Long time department store Neiman Marcus commissioned junior music composition major Timothy Roy to write three original pieces of music to celebrate the store’s 100th anniversary.

“I got an e-mail a week or two before classes started,” Roy said. “It was sent to all composition majors and said that Neiman Marcus needed music for the 100th anniversary exhibit. I just decided I’d give it a shot.”

The department store originally contacted Meadows Dean José Bowen about the opportunity hoping that a student could capture the idea they were looking for.

Roy originally wrote music for a jazz quintet, but says that Neiman Marcus didn’t feel that his music went with their exhibit, although they liked the score.

“About the first week in September, I went to the downtown store and met with corporate and they basically showed me drawings of how the main floor was going to look,” Roy said. “They wanted me to write music that went with the visual.”

Taking inspiration from the drawings of glass chandeliers, crystal prisms, mirrors and radiant lighting that made up the futuristic exhibit, Roy composed another score using the recording studio at Meadows.

“I composed an electronic ambient score,” he said. “They wanted something that looked back at the past, but also at the future.”

Roy composed the music for the “Wish Tree” main floor exhibit. He used sounds from nature, where he combined a jazzier score with sounds of people talking and the elevators. He says there was no specific time limit, but that the score was meant to be looped and somewhat lengthy.

In addition to composing the music, Roy was invited to a black-tie gala celebrating Neiman Marcus’s anniversary on Oct. 12.

Roy’s work is currently being featured at the downtown flagship store until Nov. 3. His next project involves working with the Catholic Campus Ministry for their 75th anniversary.