Trips Wide

“Trips Wide” is a combination of terms from American football. My dad played in the marching band for the University of Oklahoma at football games, so my love of music and sports come from a similar area. I distinctly remember listening to radio broadcasts in my childhood where the announcer would describe the formation of players as “trips” – meaning three players were bunched together on one side. “Wide” meant they were simply to the wide side of the field since the offense will never line up in the middle of the field but to one side or the other. When I was asked to write a piece for string trio, I couldn’t help but draw parallels between the “trips” formation and the ensemble.

Sometimes I like to imagine that music is a team sport. We have our teammates – our fellow ensemble members, we have a gameplan – the music, sometimes we have a coach, and the stage is our field. The preparation is both an individual and a group effort. We practice, we prepare, and then…we play. With Trips Wide I hope to dissect the way we play together. I also wished to explore the physical space of our “field” through movement. This piece is not necessarily about sports, but it is about teamwork. When working together we have conflict and resolution, and we find ourselves somewhere in the cross section of compliance and independence.