I composed this piece for the Dartmouth College 2010 Festival of New Musics. After expressing an interest to write for the Dartmouth College Wind Symphony, I contaced its conductor, Matthew Marsit, and he eagerly encouraged my desire. Written during the first quarter of 2010, Settle was my first piece for wind ensemble/concert band since high school!

The title emerged from a handful of aspects of the piece: the primary motive is a metrical gesture which produces the illusion of quickly decreasing the overall tempo; the middle of the piece has all of the instruments gradually reaching a stable, constant rhythm; and the alternation of sections with high rhythmic excitement and very low rhythmic excitement. In a way, much of the piece seems to be trying to settle to an equilibrium that it never finds.