Symphony No. 4 was a crucially important piece for me to write. It was the first long-form pure orchestral work that I completed during my undergraduate years - in fact, it was actually prompted by a class assignment relating to the concept of the "void." This piece is at times highly sarcastic, at times extremely serious, and instilled in me an ability to connect very contrasting ideas and styles into a single unified work.
Symphony No.4 centers around an exploration of the abstract notion of the void. The piece begins with what is denoted as the "void chord" - an idea that returns over and over throughout the work. The first contrasting theme of the first movement is denoted the "uncertainty theme," and it forms the core of the second movement. The third movement is formed by a variation on another later contrasting theme from the first movement. There are myriad examples of blatant sarcasm in the piece, including the third movement's build up to the piece's climax - that build up is constructed exclusively out of overlapping the main themes from my symphonies #1 through #4 simultaneously.