As the title suggests, Whimsy is a lighthearted piece that serves as an homage to Richard Strauss, whose music I encountered in my early days of music studies. The opening trumpet material sets up the entire work for some diversions and variations. It lent itself to add musical quotes not only from Strauss, but from Wagner, Beethoven, and even Schoenberg. I had fun applying Schoenberg’s 12-tone compositional techniques to the main theme: in the lyrical section the theme is played simultaneously with its retrograde, inversion, and retrograde inversion; a product of my impish spirit. In a sort of Rondo form, the theme is played in various moods and colors and closes once more with the lone trumpet before the orchestra’s final chord.

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