Swansong

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Swansong for Cello and Piano was commissioned by the Cellist Christine Thomas Tsen.  This work began life as a song from a musical/opera that I wrote in high school that has never been produced or performed.  Trying to salvage some of what I believe is some good music in that young attempt at something grand, in 2012 I hit upon the idea of making one of the final numbers, in which the main character says goodbye to the world, into a work for a stringed instrument and piano called “Swansong.”   When Christine asked me later that year for a piece for cello and piano for her next CD called “Cello Ornithology,” I suggested doing this arrangement, especially because my title already referred to a bird!  The piano acts as a kind of heartbeat constantly tolling chords in steady time, sometimes swelling, while the cello plays its mournful melody throughout.  While this piece was not inspired by it, in retrospect, there are definitely similarities to Olivier Messiaen’s “Louange à l'Eternité de Jésus” from the Quartet for the End of Time, both musically and spiritually. A version for viola and piano was created in 2016.

Cello version premiered April 12, 2015 by Benjamin Noyes-cello, and Jesse Feinberg-piano, at the Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival, Portland Conservatory of Music, Portland, ME.

Viola version premiered April 20, 2016 by Emma Welch-viola, and the composer at the piano at Bennington College, Bennington, VT.

Cello version recorded on Cello Ornithology by Christine Thomas Tsen-cello, and the composer at the piano.