Last Dance is a quasi neo-romantic work that is meant to capture the moments before someone’s final game. As a collegiate soccer player myself, I vividly remember my final game as a senior. In many ways, my entire college experience was built around the soccer team. We’d arrive on campus with the other student-athletes for preseason at least two weeks before the rest of the students arrived to move back into their dorms. We’d eat nearly all of our meals together each and every day, and we would train throughout the entire year, whether that meant lifting weights at 6am before class in the winter, practicing during the spring, or traveling as a squad during the fall season. Even though I knew I didn’t have the skillset or desire to play at any professional level after college, being on the soccer team was the greatest collegiate decision of my life. My dearest friends to this day are from the team, and it also taught me how to manage my time and be better disciplined.
In Last Dance, I imagine someone like Messi walking onto the pitch for their final game as a professional athlete. He stands in front of nearly 100,000 people chanting and yelling his name. EVERYTHING slows down, and there is a feeling of melancholy. After all, this will be his last moment to shine. At the macro level the piece is conceived in an ABA’ form, but at the micro level there is more detail within the structure: A(aba) B(cd) A’(aba). This is the very first piece of mine that uses key signatures. The first A (aba) is in C minor. The B section (c and d micro sections) adds more rhythm and fluidity to the music, and also helps us modulate upward to D minor (which is the key of the final big A’) as if to suggest it’s time to move on.