Composer's Notes: Into the Deep was written for one of my closest friends, Matthew Morris. This is the third chamber work of mine featuring the contrabassoon that has been premiered by him. His wonderfully warm, lyrical, and musical approach to contrabassoon performance is the idealized sound I envisioned as I wrote this piece. It features warm and lyrical melodic lines framing two church hymns quoted in the contra part and one original hymn-like song. Into the Deep was premiere by Matthew Morris on June 24, 2010 at the International Double Reed Convention at the University of Oklahoma.