Symphony of the Hawai‘i Forests: Reflections on Ka Wai Ke Kumu Ola (2023) Full orchestraAfterimage (2011)
for cello solo
duration: 8 minutes
Listen:
Performers: Kathryn Bates
Score Excerpt: PDF
Perusal/Purchase: contact me
Program Notes
Afterimage was written as a wedding gift for my friend and cellist Kathryn Bates – a gift that was "only" late by a few years. Faced with such a severe writer’s block, I took Stravinky’s seemingly paradoxical advice of imposing arbitrary constraints in order to stimulate creativity. The limits that I imposed were idiosyncratic to the possibilities offered by a cello: the piece is composed using only natural harmonics, and pizzicato played on the open strings. The strings have been de-tuned to offer a less conventional set of notes, but ultimately, I was left with a total of 23 notes to work with. True enough, once this constraint was put into place, I was able to compose relatively quickly.
“Afterimage” refers to an image that remains in one’s vision long after the original image disappears. The two playing techniques utilized in this piece remind me such an optical illusion. Natural harmonics have a transparent, mirage-like sound compared to the ordinary velvety sound of a bowed cello. Similarly, a pizzicato played on an open string, especially when played by just the left hand, looks like a sleight of hand on an instrument that usually requires two hands to play.
I would like to thank Kathryn for her invaluable musical insights throughout the compositional process. It has been a truly collaborative effort and I could not have written the piece without her dedication to the piece.