There Was, and There Was Not
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Orchestra
- Composed
- 2017
- Duration
- 19'
- Publisher
- Composer (self-published)
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About this piece
There Was, and There Was Not (2017) is a cello concerto of about 19 minutes for soloist and full orchestra, written for the cellist Adriana Ransom, conductor Glenn Block and the Illinois State University Symphony Orchestra, who premiered it in Normal, Illinois, in February 2017. The title is the phrase that opens folktales in some Eastern European traditions, much like "Once upon a time", and the form follows the story functions catalogued in Vladimir Propp's Morphology of the Folktale. In the composer's scenario the cello is a hero under a villain's curse who sets out on a quest, wins a battle and finally breaks the curse with a serenade, while the orchestra plays every other role. The piece opens with a long, unmetered introduction for the soloist.
Technical overview
No technical overview is available yet.