Executive Officer of Apple at Stanford University in June 2019. In his remarks, Mr. Cook stated, “Too many seem to think that good intentions excuse away harmful outcomes. If you’ve built a chaos factory, you can’t dodge responsibility for the chaos. Taking responsibility means having the courage to think things through.”
In a world where thoughtless, off-handed messages on social media often cause a firestorm of chaotic and harmful outcomes, the notion of society bouncing back and forth aimlessly within the confines of a chaos factory certainly resonated with me. In this composition, several musical ideas seem to be tossed off causally but spiral into a series of events that could have unintentional outcomes. As I composed the piece, I couldn’t help but think that the act of composition is an application Mr. Cook’s admonition. Composers must take responsibility for their musical ideas and think through their implications. This simple act of thoughtful, disciplined craft applied towards my untamed creative expression has the potential to reinforce similar behavior in all my casually tossed off conversations, social media posts, and emails. Over time, I may even begin to subdue the chaos factory of my own fashioning.