composer's note: In the summer of 2000, I worked as an intern at a professional rock & pop recording studio in Venice, California. I’ve always been an avid fan of certain kinds of popular music, but it was a huge learning experience for me to work in a big studio and see how pop songs were made from the ground up. When I returned to continue my studies in composition, I wanted to apply my new knowledge of pop-song architecture to a “classical music” context. This piece, “Crackle & Snap,” was the result. It takes structural and textural ideas from pop music and re-interprets them through an orchestral lens, creating a brief orchestral fanfare that you can dance to. The title was an early (failed) attempt at cheeky cleverness, leaving out the third character "Pop" from the Rice Krispies commercials as a way of hinting at "pop" music. It's okay to judge me for that awful joke.