This work for cello is derived from ideas associated with change ringing.

If one has, say, 6 bells, and one wishes to ring them in some sequence, then one has 720 possible sequences ("rows") to choose from.    Performing all the possible "rows" in some sequence constitutes an "extent" or "full peal."  A traditional desire consists of have every two consecutive "rows"  (or "change") in an "extent" differ only by swapping order of two consecutive bells.   So give any particular starting "row" of 6 bells, only 5 "rows" can legally complete the "change." 

That "extents," legal in this sense, even exist follows from non-trivial mathematical constructions, but these constructed extents tend to have a very mechanical character (and advantage for "method ringers").  

I (re?)discovered that one can make new extents from old by exchanging two consecutive segments AND time-reversing just one of them.  Call this a "twist."  "Twisting" one of the mechanical extents 2000 times (for an extent of 720 "rows") seems to produce reasonably random or organic "extents."   Philosophically these "twisted extents" lead double lives, being both highly structured and constrained, but given that, also as capricious as possible.

Four random "extents" govern this work.  Most simply, one "extent" controls the 6 dynamic levels in each row statement, one "extent" controls the 6 durations, and one "extent" controls the sequence within whatever the current collection of pitches.  

The final "extent" gets used go generate the pitch content.  Instead of ordering events, the permutations get used to order  the intervals 2/1, 3/2, 4/3,  5/4, 6/5 and 7/6, thus building up a scale (or perhaps a chord, depending on how you care to think about it).  So unlike actual bells that each carry a fixed pitch and collectively establish a fixed key, here each "row" of the 720 has its own "key."  Thus the music constantly modulates, and since each "change" modestly changes just one note in the scale (because consecutive intervals swap), the music manifests an emergent sort of voice leading, albeit a very distant relative from the voice leading of common practice music.

Simultaneously Follow Four Twisted Paths, for cello

Composer, mathematician, visual artist. 
Seeks collaboration with performers and choreographers.

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Simultaneously Follow Four Twisted Paths, for cello

David Victor Feldman