for solo cello; cello and basso continuo

Domenico Gabrielli (1651/59?–1690) is championed as one of the first virtuosi of the cello as well as a pioneer in his feature of the cello as a solo instrument in compositions. The capabilities of the cello saw significant advancements when its low C and G strings adopted a silver-wound exterior in mid-17th century Bologna (contrary to the pure-gut string), permitting a greater deftness and clarity of resonance. Gabrielli employs the cello’s rising prominence and virtuosity in his 1689 publication Ricercari, canone e sonate per violoncello, among which this sonata is found. Gabrielli’s compositions, harnessing a technically idiomatic and quasi-improvisatory manner of writing, evokes a sense of search and rhetorical journey tailor-made to the voice of its instrument.

for solo violin and basso continuo

Isabella Leonarda (1620–1704) hailed from a prominent Novarese family and was a prolific composer, leaving upwards of 200 works under her attribution. She entered the Collegio di Sant’Orsola in 1636 at the age of 16, where she remained for the rest of her life. Convents provided one of the very few possible environments in Leonarda’s society in which female leadership and creative agency, of which included musical composition, were accepted without male predominance. Leonarda attained the rank of mother superior at Sant’Orsola in 1676. Her Sonata Duodecima per violino solo is thought to be the first extant violin sonata published by a woman, appearing in her Op. 19 works of solo and trio sonatas.

for traverso, 2 violins, viola, cello, violone, and harpsichord

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) dedicated a collection of Six Concerts Avec plusieurs instruments (‘Six concertos with several instruments’) to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg, in 1721, later to become known as the Brandenburg Concertos. These pieces represent Bach’s interpretation of the concerto grosso, a then-popular and cosmopolitan form that features an alternation between a larger group of instrumentalists (the ‘ripieno’) and a smaller group of soloists (the ‘concertino’). The Brandenburg Concertos had been individually composed well before 1721, assembled together in a finalized manuscript score upon Christian Ludwig’s invitation for Bach to send in some compositions. Bach had personally played for Christian Ludwig in February 1719 in Berlin as an inaugural occasion for the court of Cöthen’s acquisition of a new harpsichord, the same year from which an earlier version of the Fifth Concerto originates (BWV 1050a). The Concertos are widely speculated to have been untouched by Christian Ludwig’s court musicians, possibly never played within his lifetime, the dedicated score posthumously sold and rediscovered in 1849.

for flute, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, and harpsichord

“Brandenburg Interstices was commissioned by the 2012 Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival as a companion piece for Bach’s 5th Brandenburg Concerto. As a way of paying homage, I tried to incorporate Bach as naturally as possible into my wide range of other musical influences (from minimalism to blues, American folk music, Ligeti, and Xenakis, among others). I envisioned a piece that would celebrate the way in which Bach has inspired me as well as demonstrate the connections I see between Bach and my other influences by creating a music that morphs fluidly through the centuries and genres, suddenly emerging into spaces of Bach in the form of Bach-inspired textures and passages as well as direct quotes before again submerging back into the patchwork. The form mirrors Bach’s three-movement fast-slow-very fast structure, however I combined this three-part structure into a single movement. I organized each of my three parts around one quote from each of Bach’s movements.” — Gabiella Smith (b. 1991)

for flute, bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, double bass, piano, and vibraphone

“Unnerve is an expansion of a trombone solo I wrote for Berk Schneider in 2021.The piece focuses on a frustrating oscillation between E and E flat, which originally acted as a metaphor for broken and doomed mechanisms like a stuck zipper or a marble gaining momentum as it spirals downward in increasingly smaller circles. However, in the idea's ensemble form, I wanted to focus more on conveying a kind of lighthearted ominousness, similar to the experience of suddenly waking in the middle of the night and enjoying the momentary thrill of being startled by something mundane like the shape of your jacket on a chair or an unexpected shadow.” — Erin Graham (b. 1995)

for alto flute, flute, piccolo, clarinet, bassoon, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, piano, percussion, electric guitar

“Gauze and Particulate begins as a slow accumulation of muttering voices. These mutterings climb over one another until they express themselves as a sinewy mesh of shifting and churning. In this sound-mass the strings enact an arpeggiation that is linear and angular that then gets recapitulated by the winds shortly afterward.

All the while the sounds are morphing and sliding over one another, until finally a moment of genuine catharsis is reached, exploding with thorny viscosity, and then retreating.

Here, sounds chatter anxiously and quietly in the corners. This grows into an urgent stretching and pulling, pulsing like a raw nerve. We morph back into the anxious blossoming material and then all the matter begins to settle. In this dust a shimmering grows as dispirit voices come together in an overlapping weave.

This ooze piles onto itself until it is threatening and then the sound stops. In the end there is just chords and silence and then a final sound with quiet punctuaton by the winds.

Gauze and Particulate was commissioned by the San Francisco based ensemble Stolen Time, and first completed in April 2024.” — Taylor Joshua Rankin (b. 1991)