To understand what the Metasomatic cycle means to me, “Meta-“ can be defined as both “transcendental,” as in “metaphysical,” and as “change,” as in “metamorphosis;” and “-somatic” refers to the body. This idea was initially born from the concept of a trill, or more simply put, an alternation—a change from one thing to another. The trill functions on both the local and global levels within each piece as an alternation between states, both abstractly and expressively: up and down, high and low, quiet and loud, stasis and activity, stability and instability, etc. An important aspect of the cycle is that it is modular. On the CD, they are programmed in such a way so as to hear the structural and timbral contrasts, as well as the symmetrical design of the cycle—that is, the relationship of solo to quartet between Bifurcations and Coalescences and between Vapors and Portals. Depending on the order, different sets of associations can be made between each work and across the whole cycle.
Each piece in the cycle features a different kind of alternation as the main protagonist of the musical fabric, with hints provided in the titles. This is by no means an exhaustive description of the different alternations throughout each work, but to provide a brief overview, Bifurcations refers to the contrapuntal alternations between the higher partials of the two lower strings of the cello, as well as the proliferation of harmonics to multiphonics as the piece grows. In Apparitions, the alternation is transferred from the left hand to the right hand, which gives the dynamics and the contact point of the bow a much more preponderant role in the discourse and evolution of the piece. In some cases, the instrumentation calls for new sets of dualities. In the two quartets of the album, Coalescences and Portals, the forms are guided by various orchestrations of one voice or pitch to many and vice versa. In Vapors, the inhalation/exhalation or sound/silence is much more exposed.
All of this is to say that each piece has its own combination of multi-parametric (i.e. pitch, rhythm, dynamics, timbre, etc.) alternations embedded in the form. Additionally, the trill extends to the universal domain, encompassing all the pieces in the cycle, which manifests as a timbral transformation of the idea back and forth from one unique instrumental identity or group to another, or in other words, the “changing body.”
-Mathew Arrellin
credits
released May 6, 2022
Performances by:
~Nois (track 1)
Julian Velasco, soprano saxophone
Hunter Bockes, alto saxophone
Jordan Luloff, tenor saxophone
János Csontos, baritone saxophone
Mathew Arrellin, cello (tracks 2, 5)
Mivos Quartet (track 3)
Olivia de Prato, violin 1
Maya Bennardo, violin 2
Victor Lowrie Tafoya, viola
Tyler J. Borden, cello
Brandon Quarles, alto saxophone (track 4)
Music composed, produced, and edited by Mathew Arrellin
Track 1 recorded in December 2021 and tracks 2, 4, and 5 in August 2019 by Alex Inglizian at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, IL
Track 3 recorded by Mathew Arrellin and Noah Jenkins at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, May 2019
Mixed and Mastered by Alex Inglizian, Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago, IL
"infused sapphire" Cover Artwork by Constance Volk, Layout by Mathew Arrellin
Mathew Arrellín (pronounced: A-rre-yín) is a composer and cellist currently based in Chicago.
Mathew holds a
bachelor’s degree in music theory, composition, and cello performance from the University of New Mexico. He received a PhD in composition at Northwestern University where he studied composition with Jay Alan Yim, Alex Mincek, and Hans Thomalla....more
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