Three Phantasy Pieces for viola, cello and double bass
(1999-2000)
Composed for the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, this work was composed in Knoxville & San Francisco using a very out of tune, worn-out upright piano.
The piece came about as I was rehearsing Davidovsky's Festino for guitar, viola, cello & bass, which is a piece I adore. There was another piece we were to play on the program that used the 3 string instruments but for various reasons it was not to happen, so we had room on the program for more music and I volunteered to create a piece.
My work is in three movements. This is what I was interested in doing with my music back then:
I - Abrupt!Fragments
Antiphony & resonance were big preoccupations in my music when I composed this. I've always been interested in sounds that ring, where the source of the ringing is, and what is left behind if the ringing is removed and the source is interrupted.
II - Solstice
I wrote this movement in 24 hours on the Winter Solstice. The movement is divided into two parts with a pivot in the middle where the cello & viola switch roles like the invisible moment when the end of autumn becomes the start of winter.
III - Rush
A different approach to the concerns of antiphony & resonance that appeared in Abrupt!Fragments; the fragments are now gone. In their place is the elongating, repeated line, growing each time towards a knotted, sometimes clotted peak.
Should you purchase this work from me, I will email you the full three movements once your sale has been made.
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