Frost Under Fire
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 2017
- Duration
- 11'30''
- Publisher
- Canadian Music Centre (unpublished, printed by CMC), RSN 76581, call no. MI 3213 B798fro; score copyright Black Ice Sound 2017
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About this piece
Carmen Braden, a composer from Yellowknife, wrote Frost Under Fire in 2017 for the Cheng² Duo, the siblings Bryan Cheng (cello) and Silvie Cheng (piano), as one of five new works, one from each region of Canada, for their Canada 150 project An Elemental Expedition. Her note ties the music to the link between sub-Arctic forest fires and thawing permafrost, and the score follows that cycle in three titled sections: 'thunderstorm in the distance', where the cello's flourishes mark the 'lightning flashes'; 'the fire begins to burn', which climbs to the highest note the cellist can reach, 'like a scream'; and 'the burnt forest in the snow', built from harmonics and bell-like piano writing. The pianist also mutes strings by hand and makes them buzz with a pencil or chopstick. The Cheng² Duo gave the premiere at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa in June 2017.
Technical overview
Opens at quarter = 60 with fast thirty-second-note flourishes in treble clef, then low sustained lines with graded changes between non vibrato and molto vibrato, molto sul ponticello, and pizzicato both sul ponticello and sul tasto. The middle section runs at quarter = 120 with tremolo double stops and a sixteenth-note climb to the top of the A string; the last section uses natural harmonics, tremolo and frequent meter changes.