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Solo
2008
Cello
- Program Notes
- In the beginning stages of writing the Chaconne for cello and electronic music, I recorded a large collection of cello excerpts, intending to use many of them for processing and synthesizing into an electronic accompaniment. I ended up making an entire 9-minute piece from just the tuning fifths that my cellist friend played to warm up, using none of the intended excerpts. You will hear the cellist play these fifths at the opening. The electronic music follows like an echo with an elongated and distant version. These fifths repeat over and over, like a chaconne, and are transposed and then stacked to make harmonic swirls. Harmonies of minor and major seventh chords predominate the progressions. These falling fifths also occur at different rates of speed--some very slow, some quite fast--creating canons of augmentation and diminution. In short, the entire electronic portion of the piece is a grand mensuration canon (a canon of different speeds) built from the tuning fifths at the opening (though this is not necessarily intended to be audible). The cello presents an antagonistic contrast to the harmonious electronic music. Gestures of aggression are subdued after a climax in the "golden section" of the work (at a point where the ratio is .618 in proportion to the whole), where both cello and electronics reach there loudest. The cello is left singing victoriously as the electronics drop out. I used the Riverrun and eVerb plug ins via ProTools to create the electronic music.
- Performer Credits
- Nicholas Denton-Protsack
- External Links