Instrumentation: Cello and Fixed Audio
Composed: 2010
Commissioned by Caroline Stinson
Premiere: New Works Calgary
Program Note:
The first part of my life as a composer was spent writing music in a complex post-romantic harmonic system. Then, at some point my brain just didn’t hear things that way anymore and I began trying to slow down the harmonic motion of my music—to enjoy the dissonances over much slower harmonic drones. The break came in pieces like Inuit Games and Creation Stories – when I was working with musicians from other cultures. Ancestral Drones places the virtuosity of our western tradition into the context of a more primordial music making, where the notes lean into the drone as they sing and call us to float with them.
Carrabre 