Clouds of Oran is an early piece of mine, composed in 2003 while a masters student at the University of Texas. It is the first of several pieces based on Albert Camus’ novel The Plague. The novel takes place in the city of Oran on the coast of Algeria.  My title is based on an image that occurs early in the text, as the disease is just beginning to take hold and the population beginning to show signs of unrest.  Although Clouds is not programmatic per se, the piece as a whole examines the classic text as it related to the social atmosphere in the United States at the time the piece was composed – 2003.  This first part serves to introduce the harmonic and textural language used in the subsequent piece, "The Twilight of Our Minds," though it is also meant to stand on its own as an independent composition.