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between friends

by laura cetilia

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between luke 26:21
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about

this composition arose out of a need to create a collaborative work with friends at a time when all live music, including my final graduate recital at wesleyan university, came to a halt at the beginning of the pandemic in march 2020.

my recital was originally going to be comprised of a large ensemble piece performed by myself and some of my dearest musician friends. they would all be traveling from their respective homes, some from as far as new brunswick (canada) to make music with me in middletown, (connecticut).

instead of giving into forced isolation from school/life and giving up on making any artistic collaborations during the lockdown, i decided to create a compositional system that would allow me to make original music with friends in their own time and in their own space

i started by recording sounds and gestures i enjoy making on my instrument, the cello. i close mic’d the cello (with the microphone just inches away from the bridge) and produced sounds focused on timbre and minimal pitch material, trying to leave room for another person’s voice. i then designed software to randomly playback my prerecorded sound files with 10-30 seconds of silence in between each file. my collaborator then improvises along with this simulated version of me, in turn making a recording of our displaced duo together. i only ask that they attempt to sustain an equal balance of our respective voices throughout their performance.

since musicians’ homes have become makeshift recording studios during the pandemic, everyday sounds can, and are meant to be heard in these pieces. vehicles pass by, chairs and floors creak, and neighbors just going about their daily lives all add to the overall ethos of this work.

the first completed version was made by violinist morgan evans-weiler. at the time, i had no intention for this piece to take on the life that it has. it was partially a response to a composition that was written for morgan by composer/sound artist seth cluett entitled "between two truly equal beings."

in cluett’s work, morgan improvises on his violin along with with electronically produced sounds emitted from 3d printed speakers (designed by cluett) that are attached to his instrument. this modification is meant to alter the performers experience, creating a heightened and intimate listening/responding environment.

cluett’s eloquent text score had a great influence on me when i began this project.i was especially drawn to the line “frame the form you can’t control.” despite my prerecorded sounds being set, the form of this work is unpredictable. it is up to the other ensemble member to recontextualize my sounds within their own narrative. this narrative not only includes the sounds they make, but the playback and recording methods they decide to use, the time of day they record, and in what space they are able to work in.

morgan used cluett’s unique speaker system to playback my sounds and recorded late in the evening in a university-adjacent neighborhood in ithaca, ny.

violist robin streb used a regular portable speaker for my sounds, recording in her practice studio in the basement of her house in moncton, canada.

luke martin captured my sounds in reaper and added recordings of minnesotan crickets and snippets of him reading from the book of letters between john cage and merce cunningham entitled love, icebox

jordan dykstra recorded himself playing on auxiliary percussion in his apartment in brooklyn, ny, always lining up with my sounds, leaving spans of silence intact, capturing the sounds of the city.

credits

released February 5, 2021

special thanks to mark cetilia for assistance with max/msp and the album art.

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laura cetilia Providence, Rhode Island

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