the sum of its parts

2024 · prepared cello, solo · ~10'

written for Johannes Burghoff

This piece is about moving through a gnarly gorgeous soundworld. Sometimes a disciplined walk through the terrain is the piece — provided there remains time and liberty to lean into the sensory experience.

Score sample

preparation

A cello standing upright against acoustic foam, with lumps of blue Blu-Tack pressed onto the strings between the bridge and the end of the fingerboard. — the prepared cello — Blu-Tack (“tak”) applied per string

I: pretty close to the bridge. bowing tak sounds like a haunted whale
II. unadorned
III: BIG long tak. large, unweildy
IV: about enough tak to lower 1 semitone, with prominent 7th partial

soundworld snapshots

per-string demos recorded while developing the preparation:

1 · A+D sul pont
2 · A pizz
3 · A sul tak
4 · A sul pont
5 · D pizz
6 · D ord
7 · D explore
8 · G ord
9 · G pizz
10 · C ord
11 · C pizz
12 · A tak + D ord → A+D ord
13 · G tak
14 · C tak

premiere

2024-05-09 · Johannes Burghoff · Peabody Institute, Baltimore, MD

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