ORDRE, 15 pieces for solo cello

Ordre, pour violoncelle seul is modeled after those fantastic collections by Couperin; rag and bone buffets that gather together an array of stylized forms: dances, concerted pieces, genre pieces, and most famously, portrait pieces — of people, places, and activities. I had originally intended to compose just a few such works as a kind of warm up to the cello concertino, The Royal Revolver, I was about to write. But all during the year and a half of working on the concertino, these solo pieces kept coming — quite unbidden, almost like Tolkienesque appendices to the larger concertino. These Ordre pieces are quite independent, however, and take their inspiration from a wide range of cultural, musical, and extra-musical sources, past and present (as detailed below). Since I originally had no over-arching plan for them as a group, my only goal was not to repeat myself as I moved from piece to piece. In that effort I began to model most of the pieces after the playing of wonderful cellist friends of mine, who inspired me to look beyond my own idiosyncrasies and habits as a cellist so as to truly compose for the instrument. There are a variety of other homages and dedications as well.

Performances of three of these pieces can be heard at the video link — at these times:

1:40 Malagasy Songs
4:14 Le Cocteau
20:45 L’Hôtel Biron

Premier Livre
Malagasy Songs to Dorothy Lawson p. 1
Le Cocteau to Raman Ramakrishnan p. 4
Branle coupé *** p. 8

“…crystal tide forever…” to the victims of Pan Am 103 p. 11

Deuxième Livre
Parkour to Laura Metcalf p. 13
Louré lent to Peter Seidenberg p. 16
L’homme armé, désarmé to Lawrence Figg p. 18

Jew’s Harp and Arabesque to Roy Wooten p. 22

Troisième Livre
Hutsul Carols (Hódolat Béla Bartók) to Eugene Eicher p. 28
En plein air to David Wells (in memoriam) p. 33
Arbor to Alan Harris p. 34

Psalmoi Ohmage to Björk p. 37

Quatrième Livre
Le Belvédère to Thomas Kraines p. 40
L’Hôtel Biron to Jeffrey Solow p. 44
L’Apollinaire to Peter Stumpf p. 46