Day 19

Hello! One video and one PDF today.

Downloads:
One thing today:

Today’s Recommended Listening:

Martin Torch-Ishii (b. 1984)
Reflection

(Solo Cello)

Eric Moore
[YouTube] - 4 minutes

Martin is a close friend who was in the cello rock band Break of Reality for a number of years. We wrote four duos and ran cello camps for years in Ann Arbor and San Diego, though he is more-or-less retired from cello now (and has taken up wood-working).

This piece, though. This piece I wish that I had written. SO good. It nods a bit from some noodles I had put forward for a duo at one point - those noodles became the basis of Movement III of my concerto, Circles. But he took them and riffed in such an excellent way with this piece. Remarkable. So good, in fact, that then I made it the basis of my Song Without Words #3.

At any rate, Martin was and remains a brilliant and versatile cellist - the Kronos Quartet (a Grammy-winning New Music string quartet) invited him to audition for their ensemble when their cellist left, for example. But he’s equally at home playing/singing at the same time, doing crazy extended jazz and rock techniques, and improvising off of lead sheets.

As a final aside, I asked if I could put this piece into Cellosophy Volume Three. He agreed and I asked for the sheet music. Turns out there wasn’t any, it was semi-improvised on his album… so I had to transcribe it by ear haha.

What to explore next:
1. Moore / Torch-Ishii: Reconciliation
[YouTube, @CelloLoft]
2. Break of Reality: Spectrum of the Sky
[Super fun]
3. Eugene Friesen: Shadow Play
[Virtuosic jazz pizz solo cello piece]

See you tomorrow!
—Eric