It's not often for me that a title comes before any musical or conceptual ideas. Raindrops in an endless sea of stars, however, is one of those exceptions.

For a number of reasons, I started meditating earlier this year, something which I found made an overall positive impact on my personal mental health. Meditation became the primary basis for this piece's overall conceptual ideas. There are specifically two points of inspiration - ideas contrasted from each other on a realistic level, yet I believe are connected on a spiritual level (if one believes in the concept).

I have always been fond of outer space - the endless, infinite depths of stars and comets and planets all out there, some known to humanity and billions more unknown. I have always been fond of the wide-ranging phenomena and colors that can sometimes be found, such as the aurora lights or solar flares. Sometimes, when I meditate, I think of such things and can often, at times, visualize those calm and peaceful moments that can be witnessed, as if stargazing for something new and unknown.

The other source of inspiration comes from a specific meditative practice. This piece was written while I began composing my first symphony. One of my collaborators for that project is a certified sound healing practitioner and introduced me to this practice, something therapeutic in nature which seeks to restore harmony and balance to one's life through the use of resonant vibrations. A tension and stress reducer, sound healing seriously intrigued me from a compositional standpoint - it offered a sandbox of possibilities in demonstrating how music can be used to heal.

Raindrops in an endless sea of stars is thus intended to create a sense of both meditative, spiritual healing and wonder. This is a fully flexible work, in which any combination of instruments or ensembles can be used for performance. Freely suspended in time and space (for the performers, there is no specific meter that they follow), the piece is mainly driven by a plethora of extended techniques conjuring up sounds such as wind blowing through the air, sparse and twinkling stars, various murmurs and flutters, and so on.

Regarding the meditative aspects, the piece does not specifically seek to create an authentic sound healing session (my symphony will instead do this). However, some of the core ideas of this practice loosely inspired the work's structure and form. For example, fully resonant chords (created by flowing and improvised arpeggiated patterns) often verge on bitonality between various parts, creating tension and stress, only to find peace and tranquility when resolved to a brilliant, unified tonality.

​As for the title? Imagine stars twinkling in the nighttime sky, offering an enticing and limitless universe of possibilities, spiritual healing, and hope.