Nick Virzi

Solo Cello

Composer's Note:

"The nature of logs and stones is that on stable ground they are static; on unstable ground, they move. If square, they stop; if round, they roll."
--Sun Tzu, from Energy, The Art of War (translation by Yiguo Yan)
As its title suggests, Sun Tzu's ancient military treatise, The Art of War, is more than just a study on warfare and military tactics, but also a rich literary work containing valuable perspectives and insights on matters of aesthetics, such as potential and change. For example, in the selection above, Sun Tzu describes a scenario in which an object does not realize its full potential unless it exists in an environment which unlocks that potential; a circular stone does not become a wheel unless placed on an incline, allowing it to roll. Similarly, the incline serves no purpose without the wheel for it to guide.Gravity is an exploration of this symbiotic relationship, in which a musical "object" grows and transforms as its "environment," the natural phenomenon of gravity, unlocks its hidden potential (and vice versa). Through continued development and abstraction of the object and consequently, progressively more surreal, imagined manifestations of gravity, this piece explores the possibilities of sensation and the phenomenon's synonymic, metaphoric meaning -- gravity as emotional weight.

This piece is dedicated to Lin Yuan, Molly Aronson, and Hannah Barnard.