Duration: 14'
Winner of Atlanta and Birmingham Prizes in the 2005 Hultgren Solo Cello Works Biennial
Completed in 2002 for solo electric cello, TONOI IV is the fourth in an ongoing series of works for solo performers. There are currently seven pieces in the collection. During the course of writing these solo works, I have established certain characteristics common to all the pieces in the series. The pieces are episodic and abstract in nature, having no particular idea or “program” attached to them. Although presented in one contiguous movement, the works are divided into clear sections. Each piece is dedicated and written for a specific performer. In the case of this work, I have written and dedicated the work to my friend Craig Hultgren. I write these pieces in a linear fashion – beginning with the first measure and writing straight through to the last with no insertions of sections; composing a later section before an earlier section, etc. It is typical for the works to use and develop the harmonic and melodic materials presented at the beginning of a given work throughout the piece. Each section of the respective pieces moves further away from the original statement. Succeeding sections may seem to have been arrived at in a logical manner, however, they move the listener further and further away from the opening motivic and/or harmonic environment originally presented. The game that I set-up up for myself is to figure out a way to return to the opening material no matter how far I have wandered. In all of the Tonoi works, I am also interested in writing as idiomatically as possible for the respective solo instrument. Because the soloist performs on an electric instrument, effects processing is also used extensively throughout the composition.