Output details

Sonata for Cello and Piano

The output is a large-scale work requiring virtuosity from both performers. The concept of virtuosity here goes beyond the familiar sense: that of skilled execution of technically demanding music, but has additional focus on the heightened timbres and directness of expression encountered in 'folk', 'traditional', and some 'popular' styles. These colouristic gestures, and the incorporation of a range of performative 'noise' into the instrumental utterance, intensify the sense of communicative immediacy which helps to realise webs of audience/performer empathy. The work develops formal structures animated by a dialectic of tonal, rhythmic textural and gestural elements in pre-determined time blocs. 'Pre-determined' refers compositional activity: realisation of these blocs in performance will relax the precise proportions, generalising the formal effect. The related technique of tmesis provides formal dissonance through the interrogative 'cutting-in' of contrasted gestures in the course of the more extended solo episodes. Melodic unity is achieved through persistent modular variation of motivic material, and in the rhythmic sphere through the development of varied patterns of stress and accent, rather than durational values. The operation of these techniques in works that are multi-stylistic points to a unifying power that seems to be largely independent of genre.

The research aspects of the composition are evidenced by this portfolio of material:

*a/ the score; and,

*b/ the audio recording.