music        news/events        bio        contact        recordings Cello Sonata 1990 cello piano duration 16' first performance:  Karen Kaderavek and Kathleen Supové Extension Works Composer Series / 1st & 2nd Church, Boston / February 9, 1991 SCORE PROGRAM NOTE This one-movement work falls into three sections. The first investigates a simple cantabile over arpeggiated chords, heard near the opening of the work, as it comes into contact with harsher repetitive music. At the center of this section is some seductive, slightly sinister music which coils slowly upwards. This is followed by a fuller restatement of the 'innocent' cantabile material. The second section is a nocturne; a long cello line is heard over night-sounds and rumblings from the heavily pedaled piano, giving way to tiny glissandi and harmonics for the cello and small repeated figures for the piano. A sudden, fierce passage of fast sixteenth notes played in octaves by the two instruments plunges the cello into a relentlessly repeated 5/8 figure which is eventually calmed and closed down by the piano. A little cello cadenza and a brief coda follow. The coda recalls the opening but with a slightly discomforting sound to the harmony of the final few measures.