FOR cello

View Score Sample

Travertine Hybrid #2 advances my curiosity of analysis / resynthesis techniques; what began as a single piece for viola is now effectively a series of studies for string instruments. As in Travertine Hybrid #1, this latest piece takes samples I made in 2011 of travertine limestone (found throughout the campus of the Getty Center in Los Angeles) and cross-synthesizes them with the spectrum of an instrument. This time, it is a spectrum based on the cello’s low G₂. A gradual sieving  between the pure sound of the cello towards the pure sound of the rock is fashioned, and from that a series of six chords are derived as a separate analysis of this morphing of one sound into another. These chords are then treated as “harmonic reservoirs” in the composition, as I had previously done in the viola piece. However, unlike Travertine Hybrid #1 this work incorporates many different approaches to notated noise, and its form is partly determined by gesture, inspired by my recent work with Arduino-based sensors. Travertine Hybrid #2 is also more rapid in character and more abbreviated in form than #1, and therefore sets itself apart from a majority of “spectral” compositions characterized by a gradual change over a longer period of time.