African Fanfare is the first work I've premiered which utilizes my growing fascination with African music and aesthetics.  African aesthetics treat music more as a medium for interpersonal relationships than solely as a means for entertainment.  This idea permeates this piece, both in its aesthetic considerations and in the compositional techniques employed.  On a compositional level, I composed small chunks of music called cells.  These cells get repeated in such a way that the change in the relationship between cells creates interest.  And it is an interest in relationships--and what music can add to them--about which I am most passionate.

Craig Leland Sparks