Glass Ship, Wooden Bottle

Glass Ship, Wooden Bottle is a work for solo ‘cello that makes extensive use of double stops, often in combination in with other techniques. The piece has a cadenza-like quality, but roughly follows an A-B-A’ form. The motif announced at the beginning which includes two simultaneous glissandi recurs several times throughout the piece and, in the first section, often opens up with one of the pitches transitioning into an open harmonic. The open harmonics themselves also become thematic, as the falling action of the piece leads into the opening motif, now in retrograde and produced using only natural harmonics. The middle “B” section is vaguely inspired by the music of German composer Helmut Lachenmann, which is generally comprised of scattered, eclectic sounds that call for extended techniques and extreme precision. The application of this sort of texture in Glass Ship, Wooden Bottle is considerably more delicate and sparse, and eventually grows into increasingly substantial musical fragments which guide the piece back to the A material.

Performance Time: 4’45”