Since 1945, the government radio station WWVB near my home in Fort Collins, Colorado has played a vital role in the lives of Americans. Broadcasting the official US time at various frequencies to countless machines, this small station has provided the rhythm to our modern technological nation for generations. The source of the station’s impeccable timing accuracy is the nearby NIST-F1 atomic clock located in Boulder. My composition Atomic Time depicts this remarkable “clock radio” as an exploration of how pitch and rhythm are interrelated and a function of how the human ear perceives time. Using a simple cipher to convert “WWVB” to musical notes, a short motif was created and manipulated into many different permutations. A constant pulsation is maintained at 21,600 vibrations per hour – the same rate as a mechanical watch. Polyrhythms, tempo modulations, and swirling counterpoint build from a single steady beat to a frenetic and breathless dance with strong jazz and Afro-Latin references, finally slowing to a stop as the watch winds down. My goal is to provide listeners with an ever-building groove that, like WWVB, will connect people from coast to coast to the nation’s beating heart in the Rocky Mountains. This work was commissioned by the Fossil Ridge High School Wind Symphony, Aaron Herman, director of bands. -program note by the composer, November 2023