Program Note

At the request of Julie-Anne Derome and Gabriel Prynne, two members of the Fibonacci Trio, I re-scored the original hand drum part in Oracle for cello and made a new setting of the piece for violin and cello.   Oracle is a short piece that tries to evoke a primal setting in which communication with the spirit world is achieved through frenzied and energetic ritualistic motions. The original percussion setup was very basic, bordering on the primitive. The entire part was written for membranophones, or drums with a stretched skin pulled tautly across the frame. In the transcription for cello I emulate the tuned drone of the fundamental note of a drum by tuning the cellos 3rd string, G, up a second to A. This A becomes a focal point in the music.   The passagework in the violin part has an exotic feel due to the intervallic content of the mode from which the music is drawn. The two instruments interact very closely with each other throughout the piece, each part punctuating the other. As the piece progresses the tempo is increased in order to raise the intensity level of the ritualistic motions that the music attempts to evoke.

PF