A Fallen Leaf was commissioned by Tony Garmoe and the West Des Moines Valley (Iowa) High School Symphony Band. Although the work is not overtly programmatic, it was inspired by an incident that occurred in 1990 while I was an undergraduate at the University of Iowa. Ever since that moment, I have been motivated to compose a piece about it, but the opportunity never presented itself. I originally conceived the work as a multi-percussion solo, so when Mr. Garmoe approached me about composing a work that might feature percussion, I felt that my opportunity had finally arrived.

At the surface, the incident seems to be almost unimportant, but to me it has a larger and more universal significance. It began one Friday afternoon in late March or early April. I was going to my car in the music building parking lot when I happened to glance up and notice one lone leaf hanging firmly to the bare branch of a nearby tree. I looked around and realized that there were absolutely no other leaves on any of the surrounding trees. I thought to myself, "What a wonderful depiction of the will to survive." I went home, and over the weekend we experienced one last small, end-of-the-season snowstorm. As I went to class on Monday morning, I was saddened to see that the leaf was no longer on the tree. Somehow, this leaf had survived the whole winter only to fall with spring only days away. The event continues to strike me as a tragic metaphor for some individual struggles, often unsuccessful, that occur in all of our lives.