Christopher Cerrone - Can't and Won't [Score Follow Edition]

World Premiere Recording Released as part of New Amsterdam Records's July 3 Benefit Compilation. All proceeds from this purchase go The Okra Project and VOCAL-NY.
newamsterdamrecords.bandcamp....
Performed by the Argus Quartet
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Mike Tierney in Brooklyn, NY
Score used with permission.
Performances notes at 9:58
Purchase the score:
www.eamdc.com/psny/composers/...
Commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Gustavo Dudamel, Music Director for the Calder Quartet, with generous financial assistant from Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting
More on the Okra Project (www.theokraproject.com) and VOCAL-NY (www.vocal-ny.org)
About the piece:
Can’t and Won’t began its life as a song cycle based on texts by one of my favorite authors, Lydia Davis. The idea for the project would be that I would set a few of her very short pieces into songs that keep using a recurring melody. In between these short songs, I would compose a long and intense setting of Davis’s story called-appropriately-“Story”, broken into three parts. But try as I might, I could never quite make the piece I wanted to out of her words. It didn’t help that so many composers I admire had already made fantastic settings of her work. Perhaps her work is just complete in it of itself. But rather than throw aside these musical ideas, I decided to make a new string quartet out of them, a series of little “songs without words” interspersed with one long violent and dramatic movement.
The quartet begins with the faintest of sounds: the violinist gently tapping on their fingerboard to elicit a quiet ringing of open strings. Little by little, the quartet bow their strings, revealing a delicate texture of swirling harmonics. A long, stretched-out melody emerges from the cello. Suddenly, as the song begins to form, it is cut off sharply, and a violent round of D’s is fired like bullets from the entire quartet. These two elements form the main drama, the “can’t” and “won’t”, of the form. As the work progresses, the songs without words move higher and higher, forming into a proper melody, while the violent and rhythmic music descends to the lowest range of the instruments.
As I was writing this quartet, it became clear that something else was occupying my subconscious. A lot of this past year has been about trying to find some sense of repose in a deeply chaotic time, amid constant and often terrifying distractions. Can’t and Won’t seems to both acknowledge this sense of disturbance, yet also optimistically point towards the hope for a place of composure, even if it’s a temporary one.

[@canticle56]

You are now officially on my musical radar. Very impressive work. I mean, Bravo, seriously.

[@bruneric4488]

My new favorite composer. Truely amazing.

[@elijahstewart3231]

Man, the form is so cool in this work

[@NickBatinaComposer]

Yoo!!! It’s the hyper resonance 🔥🔥👌👌

[@georgeioan9223]

Extraordinary texture, I love this! If i did not know what I was listening to I could swear it was some modular ambient synth shenanigans going on! Amazing, congrats!

[@tellurium2557]

love it sooo much learned so much thank you for composing this

[@1Steins]

Mesmerizing

[@reubenbance2085]

Love it!

[@marcsmith3653]

Love this!

[@zerois2801]

so cool! love the airiness

[@James-wf8nu]

Great work

[@alvaroselaya161]

Amazing! Beautiful Work!

[@machida5114]

sodelicious............

[@wearetemporary]

This needs to get recorded and released pronto!

[@cerronecomposer]

it is! here! newamsterdamrecords.bandcamp.com/album/july-3-2020-a-benefit-compilation

[@ender_point]

¡Genial!

[@marcbollansee270]

I love your piece, alternating exciting and softer moments; i wonder how disturbed you must be right now and what response it will elicit; I hope you will write a string quartet soon

[@nano61]

Wow

[@happy-composer]

What I would do to learn how to use extended technique so palatably…

[@machida5114]

minimal music?

[@Ceaseless_Watcher]

Could and did.