On the Other Shore
- Instrumentation
- Cello
- Composed
- 2014
- Duration
- 3'
- Publisher
- Birdsong Music Publishing (sold by Faber Music)
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About this piece
A three-minute piece for unaccompanied cello, commissioned by the London Sinfonietta and first played by Tim Gill at Kings Place, London, on 23 September 2015. Bray's note describes the idea of watching something from a distance without being able to reach it, as if "suspended between two worlds", with the melody at times calling out like a beacon and at times hazy and intimate; she links it to Anish Kapoor's sculpture My Body, Your Body. The writing is slow and free (marked 'Calm, intimate' and molto rubato), with no regular pulse.
Technical overview
A slow, rubato solo line that moves between natural harmonics, high positions on the lower strings (tenor clef) and treble-clef passages, with frequent meter changes, wide leaps and sextuplet runs.
Technical focus
- Harmonics
- Shifting
- Rubato
- Meter Changes
- Tempo Changes
- Hairpin Dynamics