Instrumentation

Violoncello

Duration: 7m
Year of Composition: 2025

Perusal Score

Program Notes

In the summer of 2024, my wife and I had the pleasure of travelling to Scandinavia for our belated honeymoon. We camped in a fjord, hiked to the North Sea, and visited a ton of museums. At the National Museum in Oslo I was particularly entranced by the gestures of Kandinsky, and became lost in the texture and density of Rothko.

When Yiyang Xue asked me to write a piece for solo cello, and I learned that she had also been in Europe over the summer, I knew I wanted to write a piece about our parallel experiences. Closer Still is a reflection on the beauty of brushstrokes, geometry, crashing waves and looming mountains.