In Studies in Change, I challenged myself to rethink the way I structure multi-movement pieces. Previously, I would build each movement from a single idea, extending and developing it for as long as I could justify. For Studies, my goal was instead to capture two opposing musical characters in each movement. This approach allowed me to find inspiration not only in the material, but also in the subtleties of gradual transformation.

In the first movement, “From Darkness to Light, Four Times”, I establish a paradigm at the start: the cello articulates a ‘head motive’, rich with internal drama, in the low-register, and from this murky beginning, the music gradually intensifies in tempo and contour, until both instruments reach their shimmering high registers. I repeat this paradigm four times, each time with variation.

In “From Entropy to Dance and Back Again” the challenge was to compose transitions between starkly contrasting rhythmic characters. The atmospheric music of the opening needed to coalesce naturally into a raucous dance, then that dance needed to crash and shatter, the leftover pieces drifting in the ether.

The final movement, “From Machine to Song”, begins with rigid rhythmic phrases. The piano and cello play as one, like cogs in a machine. Eventually, the cello begins playing more sustained lines, the cogs become unsynchronized, and the machine starts to break down. The mechanical music sputters on stubbornly, but behind its noise, a lyrical, sensual music emerges, clearly foregrounding the cello as a melodic instrument.