in manus tuas
- Instrumentation
- Cello
- Composed
- 2009
- Duration
- 9'
- Publisher
- Caroline Shaw Editions
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About this piece
Written in 2009 for cellist Hannah Collins for a secular solo-cello compline service held in a dark, candlelit nave, in manus tuas is based on a 16th-century motet by Thomas Tallis. Only a few passages follow Tallis's harmonic changes; rather, the piece's motion, or stillness, tries to capture a single moment of hearing the motet in the acoustic of Christ Church, New Haven. Collins premiered it in New Haven in 2009.
Technical overview
Sound emerges from silence and moves between noise and pitch; the player shapes continuous transitions of colour, and near the end the performer's voice arises and gradually overtakes the cello. The piece suits resonant spaces that bring out these subtleties.
Technical focus
- Dynamics