First Performance
July 1999 Steven Ross
Sommerfest, Minnesota Orchestra
Minneapolis, MN
Instrumentation
cello
Duration
11'
Listen
Program Notes
MKG Variations for cello is commissioned by Marlene Guzman. The work takes advantage of the sonorous qualities of the open strings on the cello. The piece stems out of a spiritual impulse. The first idea, an idea of calm yet anticipatory stasis, acts as a theme which is then varied in a string of variations. The variations range from a passionate expression of the theme to a percussive one; from an angry one to an extremely delicate one; from one that is somewhat Bach-like to one that is fleeting, but frozen in time; to one that is more raw and unforgiving. The work closes with a final presentation of the original theme, dissolving into silence, where it once originated from.
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