In 2022, I was part of an event where composers met up to present pieces they’d written under the shared prompt ‘autumn’. In my college town of West Lafayette, fall means football, chaos and the Purdue tradition known as Breakfast Club!

For those not in the know, Breakfast Club is when Purdue students go to the bars at 7am on home football game days wearing costumes and party until the game starts. Some of my best college memories were made several screwdrivers deep at 9am in a costume!

The piece is written for marching band and uses several elements of 12-tonality while also attempting to blend in some John Williams-inspired jazz harmony brass work.

Here’s the story told in the piece:

Behold now the autumn ritual of the drunk 22 year old emerging from Where Else Bar around 9:30 on a cool November morning, seeing the day’s light for the first time. Blindness halts him temporarily, but he reluctantly begins his journey home. What starts as a strut turns into a stumble before remembering his vodka-soaked Superman costume and feeling like he can fly. He finally gets to his apartment and is met with the drunkard’s kryptonite – keys that just won’t fit the door. Finally, he overcomes this burden and enters his apartment: “ah, the couch!” He lays down, turns on Big Ten Network, and passes out as the game begins.