Incandescence

Overtones emanating… Glowing with heat… High harmonics like

sparks of light… Dark deep tones becoming bright…

Incandescence is a solo cello piece formed from the melodic exploration of the natural harmonics of the C- and A-strings. I hear the piece as a meditation on the mysterious otherworldliness of nature as perceived through the filter of imagination. The melodic style was influenced in particular by recordings of humpback whale song and Tuvan khoomeï throat-singing, which I was studying at the time (c.2010/11) with Michael Ormiston. From khoomeï comes the pervasive presence of drones and the harmonic series as a melodic source; from whale song, the frequent use of glissandi, wide vibrato and quasi-motivic melodic fragments. Yet the intention was never directly representational, and the work – neither whale nor song – becomes something new and unique in itself. This transformation of one reality into another puts me in mind of something that Gerhard Richter said: “You want to understand what you see, what is there, and you try to make a picture out of it. Later you realize that you can‘t represent reality at all – that what you make represents nothing but itself, and therefore is itself reality.” (Interview with Rolf Schön, 1972)

(Christian Mason, 2025)