Occasus, was written in the Spring of 2010 for the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet. This work is comprised of twelve sections that are differentiated by textural contrasts and pitch transpositions, and are united through recurring timbres, motives, and a consistent harmonic landscape. The title is in Latin, and can mean ?setting? (as in the setting sun), and can also mean ?downfall, ruin, death?. The pessimistic programmatic element from which this work emerged is present on a multiplicity of levels, including descending motives, segmented formal structures with clear divisions, intense climaxes, and even in the immediately decaying sound quality inherent to the percussion family of instruments.