Output details

‘Dart', a composition for cello with digital delays and fixed media, was written for the New York cellist Madeleine Shapiro and has been performed in New York and Australia

‘Dart’ was written for the New York cellist Madeleine Shapiro (‘cello innovator’ – Time Out: New York) to be performed in the Earth Day 2012 celebrations: Nature Project. ‘Dart’ investigates the inherent problems of working with a live instrument with delays and the acousmatic, by composing a substantial (virtuosic) work for cello and electronics.

‘Dart’ is underpinned by a metaphorical discourse of water conservation – part of the original commission brief. To avoid a slavish adherence to the pre-composed fixedness of the acousmatic, the cello is composed within prescribed levels of synchronicity and musical flexibility. The acousmatic music explores the sonic opposites of (my) water recordings (‘noise-based’) and (my) cello (‘note-based’) samples (bowing and tapping recordings) by an electroacoustic interrogation using DAW analysis and composition; thus the composition exploits the interplay between the ‘intrinsic’ (musical) and ‘extrinsic’ (metaphorical).

‘Dart’ expressively draws on the full expanse of the cello from the ultra-high (above fingerboard), where the music springs forth, to, in effect, a river-winding downward trajectory through discrete musical episodes. Pitch coherence is sustained throughout with an 11-note pitch matrix that is (re)cycled, in a quasi-tonal harmonic language that underpins the two-part form. Every pitch articulated is related to this pitch series and variants. Thus episode at B an O2 (last page) are transformed repetitions. Various (musical) canons (through digital delays in Max/MSP) in essence refract and harmonically stream the cello.

Since Dart’s premiere in New York (2012 EarHeartMusic Series) by Madeleine Shapiro, it has had a series of performances by Ms Shapiro (including NYCEMF at CUNY New York) and it is to be released on a commercial CD in early 2014. The Sydney-based cellist Geoffrey Gartner performed the work at the International Computer Music Conference 2013 in Perth, Australia.