this piece was under the working title "Points of Recursion" for quite some time during my compositional process. it was a chance for me to really get acquainted with the process of automatic creation, or creating without any forethought or conscious direction. it was also an exploration in the phenomenology of ideas, and the power sharing an idea can have. at its crux, the piece was a celebration of our habits: the human being's fantastic ability to form trends over time based on experiences, the ability to soak up a person or place and form patterns around them. in many ways, we tend to focus on the moments of change, the rare things that happen to us. we look to those to define ourselves, when the habits and menial tasks we do day in and day out - the routes we take home, the sayings we say, the friends we speak to, the foods we eat, the music we listen to - are what actually define the majority of our lives. with all that in mind i sought to create the score and solo in one sitting, and ask the performers not to look though their part until the moment of performance (and even then i would ask not to sight read/read ahead).
i thought something was missing, however, and i knew the title was only temporary. when i finally got all my colleagues together and I was able to listen to a recording, i realized we had all shared similar emotions about our soon-to-be-ending studies at the University of Central Florida. i knew then what was missing was an homage to the sense of community i felt when recording, an undertone of what i experienced in my time at UCF. it is that very community which inspires drive, our habits and tendencies and we accept as our identity. alma mater is a celebration of the constantly evolving habits we form while under the nourishing arm of our community. i dedicated the title in great deference to UCF, and for all i have grown in my undergrad, for all that UCF and i will continue to change.