Among Giants is a piece that recalls my childhood. Growing up in a small coastal Northern Californian town, I was surrounded by nature. Specifically, the famous coastal and “giant” Redwood trees. One striking aspect of this forest is how quiet it is. This stillness, in combination with the immensity of the world’s tallest trees towering above, is a truly awe-inspiring experience. As my father once put it: “it’s so quiet, it’s deafening.” In this piece, I tried to evoke the feeling of being in the Redwood forest. The piece begins with a slow chordal buildup, adding notes one at a time from low to high, until all at once the lower notes are left out, leaving only a high A. Then the process is repeated, this time from high to low, as if one is taking in the immense form of a redwood tree for the first time. Following this, there comes a lonely single line melody in the left hand, accompanied by sparse and sporadic 16^th notes in the right hand; this section represents a lone figure walking in the woods, every once in a while noticing a scurrying creature out of the corner of their eye. The piece finishes the way it began: with the ever-present and towering redwoods, represented by the slow buildup and breakdown of chords in both hands.

Commissioned by NOVAM and published by Jetelina.