All three movements of this piece are primarily written with simple chord progressions. It evolved from a study of the music of one of my very favorite choral composers, Morton Lauridsen (1943 – ), who achieves exquisite music very simply. For those familiar with his music, you may be able to hear a brief quote from Dirait – On in Movement I. The last movement is an expansion of music I composed previously for my son to perform as a Contrabass Duet and is written in Dorian Church Mode, giving it a sneaky feeling.
The title, “Trece de Coco,” is a play on words. In Portugese, “doce de coco” technically means “coconut sweets” but colloquially can be used to mean “sweetheart.” It is the name of a wonderful song by the Brazilian songwriter Jacob do Bandolim. However, the same “doce de coco” in Spanish mean “twelve of coconut”. To go just a bit further, I gave this song the title “thirteen of coconut” in Spanish, or “Trece de Coco” —hopefully just a little sweeter than your favorite treat (of your favorite sweatheart).