This piece is inspired by the sounds made by the droves of fiddler crabs common to the mud flats of Long Island, and the physical gestures they use to produce these sounds. Fiddler crabs produce sounds through stridulation–rubbing one part of their body against

another–and by rapping their claws against either themselves or the substrate. The aggregate of thousands of crabs making sound at the same time is a quiet, high frequency popping texture that almost sounds like rain, and at the right time of year is a ubiquitous sonic backdrop for the wetlands of Long Island.

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The premiere of this piece was reviewed in Classical Voice North America as part of a larger review of Unheard-of//Ensemble's Collaborative Composition Initiative festival 2023, and can be read in full here: https://classicalvoiceamerica.org/2023/07/10/wildfires-fiddler-crabs-festival-finds-music-in-unheard-of-places/