Duration: 26 minutes
Instrumentation: 1+2/picc,1+2/EH,1+2/Eb+3/bc,2+3/cbsn – 4,2,2,1 – timp+1 – hp – solo vc – strings
Recording: excerpts from November 15, 2019 performance at Benaroya Hall, Seattle WA, by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra with solo cellist Efe Baltacıgil and James Feddeck conducting.
*Contact the composer for information on purchasing a score or solo cello part, or renting the orchestra parts*
Program Notes:
I began generating ideas for the work in early 2017, but composed the bulk of the piece in 2018-2019. I was incensed by activities carried out in the Middle East by radical groups like ISIL/ISIS to create a sort of cultural genocide through the destruction of cultural and historic buildings, artifacts, and documents that contradicted their ideologies. However, this sort of action of asserting power and disregard for a certain group’s culture is nothing that we haven’t seen many times over throughout history: more recently, the Third Reich during WWII, Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, and even something as simple as banning books in the US education system. I strongly believe that art and music are an expression of culture and humanity, and that it is especially important to foster the preservation and continuation of humanity in times like these.
My concerto uses a common hero-versus-opposition model, where the soloist, representing art, expression, and free will, pushes to overcome the oppressive close-mindedness presented by the orchestra. The piece begins slowly with solo cello playing the first main melodic “culture” motive accompanied by the cello section in 4-part divisi. This statement is repeated several times, each time becoming more embellished by the soloist. As this continues, the low winds enter playing the second motive, representative of a more rigid oppression. There is juxtaposition of the first, more lyrical, theme, and the second, which is more rhythmically jaunting, until the second overtakes the first, transitioning to a stormy, fierce section of music. The soloist gets swept into the activeness, but always attempts to revert back to lyricism before getting dragged into the rush again. As the orchestra builds to frenzy, the solo cello becomes simpler, eventually settling on a single pitch to repeat continuously.
The repeated note in the solo part at the end of the first movement is held into the beginning of the second movement, which starts as an extended solo cello cadenza that recalls and embellishes several of the ideas presented in the first movement. It gains in register before settling into a hushed, floating contemplation accompanied by sparse, muted brass. As the cello solo becomes busier, the accompaniment mirrors this, starting to rebuild some of the density of the first movement. However, just when it seems that the second motive will take the forefront again, a high piercing piccolo silences the ensemble, spiraling lower until the flute takes over with a simple, innocent sounding new “hope” motive accompanied by the pizzicato solo cello. The brass eventually reenters with fragments of the second motive, transitioning seamlessly into the third movement.
In the third movement, the brass continues to play fragments of the second motive, but lighter in texture and with an element of uncertainty. This is contrasted with pizzicato in the strings, reminiscent of the solo cello accompaniment during the “hope” section of the second movement. The solo cello finally enters with the “hope” motive over the dueling strings and brass. This transitions into a unified hybrid theme between the first and second motives, beginning an Andante Grandioso section. The orchestra very gradually settles, leaving the solo cello continuing to play melismatically alone. The orchestra reenters similarly to the opening of the piece, until a reference by the solo cello to the second motive sets off a sudden build in the orchestra on the rhythmic component of the second motive. Finally, the orchestra hammers in the first three notes of the second motive, dropping out when the solo cello plays the fourth note, sustained and low in register. The soloist holds this note intensely through the end, even as the orchestra reenters to finish the motive.
– Angelique Poteat
Angelique Poteat 