To Have Done With (2004)
for cello with live electronics
commissioned by the Frank Cox

duration: 6 minutes
download score (as pdf - 168 KB)
performance materials are available on request

also needed:
computer with stereo audio interface
stereo playback system

Full recording:

To Have Done With — Frank Cox, cello

Program Notes
At its essence, To Have Done With for solo ‘cello with live computer is theatrical, and as such, I’ve conceived of its organization in terms of character development, and used theatrical sources for the audio materials.  At stake here is the subject position (sanity, some might say) of a solitary, live performer within a dense, often chaotic swirling soundscape composed of diverse audio fragments such as Artaud screaming and banging in the stairway of his apartment flat; random spoken phrases from Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape (performed here by Neil Schroeder), the sounds of reel–to–reel tape recorders and other machines,  individual musical instrument notes (including ‘cello), breaking glass, an Edith Piaf torch song, and several hundred other bits of found audio.  In “Mumbling & Enunciation,” the first of three continuous sections, musical and literal depictions of speech vie for center stage.  The ‘cellist represents a self–assured, articulate,  unified, resolute voice that is (musically) stable. The computer, meanwhile (synchronized to the live performer, but playing pre–determined sounds), presents a more dynamic, expressive  and diverse exteriority.  These simple juxtapositions of clearly enunciated/mumbled and interior/external become more complexly related in the second section, “sound effects & my cry in the stairway.” Here, the ‘cellist’s first indication in the score is to play “as if humming to yourself with your fingers in your ears.”  The ‘cello in this part becomes more tentative, and plays more varied and fragmentary music.  The material ranges from cacophonous clatter made with extended instrumental techniques (such as slapping the body of the instrument, stomping feet, and bowing the tailpiece) to melodic fragments reminiscent of Bach’s solo cello writing.  The external world, as portrayed by the computer part, is even more dense, consisting of rhythmic banging, screams, a reprise of the electro–acoustic music of the first part, as well as numerous musique concrete “accents.” Certain layers within the computer part are only activated in response to the loudness of the cello; I use a technique called amplitude following to control and to trigger  the computer’s  music throughout this section.  In the final section, “La Vie En Rose,” the cellist regains his/her composure, though transfigured by experience.

Performance History
April 2001, Clark University (Worcester, MA)
(premiere)

2001-02, chosen as a “selected work” for Sonic Circuits IXth International Festival of Electronic Music and Art, American Composer’s Forum

November 2002, Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the US, Seamus2002 National Conference, University of Iowa, (Iowa City, IA USA)

2003, selected as semi–finalist with Award of Quality, 2003 Hultgren Solo Cello Works Biennal.