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Christopher Cerrone

On Being Wrong

for cello and electronics

(2015)

Duration	7'
Commission	Commissioned by Ashley Bathgate in collaboration with Metropolis Ensemble for their Resident Artist Series. is commission was made possible by the generous support of Metropolis Ensemble, New Music USA, Rodney McDaniel, Ronald Netter, Carol Whitcomb, Hermine Drezner & Jan Winkler.
Premiere	January 12, 2016; Le Poisson Rouge, NYC; Ashley Bathgate, cello
Technical requirements	See preview pages for notes on electronics and amplification.
Publisher	PSNY

Media

Program Note

On Being Wrong was written as part of Ash, a suite by the Sleeping Giant Collective. Each composer was tasked with responding to Bach’s landmark cello suites. My notes for that concert follow:

My friend and teacher Nils Vigeland used to refer to different composers as practicing different kinds of “technologies”. It was a curious term for describing older music, but it stuck with me; Medieval music had the technology of written notation, Renaissance music had counterpoint, Baroque music had specificity of instruments, and so on. My approach to Bach’s cello suites for this project was to examine his particular compositional technology. One of the key things he exploits is the cello’s ability to play the same note in many different places on the instrument. Throughout the suites, but particularly in the Prélude from the Fifth, Bach cunningly manipulates this technology building a slow and evolving melody with repeated D’s on the second and third strings of the cello. In my own work, I tried to imagine work that built further still, adding layers and layers of pre-recorded cello. The live interaction between musician and recording studio is my contribution to the technological palette of the original works.

Bach’s suites are largely written in keys that are most suited to bringing out the natural resonance of the cello. Similarly, I tried to extend this notion of resonance even further, bathing the cello in a long digital reverb.

The title of my movement “On Being Wrong” is drawn from the book On Being and Being Just by Elaine Scarry. I was particularly struck by the opening section “On Beauty and Being Wrong,” where the author describes the sudden shock of seeing something incredibly familiar, as if it were the first time, and how its meaning can suddenly completely change for a viewer. As my piece unfolds, the alternating slow and fast sections are viewed again and again from different angles, until just the right one seems to reveal itself.

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