OPEN (2014)

three cellos & live electronics

written for Celli@Berkeley

commissioned by John Zurier, for BAMPFA

OPEN was inspired by my fascination with the abstract paintings of American painters in the mid-Twentieth century, particularly the sense of scale conveyed by the large canvases of Barnett Newman, Cy Twombly, Franz Kline, Clyfford Still, Joan Mitchell, and Mark Rothko. I was particularly drawn to the way that these large-format works swallowed up the observer with an overwhelming sense of presence and expanse. In these works, the act of seeing and the turning of attention back towards the one’s own perception becomes a key part if not the integral part of the art.

OPEN is scored for three cellos and live electronics and was performed at the premiere by cellists Mosa Tsay, Lukas Whaley-Mayda, and Kane Suga (incredible cellists from the UC Berkeley student group CELLI@BERKELEY) and by my friend and collaborator Daniel Cullen. Daniel developed and performed the live electronics via iPad through six channels in the now-defunct Berkeley Art Museum, a brutalist monument which was closed due to seismic concerns. This piece, characteristically different than much of my other work, was written specifically for this space – the musical material is sparse and simple which allows it to be transformed into a lush sound-world of harmonics, glitch-distortion, cathedral-reverb, and feedback. Within the resonant space of the concrete museum, the music went up and out.

The piece is dedicated to my friend and mentor, the renowned painter John Zurier, and to the memory of our friend Melanie Lewis whose love for Berkeley, its people, and for art inspired and touched us both.

Photos from the premiere performance at the old Berkeley Art Museum, 2014. Photo credit: Matt Lee