In many ways the duo “Like This” for ‘cellist Susannah Chapman and violinist Cal
Wiersma of the Cygnus Ensemble, is a modest piece. It is not very long and
utilizes neither orhestrational nor technical fireworks. Like other recent
pieces of mine, it makes little or no use of what are known as “extended
techniques”; techniques which have been staples of contemporary composition for
nearly a century such as string harmonics, sul ponticello bowing, scordatura,
snap pizzicatti, and so on. Composers, you know the drill. There are, however, a
number of ideas and techniques that I find interesting and important and would
like to share.
As a composer, I’ve noticed that seemingly disparate sounds and ideas can become
lodged in my head for years, never letting me go. In my first music history
class years ago, we studied a stunning piece called “O Jerusalem” by the Abbess
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) whose music was just then beginning to gain
wider attention. One of the things that struck me was the form of the piece, a
medieval sequence, which went roughly AA’ BB’ CC’ DD’ EE’ etc. The “A section”
never came back! In my own compositions, the idea of return has never held a
great deal of interest. I like pieces that go someplace and then keep on going.
Others have called this “chain form”. There are a number of ways to create such
a chain and “Like This” uses something which may strike some as shockingly
traditional: it modulates through the circle of fifths. Ok, I said it. And yet
it does so in ways that are not traditional and which are hopefully both subtle
and surprising.
The piece uses a time signature of 9/8 which has a refreshingly continuous feel
to it. Years ago I heard of piece of Irish traditional music in 9/8, known as a
slip-jig (a more standard jig is usually in 6/8). The memory of this tune has
stayed with me for all these years. The texture of this duo also calls upon
another decades-old musical experience. Like many composers, I keep one ear
cocked towards popular music, where interesting musical things are often
happening. In the mid-1980s the British band “Tears for Fears” released a song
hilariously (or frighteningly) entitled “Everybody Wants to Rule The World.” The
song was quite quirky rhythmically and yet very catchy and enormously popular.
It features an even quirkier guitar solo which sounds almost mbira-like in its
texture (mbira is the so-called thumb piano from Southern Africa). I attempted
to capture some of the feel and texture of this solo for Cal and Susannah.
The piece’s title looks back in time too. In the late 1970s there was an
evocative expression and gesture which young people used for a year or so. While
discussing a close friend, someone they were inseparable from, people might say,
“We’re like this!” while holding out one hand with their index and middle
fingers extended and pressed together as a single unit. I found this a
delightful expression of closeness and was disappointed when it fell into
disuse. In this piece, the “two characters”, violin and ‘cello, are similarly
close rhythmically and melodically with the aim of suggesting a “melded” sound
rather then two independent lines.
Perhaps my next pieces will look to the future. .