Written for Quatuor Bozzini during the Composer’s Kitchen 2023 residency in Montréal, Three Busy Monsters is a string quartet in one movement. The music consists of chorale-like melodic gestures: ever-evolving residual material, drawn from a large-scale orchestral piece that itself remains a work in progress. It is built on three tuning axes: A=431.7 Hz, A=440 Hz, and A=448.5 Hz. Chords are hocketed across these axes, with the players paired so that repeating yet changing sequences of chords form the texture; the resulting microtonal shifts of approximately a sixth-tone give the harmonic content extra momentum. Each axis received a name—they are Elon, Mark, and Jeff.

The subtitle draws from e e cummings’ poem pity this busy monster, manunkind. Whereas George Dubya coined “axis of evil” to refer to a triad of rogue states, here it refers to rogue tech moguls, having earned each of them their very own evil axis. Cummings’ poem critiques relentless progress that disregards human consequence. The music channels this tension.