from Other Minds Records (OM 1035-2)

This piece, commissioned by pianist Kathleen Supové, grew out of my experience of caring for Wendy, my wife of 45 years, and ultimately losing her to cancer. Kathleen observed Wendy’s heroic fight against the disease, then her peaceful acceptance of her mortality when the fight became futile. She asked if I could write a piece which would somehow describe or respond to that ultimate combination of struggle and acceptance. In Journey’s End, the piano is pitted against an increasingly invasive computer part.  As the piece progresses, the pianist has control of how and when the electronic part moves forward, but the electronic part becomes increasingly more difficult to integrate with the piano part.  Eventually – at the pianist’s final decision – the piece ends with a lyrical chorale as the computer settles into increasingly overpowering but consonant drones.

Lockdown Fantasies

Neil Rolnick: Journey's End

Recorded Live at Roulette in Brooklyn, NY 2/17/2014
Vicky Chow, piano; Neil Rolnick, computer

Neil Rolnick: Dynamic RAM & Concert Grand @ Roulette 2014

by Neil Rolnick
performed by Ashley Bathgate (cello & laptop computer)
from "Neil Rolnick: Ex Machina" (Innova CD 950) released 2016
© Copyright 2015 by Neilnick Music (BMI)

Writing this piece for Ashley Bathgate, cellist for the Bang On A Can All-Stars, was a unique and rewarding experience, not just because she’s a spectacularly talented and accomplished cellist (which she is), but also because she is utterly unafraid of technology, eager to explore the possibilities it presents, and engaged enough to toil through crashes and malfunctions, in order to get to the musical heart of the piece.  

Cello Ex Machina is the most recent of the pieces on this CD.  It was composed with the explicit goal of eventually making the piece something that Ashley can perform on her own, without me playing the computer.  And this is, in fact, how she now performs the piece, playing the very demanding cello part while controlling the computer with pedals and with her articulations and dynamics on the cello.

This piece aspires to an orchestral sound world, with the depth and variety of sound you might expect from a large ensemble, not from a solo cello.  There are layers of voices, contrasting timbres, and opportunities for the performer to play freely within the musical structures.

The title means:  the cello emerging from the machine.  But I don’t think of it as describing a futuristic sci-fi world of machine-like automated cellos.  Instead, I imagine a symbiotic world in which the cello motivates the machine to sing, the computer motivates the cello to expand its voice, and together they can construct sweet, expressive and complex musical worlds, different from what either can produce alone.  

Neil Rolnick: Cello Ex Machina

composed by Neil Rolnick and Felice & Boudreaux Bryant
performed by Neil Rolnick, laptop computer
from "Neil Rolnick: Ex Machina" (Innova CD 950) released 2016
© Copyright 2013 by House of Bryant Publications (BMI)

Making new music out of old music is an old trick.  It’s abetted by new technology, and the ways in which digital access lets us move not just around the globe, but back in time.  The Everly Brothers’ recordings of the two songs which form the basis of this piece were on one of the first LPs I owned, when I was about 10 years old.  It was a first glimpse into what I thought love would be:  dreaming of a special girl, and the embarrassment of being “found out” by grown ups.  Looking back, the songs have become iconic, carrying with them the more innocent, but not necessarily benign 1950s.  Don & Phil’s harmonies are still sweet, but they take on a different sound and different meaning after 60 years in our ears.

Neil Rolnick: WakeUp

Delta Space, for Yamaha Disklavier played by live pianist + electronics
Kathleen Supové, piano
From the CD Mystery System (Tzadik 7099)

Neil Rolnick: Journey's End

neilrolnick

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