Instrumentation: Concert Band (Grade .5)
Duration: 1’30”
Program Note:
Writing Meltdown was a labor of love after the initial 2 measures of the piece popped into my head in the middle of the night. Like many of my composer idols, I try to showcase that simple music doesn’t need to be boring or cheesy, so writing a piece only using the first 6 notes young musicians learn in band class felt like a fun new challenge.
The structure of the piece is based off an energetic 3-note motif introduced in the first measures, which is intensified and transformed through changing rock harmonies and driving rhythms. I’d also be remiss to not mention that Toby Fox’s ‘Megalovania’ from the video game Undertale was a major inspiration in the formal and stylistic framework of the piece. Meltdown explodes to the finish line through a short halftime ballad that continuously layers the different themes of the piece until it becomes a powerful cacophony of sounds.
Chris Evan Hass, Composer 