Charon by Jonathan Anderson

Charon was written for the marimba virtuoso Noriko Tsukagoshi. I merely heard the opening statement in my head one morning and thought it was so powerful I just had to use it. Harmonically, it was heavily influenced by Indian classical music using the same raga more than once through-out the piece. The title comes from Greek mythology. Charon (or Kharon) is the boatman that ferries the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron. I felt this fit the dark and aggressive attitude of the piece perfectly.