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23266CE0-5D99-4D66-8412-FA5F97DAFAAD
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Update Title: 23266CE0-5D99-4D66-8412-FA5F97DAFAAD
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Freund describes the musical structure of Hard Cells as comprised of "metallic, hard-edged, unyielding building blocks of sound. Rather than allowed to grow, develop and blend into an organic flow, they are contexted by repetition, superimposition and juxtaposition." This hard-shell cellular approach to the character and structuring of material could be seen as what distinguishes Stravinsky from Bartok, Scarlatti from Bach, and rock from jazz.
Instrumentation
Flute, Oboe, B-flat Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Percussion(1), Piano, String Quintet
Commission
Commissioned by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble.
Dedication
Program Notes
Because of their intrinsic nature and the way they are deployed in the composition, the materials out of which Hard Cells is composed are to be perceived as metallic, hard-edged, unyielding building blocks of sound. Rather than allowed to grow, develop and blend into an organic flow, they are contexted by repetition, superimposition and juxtaposition--what might be described as a cut-and-paste approach to fabricating a work. This hard-shell cellular approach to the character and structuring of material is what (I believe) distinguishes Stravinsky from Bartok, Scarlatti from Bach, and rock from jazz. In Hard Cells, the steely nature of the ideas is underlined by an insistent unchanging 16th-note pulse. Hard Cells divides into three sections. In the opening third of the piece, the cellular ideas are deployed over an unrelenting A pedal-tone. The cello finally breaks loose from this encasement, initiating the second section with a primal rock-5-4-1 progression. In this section the material is free to shift into contrasting tonalities, and even, after a brief reprise of the "A" pedal, gathers momentum into a celebratory climax. The final section, which grows out of the after-shocks of this climax, functions as a non-sequitur epilogue. Fastened to a metrically uncommitted stream of tambourine 16th notes, the remainder of the ensemble independently loops odd-lengthed mechanistic fragments. --Don Freund
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Premier Performance Memo
Recording Credits
Recorded by Indiana University School of Music, New Music from Indiana University, Vol. 1, CD IUSM-05.
Review
"The most interesting work of the evening was Don Freund's Hard Cells. Despite Freund's sophisticated compositional techniques--a bit of polytonality, elements of minimalism--Hard Cells comes through with a mainstream contemporary sound. It is solidly written, up to date and immediately appealing." --Robert Croan, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<BR><BR> "Hard Cells is a "user-Freundly" piece, propelled by insistent rhythmic patterns that serve as foundations for vivacious and sometimes offbeat building blocks." <BR>--Donald Rosenberg, The Pittsburgh Press
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