Composer’s Notes

Distribution: Good Docs (2020).

PhD student Ruffin White overcame some grim predictions for his future. As a young child, he was diagnosed with severe autism spectrum disorder. His single mother, Mary Jane While, got creative to find Ruffin treatment, recruiting friends and neighbors to assist in his therapy. Ruffin went on to attend UCSD for a PhD in Robotics.

The actual story is as much about a mother’s relationship with her child as it is about Ruffin’s condition. So the tone of the score is very much about motherhood and childhood.

To make the music a bit more personal, I found a piano instrument with built-in rhythmic playback patterns. I found the patterns somewhat unpredictable, and they could be applied quite beautifully. There was a certain gentle quality to them. It seemed a lovely tool that could illuminate what research shows about how autistic minds work.