PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER

Echoes of Light is a very special commission for me. More than 20 years ago, when I was in high school, the Fear No Music ensemble’s Young Composer’s Project gave me my first experience writing for professional musicians. Their feedback, guidance, and encouragement were monumental to my future as a composer. While writing this piece, I couldn’t help but revisit my younger creative self. In fact, I made a point to allow that part of myself to speak again. While this music is modern in many ways, it is truly simple at its core. It is the combining of new and old musical conventions, as well as borrowing creativity from both my current and younger self. Needless to say, the invitation to write this piece for Fear No Music has been a reflective experience and a true honor. 

In the fall of 2022, in downtown Los Angeles, I was walking to my car late at night. While stepping over shards of broken glass, the headlights from passing cars broadcast the glass beneath my feet into a spectacular, kaleidoscopic light show. The light projected diffuse waves of blue color, seemingly echoing between buildings. It was almost as if my ears could actually hear the invisible sound of these reflections.

I wanted to capture this ineffable experience of “hearing” the light echoing between buildings. Immediately, I could imagine fractured motifs and patterns passing between musicians in the ensemble. The goal was to write in such a way as to convince an audience there was a digital, audio delay effect in use. Before I knew it, I was composing a series of variations (explorations if you will) attempting to capture the magical patterns of dancing light. 

My intent was to compose a new work based entirely on modern conventions, yet my rhythm and harmony were constantly at odds with one another. For reasons I don’t entirely understand, the tricky rhythms creating the “delay effect” seemed to best respond with very simple harmony. Once I revisited the bright, ascending, and angelic harmonic figures common to Handel’s choral works, everything seemed to fall into place. The more I pushed the rhythm forward in time, I had to pull the harmony in the opposite direction. Once again, the duality of forces paved the way forward.

It is with great excitement that I share the premiere performance with you tonight! From the very old to the very new, from street glass to this concert hall, for better or for worse, it is my honor to present Echoes of Light. 

BIOGRAPHY

Chris Thomas is a composer for film, theme parks, and a TED speaker. He’s won a Hollywood Music in Media Award, twice won the American Prize in Composition, written music for several Emmy-nominated films, and for Woman Rebel, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award. In television, he works as a composer, orchestrator, and conductor for studios such as Sony, ABC, FOX, CBS, and HBO. 

Chris’s theme park music can be heard at Evermore Adventure Park, The Void (4D Games), Universal Studios, Knott's Berry Farm, Dreamland Theme Park (UK), and many other locations worldwide.

Chris’s works for the concert hall have been performed from Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, to the Hollywood Bowl. His Malheur Symphony was the subject of his 2019 TED Talk.  His works are published with Alfred Music, Walton Choral, Wingert-Jones Publications, and Carl Fischer Music. 

Learn more at www.christhomasmusic.com