Thin Ice, for cello and fourteen players, was
written for Greg Hesselink and Sequitur during the Fall of 2004 and the
Spring
of 2006 and is dedicated to them. My heartfelt thanks go to Harold
Meltzer and
Sarah Laimon for their unflagging support, and, especially, to Greg
Hesselink,
Paul Hostetter, and the musicians of Sequitur for their artistry and
commitment.
Thin Ice divides into four movements of unequal
length (played attacca (without
pause)) lasting about twenty two minutes. Movements one,
two and three group together as a unit. They are, each in their
different ways,
unsettled and restless. The fourth and most extensive movement,
beginning after
a brief breathing space, serves to balance the preceding movements and
to
ultimately provide a sense of finality and repose.
The first
movement is substantial and wide-ranging. At the beginning, the cello
and the
strings play as if in two different meters and tempi. The 3/8 polyrhythm
of the
opening string pizzicati will return -- both at the end of the movement
and as
the meter of the second movement scherzo.
Program note: The text seen in the video accompanying the performer and electronic sound in this piece includes a few sentences from chapters 3 and 5 of Norman MacLean’s book Young Men and Fire. That work describes the happenings on August 5, 1949 in Montana during the Mann Gulch fire that killed 12 firefighters who had parachuted into the wilderness. On that day, crew chief Wag Dodge was able to set an escape fire so that the main forest fire could wash over him while he lay in the ashes. Dodge was not able to convince any others in the crew to go into the area of the escape fire.