Written between November 1996 and February 1997, this piece has come to hold a special place in my repertoire.

I learned through this piece that my music was the best gift that I could give. I composed this piece as a birthday present for a good friend of mine, Mr. John-Sébastien Taylor. John is (to my knowledge) the only 'cellist in my high school's string ensemble and I wrote this piece for that ensemble with some dilligent solo 'cello work. The orchestration of the piece is for three violins, solo violoncello and double bass.

This is one of the finest pieces of chamber music I have ever written and since then, I don't think I've written a better piece for strings. I don't remember why I decided to write it (aside from as a gift for John) but I am proud of myself for having done so.

The work is in five movements of very contrasting styles. They don't ever slip into the realm of atonal music (I hadn't discovered twelve-tone rows and serialism yet) but they do get pretty dissonant because of the contrapuntal nature of the first and third movements.

The first movement is a slow Canon in 6/4 time (six beats in a bar) in the key of D minor. The 'cello opens the movement with a statement of the theme to come with the violins playing chords every few beats to support the melody. It then proceeds into a nice canon with the 'cello playing the theme again, followed by the first, second and third violins. The 'cello keeps going further from home, inventing the melody as it goes, until the cello slows down and ends the piece on a d minor chord with the violins underneath.

The first time I played this piece for anyone was before I presented it to John. I had my MIDI system play it for my friend, Michael Lerman. His comment after the opening of the Canon was "If this is your fantasia, you've lost your audience right here." I assured him that the work was vastly different from this and that this should not be the part to represent this work.

After the canon, comes another slow movement in 4/4, this time in F Major. This is the rich, lyrical Arioso. The 'cello again states the opening theme but this time as a soloist (no underlying chords at all). This theme actually explores the delicacy of the 'cello in its sweet harmonics, extending the range of the movement up to the harmonic note G4 (G above middle C). The note is the climax of the theme. The 'cello then proceeds to repeat the theme with the three violins accompanying it. The first violin doubling it one octave higher and the other two playing supporting harmonies. The 'cello then returns to the theme as the first violin plays sustained notes and the second violin plays triplet arpeggios above it. The sound of this section always brings to memory Pachelbel's "Canon in D". The end of the Arioso is the same as the beginning with the 'cello stating the theme solo and then the violins adding the same support they did before. At the final chord every instrument is playing octave double stops which creates the feeling of an eight-part chord with only four sections of instruments. I still think this is one of the sweetest pieces I have written to date.

Then comes the first fast movement in the entire fantasia: A lively 6/8 fugato in D minor again played in the style of a gigue. The theme for this part finds its origins in a theory book that I had lying around then (and still do). It was an exercise that was meant to be transposed by a certain interval. I played it on the piano and fell in love with it. I arranged it as a fugue between the 'cello and each of the three violins. After the exposition of the theme, I have the 'cello doing some difficult solo passage work to develop the theme. I don't think I've ever written a solo harder than that for instruments (The solo in the 'Ave Verum Corpus' of Requiem is only slightly harder) but it sounds good. The return of the expositon as the recapitulation leads the work to a dramatic close. At the end of this work, I found the opportunity to use one of the oldest chord progressions (which remains one of my favourite to this day): I-IV-V-I. Because this piece is in minor, this becomes Im-IVm-VMaj-Im (For guitarists and jazz musicians: Dm-Gm-AMaj-Dm).

Fourth in the program is the simplistic and almost annoying Theme and Variations which marks the entry of the Bass in the work. This is an odd piece in that I actually used the theme for this work somewhere else first (an independent study in Grade 11 instrumental music) and then adapted it for strings. I had always liked this march theme but my teacher told me that my harmonization was unacceptable because he wanted harmony on every note instead of on the punctuating beats. The theme is my original version with the punctuating violins and bass. The first of the five variations is the original version of the independent study with the harmony only on the accented beats. The second variation is the final version of the project with the chorale-style harmonies. The third involves the 'cello and second violin playing the melody in octaves while the first violin adds some harmonies to the melody. It actually introduces the ornament that the flutes (poor flutes) had to play in my project. The first violin plays the arpeggio one way and simultaneously, the 'cello plays it in reverse. The effect is quite interesting. The fourth variation is really cheap. It is simply the second variation with swung rhythms instead of straight ones. The ornament is similar here but adapted to fit the new rhythmic style. The fifth variation is the fourth variation played a perfect fifth higher (D becomes A). The 'cello no longer has the melody as it is taken by the first violin. To close the work, the theme with punctuating harmonies returns. The theme will always remain my favourite of the five variations.

The last movement of the Fantasia is, logically, the Finale. Again, I use a theme in 6/8 in D minor. This piece is unquestionably inspired by the Fugue in J.S. Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor". The only difference is that while my mentor travels down the scale, I travel upwards through the octave. This piece is actually a character-piece in that it portrays my sister while she's getting on my nerves. She is the theme itself as it repeats and builds. I am the 'cello as I get so irritated with the theme, I get angry and blast out with a high D to interrupt the theme. The characterization can also be described as that of an old man ('cello) with his grandchildren (the three violins and bass) trying to convince him to try something modern and fun (the theme). He refuses to accept anything new as he gets angry. The first violin try to convince the 'cello how fun the theme might be by starting to play it over again. He gets angry and interrupts them twice. The third time he interrupts, he runs out of energy and I ask the 'cellist to bend his pitch down representing the old man falling asleep. The violins see this and begin the theme again. After the entrance of the second violin, comes that of the bass. The 'cello is awake by this point and is protesting this noise with a series of D's. He starts high, but to no avail. He then adds the lower octave. This stops "all that nonsense" and the first violin suggests that the theme might be fun. The 'cello relents and plays the beginning. He's having fun already. He tries a few more notes. Even better! He continues the theme and repeats it as the violins and bass are added. At this point, I think I ran out of ideas for where to go next so I introduced the theme of my 'Stabat Mater'. Each instrument plays this theme at a different pitch by coming in with a scale beginning one octave below the final note of the previous instrument. This theme is then played unison by all five parts. After this comes a series of running scale passages to herald the return of the sixteenth-note theme as before (but this time the 'cello likes it and starts the "canon" off). At the end, there are two extra notes that bring about what is, in my mind, one of the most brilliant endings I have ever written. It again is just I-IV-V-I but this time it's in sixteenth-note arpeggios up and down each chord. The 'cello and bass just play the roots of the chords in octaves to support the arpeggios. The end result is just a series of inversions of the various chords.

Information and MIDIs

Movement	Duration
Canon	2:50
Arioso	ca. 3:00
Fugato	1:35
Theme & Variations	2:32
Finale	1:55

INFORMATION

Title:	'Cello Fantasia in D minor
Duration:	10:00
Orchestration:	Vc solo, 2 violins, viola, bass

  Return to the list of pieces