Sursum Corda
- Instrumentation
- Cello
- Composed
- 1981
- Duration
- 9'
- Publisher
- Wendigo Music (composer's imprint)
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About this piece
A nine-minute piece for unaccompanied cello, written in 1981 (revised 2019) for cellist Erika Duke of the E.A.R. Unit at the composer/choreographer workshop of the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina, where it accompanied a circle dance by Clarice Marshall; Duke gave the concert premiere at CalArts in 1985. The title is the Latin versicle of thanksgiving from the Catholic liturgy, and the music moves from a quiet, microtonal opening toward surging, ecstatic lines. The score uses quarter-tones, harmonic glissandi played while the left hand strums, left-hand pizzicato and passages timed in seconds.
Technical overview
No technical overview is available yet.