» knotting and loosening (2007)
for orchestra
(2.2.2.2 3.2.2.0 perc(1), timp, strings)
duration: 6-7 minutes

Commissioned by/Premiere:
  Manhattan Composers Orchestra, New York, February 28, 2008, David Gilbert, conductor

Listen to the work:



About the Work:
The title "knotting and loosening" is drawn from a line in Italo Calvino's novel If on a winters night a traveler (Se una notte d'inverno un viaggatore). The full sentence, translated, reads: "...in a slow dance, it is not the rhythm that counts, but the knotting and loosening of serpentine lines..." characterizes much of the activity in my piece: No single activity dominates, but rather the interplay of large fields of knotting (characterized by frantic swells and rising figures in the brass, wind, strings, and percussion) and loosening (elongated decays of sounds and the shift from sounds to the noise of breaths in the winds and brass) that forms the basis of my work.

I should also note that the ending of knotting and loosening was inspired a passage in Conrad Aiken's short story "Silent Snow, Secret Snow":

"The hiss was now becoming a roar -- the whole world was a vast moving screen of snow -- but even now it said peace, it said remoteness, it said cold, it said sleep."


All works are Copyright Christopher Cerrone and published by Outburst-Inburst Musics. For a printed perusal score and CD recording, please contact me.