Completed on July 28th, 2010
Commissioned by Vanessa Belknap, Cello

This piece tells multiple different stories in a single way, and the story that unfolds is determined by the performer.

The first movement, Foreplay, is characterized by extreme register shifts combine with a tradeoff between strongly modal and semi-tonal harmonic centers.  The leaps into the higher register could be understood as cries of pain, or abrupt transitions from one mood to another, or even a separate voice that is always present in the movement despite not always being played.  Harmonically, the movement can be understood as stable (modal) and unstable (semi-tonal), or two different personalities attempting to have a conversation.

Serious Business is built upon a simple rock bass line that I picked up from a song entitled Hey, Bulldog from the Beatles 1969 soundtrack Yellow Submarine, though I would not be surprised if the idea was present in multiple pop tunes found before and after this album.  The register shifts are now much faster – coming out more as interruptions to the riff – while the harmonic language is nearly exclusively modal, suggesting a unification in conversation or action from the previous movement.  The idea is that whatever was left unresolved in the first movement is now embraced and alleviated within this one.