I Tried So Hard for You

“This piece comes from a conversation about the cyclical nature of unhealthy relationships in life, specifically in Black American families. Many of us were born into one-parent homes that were struggling financially and otherwise. When we grew up, we learned that most of our parents were also born into problematic situations. We imagine, if we could know our lineage, we could trace these cycles back to American slavery.

The music is not a reflection of those cycles, but instead draws inspiration from how these “inheritances” have effects on our relationships. Life is hard and we don’t choose the “hands we’re dealt”. Sometimes people just become who they need to become to survive. We’re all doing the best we can.

I tried so hard for you.”

– Marcus Norris

Duration: about 10 minutes, in three movements:

1. I Tried…
2. So Hard…
3. For You.

Comes with physical copies of the score and violin part, mailed to you.

Price: $35

Listen to the piece:

About Marcus Norris

Marcus Norris’ first foray into making music came in the form of producing rap beats on pirated software, installed on a Windows 98 computer that he Macgyvered together from spare parts while laying on the floor of his childhood bedroom. Though he came to composing concert music later, he transferred that same imagination and ingenuity to writing music of all kinds. Marcus has been called a “New Musical Talent in our Midst” by Chicago’s N’digo Magazine, and has made a number of achievements, including being awarded the prestigious Cota-Robles fellowship for pursuing his PhD at UCLA, being chosen in 2020 for the LA Philharmonic’s National Composers Intensive, and in 2017 winning 1st prize in the Southeastern Composers League Competition. His violin concerto “GLORY” opened to three sold-out performances when premiered by the Jackson Symphony Orchestra in 2019, and then was subsequently performed in Guangzhou, China later that year. His Dance Suite “I Tried So Hard for You” premiered in Havana in 2018, closely following the Russian String Orchestra premiere of “My Idols Are Dead” in Moscow. In 2020 he founded South Side Symphony – the only orchestra that would perform “Back That Thang Up” on the same concert as Beethoven.

For more of my pieces, check out my Compositions List.