Three Copypastas

For vocal octet or double choir SATB
Completed January 2023
Los Angeles, CA

1. I Just Have to Say
   2. Colossal Dreadmaw
   3. Just For Fun
   

I Just Have to Say

Performed by USC Thornton Chamber Singers
Theo Trevisan, conductor
April 17, 2024, Los Angeles, CA

Text: excerpted from “A facebook group where we pretend to be boomers”

“I just have to say, I’m actually rather disgusted with this group.”

Additional Performance: Penn State Concert Choir
Christopher Kiver, Conductor
March 22, 2025, State College, PA

Colossal Dreadmaw

Performed by Exilio
Ann Chen, director
May 6, 2023, Los Angeles, CA

Text: from the Magic the Gathering card Colossal Dreadmaw

“If you hear the ground quake, run.
If you hear its bellow, flee.
If you see its teeth, it’s too late.”

Movement 3 performance forthcoming; contact Theo for demo tracks.

Know Your Meme defines a copypasta as 'any block of text that gets copied and pasted over and over again, typically disseminated by individuals through online discussion forums and social networking sites.' My Three Copypastas use different means of text repetition while both paying homage to and subverting traditional tropes in double choir writing.

‘I Just Have To Say’ sets part of a copypasta from “A [Facebook] group where we all pretend to be boomers,” and it was written asking a question formed by years of singing double choir music: what if, in a double choir choir piece, the choirs hated each other and constantly undermined each other rather than supporting each other? Despite all my efforts, the choirs have a sort of toxic codependency.

'Colossal Dreadmaw' sets text from a mediocre Magic the Gathering card that has become a meme on Reddit due to its frequent printings. The piece explores the bizarreness of increasingly self-referential inside jokes, as well as potential intersections between traditional counterpoint and motivic manipulations in sample- based electronic genres like plunderphonics, chopped and screwed, and vaporwave.

‘Just For Fun’ sets excerpts from another copypasta from “A group where we all pretend to be boomers,” and it plays around with using and misusing tonal sequences, like a figured bass exercise gone horribly wrong. The text repeats and proliferates in a chaotic way, imitating the telephone-game-like way copypastas evolve and distort over time like tonal artifacts develop in other kinds of music.

Special thanks to Ted Hearne and to Exilio, the group whomst the pieces were written for.