Joy Rhythm Study

cello quintet

From the very beginning the working title was Joy Rhythm Study. I assumed I would think of something more poetic, or at least phonetic, but I became attached to the transparent directness of that title. I began by exploring some rhythmic curiosities emerging from the confrontation/combination of seven in the time of two (or four) and then became preoccupied with the idea of transforming the resultant off-kilter experiments, hobbled oddities and precarious textures into something joyful through the course of the piece.