Timothy Rolls

Cello and Electronics

Composer's Note:

Geamannon Aotrum is Scottish Gaelic for Light Games. This work is a computer assisted work created using the software Opusmodus and uses a select number of predefined rhythms with the overtone series extracted from a recording of sea waves. As I was composing this work, and had run into trouble with how to finish it, I came across a video of the northern lights as seen one night from northern Scotland. The flickering light and the reflection on the unusually calm sea gave me an idea of inverting the source material,. When the inverted form of the series was combined somewhat randomly with the rhythms of the opening section, it produced a section that seems reminiscent of the opening, but filling in the unused pitch field in the low area of the opening.

This work has an electronic component comprising mainly of an infinite reverb created in MAX/MSP. This work was first premiered by cellist Benjamin Cline and the composer at the College Music Society midwest conference in Cedar Rapids, IA on March 2, 2019. It's second performance was at the CMS International Conference in the Concertebegouw, Bruges, Belgium on July 18, 2019.