Obscure Sorrows for Mixed Chamber Ensemble (2024) draws inspiration from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, an online catalog of very specific, relatable human emotions. My piece examines the emotions of Anecdoche and Agnosthesia, as defined below:

I. Anecdoche n.a conversation in which everyone is talking but nobody is listening— instead merely overlaying words like a spoken game of Scrabble, each player borrowing bits of others’ anecdotes to build out their own, until we reach a point when we all run out of things to say.

II. Agnosthesia n. the state of not knowing how you really feel about something, which forces you to sift through clues hidden in your behavior, as if you were some other person—noticing a twist of acid in your voice, an obscene amount of effort put into something trifling, or an inexplicable weight on your shoulders that makes it difficult to get out of bed.